Holiday Road Trip - Quilt Shops in Wales

Over the Christmas holidays we took off in our campervan to West Wales, towards Tenby and Camarthenshire for a few days.  As usual, I checked out what goodies could be found along the way, in the way of quilt shops.  As part on my internet research I came across an EXTREMELY useful website by Arnout Cosman, which has listed all the quilt shops, not only in the United Kingdom, but throughout the whole of Europe.  Not only are they listed comprehensively on the website, with maps, but there is also a download file available for your TomTom, Garmin or other GPS navigation system in your car.  As we have driven around Europe in our campervan, I have often dreamt of such a facility ...  As yet, I have not downloaded the file, so I have not tested it out for myself, but I will keep you informed of my progress.  It lists 166 quilt shops in the UK, and 227 in Germany - I think this is where we may be heading in the near future.
Anyway as a result of this find, I picked up a few new shops to visit on our journey, which included Isabeau Inspirations, Patchwork and Quilting Shop.


Isabeau Inspirations Quilt Shop,
Crosshands, Llanelli, Wales

This was a lovely shop, with a good selection of different fabrics including batiks, Japanese, novelty, and a good selection of shades, and tone on tone colours, and very helpful staff.  There was also a very large bead shop, Serendipity Beads, right next door. I picked up a few lovely fabrics whilst I was there.

(L-R) Serenity by Anna Fishkin for Red Rooster Fabrics DSN # 22147
Michael Miller 'Fairy Frost' D # CM 0376
Panzy Pazazz by Janet Broxon (P&B Textiles, 2006) 

I don't really use pink too much in my work, but I was blown away by this wacky, dotty pink print "Panzy Pazazz" by Janet Broxon (P&B Textiles, 2006).  It is a pink / magenta colour, which is a colour I find quite hard to find usually, and most of the dots and stars on it are in metallic gold.  Its too late for my Pies and Tarts quilt project now, but I can see me squeezing it into lots of my projects from now on.  I also bought some of the Michael Miller 'Fairy Frost' D # CM 0376, in a pink.  I had seen this on the internet, but it was hard to see the reflective nature of it, without seeing it the flesh.  It is a nice tone on tone fabric, with the pattern printed in a 'frosting'. On the left is 'Serenity' by Anna Fishkin for Red Rooster Fabrics DSN # 22147 in pink - I just thought it was pretty.
It is easy to be drawn in by the lovely bright quilting fabrics, so to balance these bright colours in my stash, I also looked for some interesting neutrals.


(L-R) "My Favourite Things" by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched Pattern # 7542,
Henry Glass Fabrics in two tones, and 'Bear Essentials' by P&B Textiles

On the right is the quilt fabric 'Bear Essentials' by P&B Textiles.  The little print reminded me of the plant, Honesty.  The other two are both from the same Henry Glass Fabric range, "My Favourite Things" by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched Pattern # 7542.  The backgrounds are slightly mottled, with a random allover cross - I don't think you can go far wrong with that.
With the fury of the Easy Street quilt, my fabric stash is in need of a re-think.  I only tend to buy fat quarters or half metres, as I like to stay scrappy, but these small pieces are increasingly difficult to store.  Does anyone have any have ideas that they use?

Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Quilt - Part 5

I got a little behind last week with Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery Quilt, but today I feel as if I have pulled it back a bit.  Firstly, I caught up on the fabric cutting.  Last week we were assigned to cut squares in our final colour, which for me is PURPLE.  I was itching to work with another colour, but it just didn't happen last week, so it felt like a bit of a treat to dig into my stash and pull out the purples.

145 x 3 1/5" Purple Squares

I noticed that a lot of my fabrics have cherries on them, and I have mixed some more fruit into my quilt, with some juicy blackberries, courtesy of RJR Fabrics Farmer's Market (2008).  There is a cute print 'Crazy Daisies' by Buggy Barn for Henry Glass (Pattern 1394).  They are meant to be daisies, but I think they look more like to intergalactic stars, against this deep purple!  There is also another 'Ditzy Daisy' (1005) print, and a swirly black and purple 'Lava'  pattern (730), both by The Henley Studio for Makower, a few batiks, and a few odd scraps.  Once the purple was done, I cut the red squares, and green squares I needed for Part 5.  The red fabric on top of the pile is called 'Santas Got the Goods' by Diane Knott for Clothworks - I sure hope he has!



Red, Green and Purple Fabric cut ready for Part 5

The construction of this little block was quite simple - if you follow Bonnie's excellent instructions.  My first few attempts were not squaring up very accurately, but once I started to sew along the right side of the line, as Bonnie suggested, they were much better.  I have decided to keep the square in tact, mainly for greater accuracy further along the line, just trimming out the excess of the triangle.  On a previous quilt I was sewing a similar block, but I had to cut both excess triangles because I was using a light fabric and the dark pattern was showing through.

 



Up until now my colour scheme has been looking a bit too festive, which has been concerning me, but with the addition of the purple I think it has been brought back to a 365 days a year quilt.  Do you think I have got away with it?



All my cutting is up to date.  I still have to join up some of the Flying Geese from last week, and to complete the rest of this weeks block.  I also have A LOT of trimming to catch up with.  I am really pleased with my colours and can't wait to start piecing all these parts together.  It has been great fun playing with the pieces to create patterns, and seeing everyone elses ideas. Here is my 'guess' for the Mystery Quilt, using this weeks pieces.