Busy Busy Busy.....

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas......and that you have finally finished the turkey! I've had the day to myself today so have managed to get loads done so far. Thomas is spending the week with his Dad as he has finally decided he wants to have some contact with him. And whilst I miss Thomas when he's not here, its great to be able to finally get down to some work on the website which is long overdue.

I have posted the results of the 2008 Little Block Challenge. Congratulations go to Annette Chamley for her entry. I have also uploaded the entry form for the 2009 challenge. My quilt is very much a work in progress still......I need to get my skates on to get it finished before the first quilt show of the year in just over a month's time.

I have also just uploaded details of the 2009 Quiltette Challenge. The fabrics this year are from Robert Kaufman. I hope they will inspire you all to come up with some interesting entries as usual. This is the green colourway.

Blue and turquoise are the other colours available.

My next job is to get the website ready for the January Sale which begins on January 1st so I guess its back to it.........

New Free Pattern

I had the day all to myself on Saturday as Thomas went on a visit to the Science Musuem with his new Beaver Scouts pack and was out all day!! We both had a great day......!! I made this quilt using fabrics from the Le Spring Bouquet collection using one of the centre panels and the strip fabric and some of the tonal floral prints.

I have just finished writing up the instructions on how to make it and am about to get it uploaded to the free pattern page. Fabric packs will be available to buy through the website shortly too. There are two colourways in the collection; the mauve and pink shown here and the multi colourway which is green and red.

I'm making another quilt using the multi colours which I should get finished soon......

Latest Fabrics Uploaded and Me!

I have just uploaded the fabrics from the latest delivery. There are two collections both from Lyndhurst Studio which is a division of Northcott Monarch.The first collection is called Nature's Pallette and I have all six colours of these fantastic colour changing prints.

The second collection is called Serendipity Butterfly which is a pastel colour range of butterfly strips and co-ordinating prints.The Little Block Challenge is about to be judged and I will be posting the results on the website soon. I will also get next year's Quiltette Challenge fabrics up on the site in the next week or so too.

To view all the fabrics in the new collections visit the New Arrivals section of the website.

And now me........I have almost completed my relocation. Having separated from my husband I am now living in Hitchin in Hertfordshire which is where I grew up and am nearer my parents. Thomas has started a new school in a village just south of Hitchin and has settled in fantastically. I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their patience during this awkward time. Hopefully I can now concentrate on expanding the business! Unfortunately, I had to cancel my trip to the Houston trade show during half term at the last minute but dont panic, I have still managed to find some great new fabrics to stock and these will be arriving in the new year.

Quiltette Challenge Results

The entries for this year's challenge have just been judged and I have posted the results to the website There were six entries this year and joint winners were Annie Harris from Southampton and Herma de Ruiter from the Netherlands.

I already have the fabric in stock for next year's challenge and will be uploading the fabrics to the website hopefully next month so you all have plenty of time to make some exciting entries for me!

I have just realised its nearly the end of September and I had forgotten to make the swatch sheet for you to download the fabrics that were delivered in August. Things have been a bit hectic this last month or so what with my relocation but I have now uploaded August pdf file for you to download that month's fabric samples.

I should be getting another fabric delivery in the next few weeks and then its off to Houston Quilt Market to order some more....life is so hard!!

New Fabrics

I have just made the peacock feather prints that were used for this year's Quiltette Challenge available for sale by the metre on the website now that the closing date for the challenge has passed.

The challenge quilts will be judged shortly and the results posted to the website as usual.

As you can see from the fabric picture above I am now photographing the fabrics alongside a tape measure so you can get a better idea of the size of a print. I hope this proves useful to you all.

The first quilt show of the Autumn will be upon us soon, the Scottish Quilt Championships in Edinburgh. I won't be able to make it to the show in person this year but my mother at The Contented Cat will be working hard for me as usual!!

More fabrics should be ready for shipping from the US in the next few weeks and next month I am off to Houston for the weekend to visit the trade show which is held each year the week before Festival to order some goodies!

