Wishing you all a Happy Christmas

We just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has helped us along the way in 2012 and to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Lots of love
Natalie and Tracey

Christmas Tree Clothes.

I've been going on about making a Christmas Tree Skirt ever since we received our Christmas fabric delivery in July! Last week I finally got around to making one. 

I kind of made it up as I went along and know now that I would do it differently next time. I think I made it more complicated & time consuming than it needed to be but love it all the same. 

I used all the Christmas scraps left over from making the Christmas Stockings and Lap quilt, and any red and white fabric I had in my stash. 

It still needs some red bias binding along the joins on the back but no-one can see that with all the presents sitting on it can they? I'm sure Santa's not that fussy and it means I've got a whole year to finish it off!

Left over Layer Cake

I had a bit of a tidy up at the weekend and found part of a layer cake, not quite sure what happened to the rest of it??

There was just enough to make a lap quilt!

Handmade Living Magazine

I wanted to let you know that we are running a give away courtesy of Handmade Living magazine.  If you haven't already seen the magazine its lovely, lots of great ideas and things to make and do.

Take a look at page 95 for detail's of how to take part. We have two bundles of 'Summersville' by Lucie Summers and one bundle of'Joy' by Kate Spain up for grabs!

 

Good Luck!

Summersville on a roll.

Here's a few pictures I wanted to share of the Jelly Roll quilt made from the Summersville range by Lucy Summers.

It was made using a whole Jelly Roll with an Orange 5" Border to frame it and bound in the Brush Strokes fabric in all the colour's. It fits perfectly on a single bed.

Quilted by me in straight lines at home on my fantastic Bernina Machine. All in all quite a simple and quick way to make a quilt, not quite sure why it has taken me so long to finish it. I made the top in a weekend and then it has taken me 3 months to get it completed. I've also just noticed it's upside down on the bed as well!

New Arrival - Odds & Ends.

This week's delivery has bought us the beautiful new range from Cosmo Cricket designer Julie Comstock,'Odds and Ends'.

We have listed it in the shop in the four colour-ways, Natural, Leaf, Sky and Rosebud. 

For those of you following us on Instagram you have already seen some of the fabrics but I thought I would share a few of my favourites from the collection.

Christmas Goodies

It been a quiet time for me on the sewing front. Since the show at Malvern I haven't managed to use my machine once. However I thought I would share a few pics of the bits and bobs I managed to finish with one of our Christmas line's 'Joy' by Kate Spain.

I made this small Lap Quilt using a pattern from this book as inspiration. It was made with a charm pack and adding some red solid to make it go a bit further and then some essential dots for the bows. 

I tried applique for the first time attaching the bows. Not sure I would use the interfacing again as it does make the quilt a bit stiff in places. 

Two of these stockings were made using the panels from the same range (we have now sold out of these) but the middle one was made by using scraps. 

Finally from all the scraps I made a gift bag using this tutorial.

Charming 'Oh Deer' by Mo Mo Quilt

My new 'Oh Deer' Charm Pack Quilt

I love charm packs, they make up really quickly and by adding just a bit extra they make a really nice size quilt.

 

All I used for this quilt is the following:-

* One 'Oh Deer' by Mo Mo Charm Pack

* One FQ in Enchanted Forest from the same range

* Approx 1/2m blue dots from the same range

* Approx 2m of cream solid

 

After laying out the Charm pack I just added 2 1/2" strips between each square and then joined them with a full width 2 1/2" strip.

 

 

For the back I used the full FQ as I love the pattern and then added 2 1/2" strips again and extra solid at the sides to make up the size.

 

 

All I need to do now is decide how to quilt it!



Im going to go for it!

When you're told after 10 years service and 20 years experience in one field that your role will be redundant, what do you do?

 

Two years ago I was told that all of my team, me included would be made redundant.  It's taken a while to transition the work which has fortunately given me time to plan and prepare for my exit. 

 

I couldn't help but take it personally at first and have gone through every emotion you can think of, now its getting closer I've started to get just a little bit exited, even though I really love my job. 

I fully realise that things are going to be different and most definitely less money for more hard work but I'm sure it will all be worth it! And could this be the opportunity I've been waiting for?

 

The end of my corporate life is now getting closer, I only have 9 weeks until my leave date.  I'm starting to realise that it's now or never to try and make a go of turning my passion into my job. 

 

Thanks to all the lovely comments and feedback we have had from the shows I've finally made my decision and going to give this a real go.

 

Pin It and Stitch could be my light at the end of the tunnel!

 



Pumpkin Bundles!

We now have listed our Pumpkin Bundles on the Ebay shop. 

Get ready for Haloween ....

Top 10!

Thank you for all the lovey comments and emails we have recieved since the Knitting & Stitching show, in particular a big thank you to Matt at Love Knitting who has voted us in his top 10 stands of the show.

The Calm after the Storm.

All back home & unpacked, we survived driving the van and returned it in one piece. 

We had a fantastic 4 days and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We met so many lovely people. We now have a weeks rest until we have to do it all again for the Malvern Quilt Show.

We will be there on the 26th - 28th of October 2012. Come and see us!

As soon as we have show dates for the rest of the year and 2013 we will up-date the blog. 

Shopping. Shopping, Shopping at Knitting and Stitching Show.

Day 3 continued.....

Although this was our busiest day we actually managed to escape for 5 minutes and do some shopping. 

Look at our lovely purchases.

