Fabric Stash Additions - The Sewing Studio, Redruth, Cornwall

It is over 6 weeks since I have set foot in a fabric shop, so luckily whilst I was in Cornwall last week, I was introduced to a new quilt shop, where I could get my fix. The shop was on Chapel Street in Redruth, called The Sewing Studio.  As well as a large selection of sewing machines, it stocks lots of the MODA pre-cuts, such as Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes and Charm Packs, at competitive prices, and other lovely fabric yardage too, so do take a look.

'Snowman Gatherings', Primitive Gatherings for MODA

To start with, I have had my eye on the 'Snowman Gatherings' by Primitive Gatherings for MODA for a long time, and with the 10" layer cake sitting there, it just had to come home with me.  I justified it because one of the purchases I made in America was one of the Schnibbles books, which focuses on using pre-cuts in its designs, so once my current hand quilting project is done and dusted, I am planning on making a few smaller projects.


Holiday Treats Red Packed Peppermints, Timeless Treasures

The purchase of red and white / cream fabrics is winding down now, but I am always on the look out for interesting novelty prints, and a fat quarter of 'Holiday Treats Red Packed Peppermints' by Timeless Treasures, also made it into my bag. 

Throughout the Nearly Insane journey, one fabric which I have fallen in love with is the Bias Check from the Mama Said Sew range by Sweetwater, for Moda. I looks really good in the blocks I have incorporated in so far, Block 11,  13, and 96, and I when I saw yardage in black and grey, I thought it would be a great addition to my stash.

The shop also had a good selection of quilting rulers, including my favourite Creative Grids rulers.  As you will see from my Pinterest board, a Star quilt of some sort is going to feature in the future, and I had identified that this ruler would be tool to get it done.


Creative Grids Non-Slip 2 Peaks in 1 Ruler

So as you can see, a good haul.

USA Road Trip / USA Quilt Shop Hop

May 2013 Progress - Nearly Insane Quilt

You may have been wondering why I have been so quiet lately. As if my quilt adventure to the Dear Jane 150th Exhibition in Nantes, France, wasn't enough, for the past few weeks I have been on another Quilt Adventure.  We have been away from the UK, on a Road Trip in the USA.  The majority of the trip was in a hired RV (campervan) touring the West Coast in California, travelling up Highway 1, across to the Gold Country, visiting the National Parks (Yosemite, Death Valley), with an excursion to Las Vegas and Kansas thrown in. Our van at home is half the size of this, but this was the smallest we could find to hire!

The Quilt Road Trip stopping at Roxanne's Quilt Shop, Carpinteria, California

It works out like this. We enjoy driving and touring around.  We get to see new places, and I get to do my hand stitching - but how to decide where to stop on the route? Quilt shops naturally.  So over the past few weeks, as we have been doing our sightseeing, I have been busily stitching my Nearly Insane Quilt blocks, as well as keeping up with the cornerstones and sashing, with plenty of breaks at quilt shops, building up my stash along the way.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of quilt shops in the UK, but let's put things in perspective.  The current exchange rate between US dollars and GB Pounds means that in the UK you would normally pay between £9.99 - £13.99 for a metre of fabric, which is equivalent to $15.29 - $21.41.  In the US you pay between $8.99 - $12.99 (+ Sales Tax) for a yard of fabric (which is about 9cm / 3.5 inches shorter than a metre), which works out about £6.33 - £9.16.  Throw in a 30% Memorial Day Sale, and it works out about £4.43 - £6.41 a yard. Happy Days!

You can see above the Nearly Insane blocks I managed to complete on my journey, and in the next few posts I will keep you up to date with that progress, and some of the great shops I visited along the way.

Joining Up with Freshly Pieced

 

Fabadashery Blog - 3 Month Anniversary Milestones

Have you seen my post "Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Quilt - Part 8 (nearly)"?  Reviewing my Blogger Stats recently, I noticed that it has had 2000 hits since it was posted in January.  This past week has been the 3 month anniversary since I started this patchwork and quilting blog, and along with the increase in traffic, a lot of things have happened.

The first event marking this weeks 3 Month celebrations was the arrival of a little parcel from the United States.  It was the Giveaway Prize that Suzi the Cat had won on Feline Friday at Sarah Did It!  Isn't she a clever cat - winning fabric for her owner!  This is the first Giveaway Prize we have won on the internet. These two pieces are from the 'Ivory Cats' Collection by Lesley Anne for Quilting Treasures, and look ideal for a future cat mat project. 


'Ivory Cats' by Lesley Anne, for Quilting Treasures, 2011

There is was also a bar of chocolate in the packet.  Yum Yum.  I was not the only winner though.  Enclosed in the parcel was a special homemade patchwork Cat Nip toy in a Zip Lock bag.  When I opened it I was over the moon for Suzi, not only was there the toy, but also the bag - she loves to chew on plastic.... 

Cat Nip Toy with yummy Zip Lock Bag

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3 - FRENZY!

Needless to say - Suzi is CRAZY for it, and loves having it rubbed all over her face. She says thanks especially to Pepper, Midge and Squeaky, the Stars of Feline Friday.  Also thanks to their Mum, Sarah for prompting me to sort out my 'No Reply Blogger' status - I hope everyone finds it easier now. 
The celebrations continued when I popped over to the Quilt Room blog.  Pam and Nicky Lintott have made their name through designing and publishing books on Jelly Rolls, Charm Packs, Layer Cakes and other pre-cut fabric bundles, and are in the process of pulling a new book together.  A few weeks ago they had a competition to name one of their quilts for their forthcoming book.   The name I submitted was 'Jet Stream Jewel', and the quilt name was chosen for a Runner's Up Prize!   Not only do I have a £10 voucher to spend on fabric, but they also hope to use the name for one of the other quilts featuring in their forthcoming book.  I can't wait to see it.

So a great Anniversry so far. The concept of blogging is not new to me, but it was Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery Quilt over at Quiltville, which was one of the main motivators for getting me started on publishing a regular sewing blog. That whole experience of piecing a large quilt by machine, sharing the experience with people all over the world, and being part of the 'Mystery Quilt' phenomenom has been an exciting journey, and has allowed me to plug into the sewing world in a whole new way.

Up until now, most of my patchwork and quilting projects have been by hand, and so their progress is slow, which makes newsworthy moments few and far between - not ideal for an active blog. I am sure the hand stitchers and hand quilters out there can empathise with this.  Knowing that I need to put up a post regularly is a real motivator for keeping my sewing projects on track and making me focus on completing projects.  And most of all I enjoy it.

What have been the highlights of your blogging? I would love to hear about your adventures in the blogging world. 

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?