New Fabrics

Just a quicky as I am having to cope without an internet connection at the moment. I have just uploaded the Le Spring Bouquet collection to the website. This was the floral collection with the large centre panel I posted the other week.

I'm working on a couple of quilts from this collection as I type so ttfn!

Setting Up at the FoQ

Well I've finally managed to get online in my hotel. I think because my room is at the end of a long corridor I'm too far away from the main hub and so my signal strength is very poor and I keep losing it so I'm typing this quickly while I can!!

Today has been setting up day at the show. We drove through torrential rain to get here but it was dry when we arrived and we finished unloading just as the rain started again. Unloading fabrics and rain is not a good combination!

It takes about four hours to get from this.......

to this......

I'm really happy how the booth went together this year and all the quilts seem to fit perfectly along the walls.

Do come and say hello if you are visiting the show. I'm very excited because Bob Purcell from Superior Threads will be spending some time at my booth so if you have any thread queries come along to meet him. I should have more definite times when he will be about tomorrow.

Here's to a great show!

Countdown to the Big One!

Well the cutting has been done and the van is packed and I'm all ready to go to the NEC in Birmingham for the Festival of Quilts which is probably now the biggest show in Europe.

But as I will hopefully show you tomorrow there is still a lot of hard work to be done before the show opens on Thursday at 10am!

I have just had a couple of small deliveries arrive just in time for the show; a new fabric collection called Le Spring Bouquet from Lyndhurst Studio which features a large centre medallion panel and co-ordinating floral prints in two colourways.

and I have also had a fantastic gift idea delivered for all your quilting friends who are chocoholics....which doesn't narrow the choice down much!! A great little box of chocolate recipes that also feature a block to make on each recipe card

So until tomorrow when I will try and post pictures from the setting up of the booth....

April Swatch Sheet

April's swatch sheet is now available for you to download.
Quilts UK in Malvern is almost upon us. I will be there for all four days so do stop by and say hello if you're visiting the show!

New Fabrics

I have just added some fantastic floral fabrics from the Flower Mart collection from Benartex to the site together with a great poinsettia panel and a shaded stripe fabric from Northcott Monarch.

I am in the middle of making a quick quilt with this stripe fabric and hope to create something using the Flower Mart fabrics after that so watch this space....

April's swatch sheet will be available for download shortly and then Quilts UK at Malvern will be upon us....where does the time go?

New Thread Pages

No new products but I have been busy creating some new web pages on the site so that you can see the shade cards for the fantastic King Tut and Masterpiece threads.
March's swatch sheet is available for download from the site now as is a FREE shopping bag pattern which can be made from 1/2m of fabric so you can do your bit and help save the environment the Crafty way

Sneaky Peek!

This a a close up shot of a new quilt that will be on display at Chilford this weekend. For those of you not going to the show it will be available for download from the website next week so if you can't wait that long you will need to visit the show which is in the village of Linton south east of Cambridge. The quilt uses the wonderful Wave fabrics and is very quick and easy to make - I made it yesterday afternoon!

Visit the Grosvenor Exhibitions website for full details of the show.

Pebbles on the Beach Wall Hanging

This is a very quick quilt I made the other week using the graded pebble fabrics I have in stock. You can download the instructions to make it here. I hope that link works! Kits to make the quilt are available from the website as are the instructions if that link isn't right!!

A lot of the quick quilts I have designed recently are very linear but I think its quite an ffective way of using fabrics.

Its the Chilford Quilt Festival this weekend, with setting up day tomorrow so lets hope this storm passes as its no fun unloading the van in the wind and the rain! Do come and say hello if you are going to the show....

February's Swatch Sheet

February's swatch sheet is now available for you to download.

I have also put on the website some more pearl pastel fabrics from Hoffman. The pink pearl crackle which is one of the UK Hoffman Challenge fabrics sold out so quickly that I now have in stock a further 6 colours in this useful print.