This pile of goodies was fromThe Eternal Maker

These notions were from Ray Stitch

Lots of Fat Quarters for Tracey's grey stash from Village Haberdashery

And last but by no means least, just a few threads from Wonderfil

Alexandra Palace Knitting and Stitching Show.

Day 1, 2 & 3: Our plan was to keep you updated on what we were up to each day whilst we're at Alexandra Palace but we haven't had  a moment to spare.  I'm sure we must have cut hundreds of fat quarters by now, I'm starting to go off the little bleeders! 

Not one to moan but we haven't even had a chance to shop yet,  I'm determined to make a dash for it tomorrow and make a purchase or two.

Thank goodness we have had such lovely customers to make it all worthwhile.

Reunion Quilt for Dad

Here is a little story about a quilt we decided to make for our Dad. It started from a Scrap bag we had back in November. 

We considered making it for Christmas but realised we wouldn't have time so thought a more realistic goal was his Birthday in March. 

Well we did make good progress but it wasn't finished in time for his Birthday. It wasn't finished in time for Father's day either.

So we decided to try and finish it in time for our camping trip but that came and went as well. 

Finally in the middle of August it was finally finished and we gave it to Dad. Only it nick it back again for our stand at the Festival of Quilts! It did look lovely though. Dad has  now received his Quilt and it looks fantastic on his bed at home. 

It also looks pretty good in the middle of a field.

What have we both learnt from this? I'm not very good at deadlines! Christmas samples for Alexandra Palace did you need them for this year or next??

p.s. The Grey Solid used in this quilt that we sold out of is now back in the shop. It is simply called 'Grey.'

Preperation.

We are both busy getting ready for Alexandra Palace. The Hotel is booked, as is the van, we have lots of lovely Christmas fabric in stock and we're both working on some pretty samples to tempt you all into buying!

We've still got lots of fabric to cut and with more still to come this month the rotary blades are taking a bashing!

Whilst cutting I couldn't help but notice all the pretty selvages on the fabric. There are Butterflies, Christmas Tree's and Aneela's Cherry Christmas actually has Snow Globes! 

I found this tutorial at Tallgrass Prairie Studios for a quilt made just with selvedges. I knew I was saving them for a reason!

We also have back in stock the Grey to with Reunion by Sweetwater and Zen Grey to go with Walk in the Woods and Cherry Christmas. we also have Silver which co-ordinates with the Bungle Jungle pre-cuts.

Cherry Christmas.

The wait is over........The Cherry Christmas Pre-Cuts are finally here!

They are going into the shop as we speak so you can all make a start on your Christmas projects!

 

Holiday Weekend

Hope everyone had a lovely bank holiday weekend. I finished up lots of the projects that I have had lying around half completed.

First up I finished these cushions.

I started them back in February with the idea that they could be a Valentine's Present, but then they got shoved to the bottom of the pile while I waited to buy a zip!

Also finished this lovely drawstring bag with some of our "Ten Little Things" fabric on eBay. I followed this tutorial by Jeni and it was really easy.I'm definitely going to have a go at making some more soon.

This bag was also started a while ago. Not sure why I do that, start something and then stop half was through!

However it is now finished and I'm really pleased with it.

Going to use it today on my trip to the Post Office.

 



Cherry Christmas.

We received our delivery of Cherry Christmas a few days before the Festival of Quilts but didn't have time to put it in the shop. 
It's now on-line!

We have the full range available and its listed in four groups.

Advent is above, followed by Noel.
 

 

Then Cardinal and Peppermint.
 

We're just waiting for the Charms Packs, Layer Cakes
and Jelly Rolls to arrive.

I can't decide which is my favourite yet, I may just have to have one of each!!

Festival of Quilts : Part 2

With almost 30 hours of possible shopping time, I only managed one purchase, which hardly seems fair for four days work!  I made a dash for it to the Eternal Maker to make sure I got my mits on some of the grey 'Scratchy Scribble' before it all went!  Oh and I NEEDED two zips too!

As Tracey said, she also got her book signed by Katy, not sure who was more exited but it made Tracey's day!

Finaly I wanted to say another big thank you to everyone who came and said hello and all the support and guidance we we're given.  In particular an extra big thank you to Laura and Susan x

Festival of Quilts.

Well we made it back to our respective houses after the Festival of Quilts with cars fully loaded.

We had a hectic 4 days at the NEC but LOVED every minute!

It was so nice to meet, and talk to so many people, some we had never met before, some of which we only knew by their Ebay user names, some of which met at Malvern and some who's Blog's we stalk on a regular basis. It was lovely to put faces to names at last.

We both had our House of Tula Pink books authographed by the author!!

I also was also brave enough to get my Shape Workshop for Quilters book autographed by Katy Jones from I'm a Ginger Monkey!

We also met Laura Jane who was demoing the Sizzix quite close to us.

All in all it was a fantastic few days and we've booked to do it all again next year!!

Serenade

Following on from yesterday's Kate Spain post here is some more of her fabric, newly listed in our EBay shop.

This range is called Serenade and we have made up two bundles for the shop one in the cooler Blue colourway and one in the warmer Sienna colourway.

My favourite fabric in this range is the wood grain design. I'm going to rustle up cushion for the boy's playroom using this and some others from the Walk in the Woods and the Ten Little Thing's fabric in aqua. I may even start it tonight although I do have my Summersville Quilt to finish first!