New Hoffman Fabrics

I have just uploaded the rest of the fabrics from the Hoffman delivery last week. There were two collections, a useful tonal print from the At Home in the Woods collection designed by McKenna Ryan

and a feather print from the Gypsy Princess collection. These fabrics have a new pearl frosting to them.

Visit the website to order

2008 Quiltette Challenge

I have now received the fabrics I will be using for this year's challenge. They are a wonderfully rich peacock feather print with co-ordinating bali print. There are four colourways to choose from: blue, lilac, pink and jade.

Visit the website to take a look at the rules and also for ordering the packs. The closing date for entries is the end of August as usual.

Hoffman Challenge Fabrics are Here!

The fabrics for the UK Hoffman Challenge are now in stock. The theme for this year's challenge is a Fusion of Fuschias and all four of the fabrics must be used. I have put together some bundles containing a half metre of the fuschia fabric and fat quarters of the remaining three fabrics. All four fabrics are also available by the metre. Visit the website for more details.

New King Tut Colours

These are four new king Tut colours which I now have in stock - apparently more are in the pipeline! The bottom two reels reflect current fabric trends in America; dusky pinks and browns and teal blues and browns.

If you haven't tried this wonderful thread yet, where have you been the last few years?! The King Tut thread is a 40wt extra long staple cotton thread that can be used for hand and machine quilting and there are now 79 colours in the range. I prefer to hand quilt and was looking for a variagated thread that you could hand quilt with. These threads from Superior Threads in America came onto the market at the same time and having tested various other brands this was the one thread that I fell in love with. Most of my customers who try them don't go back to their old thread once they have tried the King Tuts.

Visit the website to see all the colours.

The UK Hoffman Challenge fabrics will be in stock in the next couple of days so I have uploaded these to the website in anticipation.

The Little Angel

After my last posting I thought maybe you would like to see the little angel who will be taking over the business when I die.....

This is Thomas doing his first show and tell and Quiltfest in Llangollen at the weekend. He has just made his first block, more of which below and this lady also had some 9 patch blocks with her for colour matching so they had fun showing each other their work.

He made his first block last week and did all the sewing himself. He picked the fabrics and all I did was cut the pieces out for him and start and finish his threads. Not bad for a 6 year old!

His colour choice is quite interesting but its refreshing to see he doesn't yet have any hangups about whether a fabric goes with another one or not and I think they actually work well together.

If you haven't visited Quiltfest before it is something you should try and do. The quilts and wallhangings are hung in a gallery and there is plenty of space for them to be viewed properly. It runs for the whole month of February with the middle sunday being a trading day. Visit the Quiltfest website for more information.

The Things Kids Say........

I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or be incredibly happy at something my six year old son, Thomas, said to me yesterday. In all seriousness he said that when I die he wants to be The Crafty Quilter because he can sew and is very arty. Is that sweet or not?!

Saying that though, he has already helped out at the quilt shows a couple of times and is well known by all the other traders. He likes re-stocking the thread cabinets and knows how to fold my larger sale samosas! He even has his own cardinal rule not to hand the goods back to the customer until they have handed over the money!!!

At the moment one of his favourite things is to have a block printed off from one of the quilt design software programmes and then he colours it in so I think I will make a quilter of him yet!

Watch this space as they say......

Happy New Year!

So one of my New Year resolutions is to try and post to the blog more regularly! At the moment I am in the middle of my web fabric sale. There are just a few days left to grab a bargain of fabric at £4 a metre, a saving of more than 50% in many cases!! So check out the website to see what great fabrics are still left.

The quilt you can see here is an adaptation of a quilt you can see on Blank Textiles website. Instructions to make my version of the quilt will appear on my website shortly. The quilt uses fabrics from the Paisley Pleasures fabrics from Blank and which were featured in issue 50 of Fabrications Magazine. The collection was designed by Bethany Reynolds and naturally they are great for Stack n Whack quilts

A new feature I have created on the website are swatch sheets which you can download so that you can have a permanent record to hand of new fabrics that have arrived in stock. The plan is to publish these monthly. Click here to download December's sheet now.