My very own fabric heaven....

 

A little while ago, my good friend and enabler of my fabric addiction, Miss Cindy, asked me if I would put together a blogger bundle for her shop. I think she heard me squealing in glee all the way up in Galway while I did a little dance of happiness I gave it some mature reflection, then went back and told her that I would be delighted.

Ever since blogger bundles started appearing in fabric stores a few years ago, I was fascinated by the process of putting a bundle together. I've taken part in blogger bundle challenges, and, of course, I love putting together selections of fabric myself. I've never been hugely into buying bundles from one line of fabric (obviously there have been a couple of exceptions) because I much prefer to pick out fabrics myself.  So this was a little bit of fabric heaven for me.

I browsed and I picked, and I tried out various combinations until I arrived at this

 But you never know how its going to look till you see the fabric, really, do you? Screenshots aren't the real thing ;-)

Cindy sent me some lovely photos - I thought it looked great. 

And then I got this lovely bundle in the post (cue more squealing)

I stroked that bundle quite a lot the first few days I had it in my possession. You know when you really, really fall in love with a bundle of fabric? This was it, but even better. This bundle is everything I love about modern fabric. Bright, vibrant saturated colours. A mix of different print scales. Delicate prints, big bold beautiful prints. A colour mix that is totally me.

From ever before I had the bundle in my hands, I had plans for it. My sofas are in need of a bunch of fresh new cushions. And I had the perfect pattern in my sights, this one by Little Miss Shabby for Sew, Mama, Sew!

Saturday morning, I got cutting. Then I got sewing. (Eventually, I tore myself away and fed the near-starving children, then banished them outside into the spring sunshine so I could sew in peace.) I finished piecing and basted it, then settled in beside the fire to hand quilt it.

I had done some playing with my perle cotton, and come up with these thread choices. The following evening, I did the back and sewed on the binding. (I even did a lovely zip insert and for the first time ever I think the back of my cushion looks great but I forgot to take a picture in the excitement and I'm too lazy to go do it now.) And I got this:

 This was the proof in the pudding for me. I love how those fabrics play together.

I hope you like it too - you can buy the bundle here.

A Launch and a Giveaway, Fluffy Sheep Style!!

Today I am totally excited to be finally able to tell you about my great buddy Cindy's fantastic new fabric shop.

Yes! You read that right! Fluffy Sheep Quilting now has an online fabric shop and I am really thrilled to be one of the people to tell you about it. Those of you in Ireland will know that local shops selling gorgeous modern quilting fabric are few and far between, and can be very very pricey. So Cindy had the genius idea to set up her own and today is the big launch! Excited now? I thought so! See, now you can order the fabric and have it on your doorstep in a couple of days. I LOVE that.  Of course, her sales are not limited to us Irish ladies, and Fluffy Sheep Quilting is set up to operate in euro, sterling or dollars, depending on where you are ordering from.

So, I am one of the lucky peeps who has had a little preview of her site, and I think you will find it fun and easy to navigate around, with lots to tempt you there. In addition to lots of crisp, yummy, scrummy modern fabric in stock, and more arriving all the time, Fluffy Sheep Quilting has a fantastic selection of Kona Solids. Cindy also is stocking Aurifil thread - at the moment her selection is the essential colours but the range is going to grow by leaps and bounds in the next few weeks.

So what are you waiting for? Get over there and have a look around. Don't forget to sign up for the newsletter, and to follow the shop on Twitter and Facebook so you can keep up to date with new fabric arriving and other updates. There is a great customer loyalty programme giving you points for every purchase to use against future purchases (you will need to register to accumulate points). Plus, Cindy is really open to suggestions and comments too - so if you're looking for something in particular, or if you want to suggest new Kona colours etc you can just let her know.

And, in case you needed another incentive, Cindy is offering a special launch week discount for all orders over €20. The coupon code is Launch10% This will give you10% off any order of 20 euro or more.  The coupon is good from 14 May (Monday) to 21 May (Monday) on anything in the shop.  You can use it as many times as you like!  You don't have to login to use the coupon, but those not creating an account will be ineligible for the customer rewards program.

So, to celebrate the launch of her lovely shop, Cindy is sponsoring a rather brilliant little round of giveaways today and I am delighted to be hosting one of them. One of the things I talked to Cindy about when she was setting up the shop was how I love to put together my own FQ bundles. I'm looking forward to doing some browsing to put together one myself later today. But in the meantime, Cindy has a FQ bundle to give away to one lucky winner of this giveaway. The winner can choose one of the bundles listed in the store (some of which you can see in this post's pictures), or put together their own from 5 FQs of their own choice.

You have 3 chances to enter:

1. Visit Fluffy Sheep Quilting, have a little browse around and then come back and tell me what your favourite fabric is in a comment.
2. Sign up for the newsletter (you'll find the signup box on the bottom right hand corner of the shop page) and let me know in a separate comment
3. Like Fluffy Sheep Quilting's Facebook page or follow on Twitter and let me know in a third comment.

****GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED*******
The giveaway will close on Friday 18th May at 5pm Irish time and I will draw the winner some time after that using the random number generator. The lucky person will be sent their FQ bundle directly by Cindy.

This giveaway is open internationally. Please, please leave your email address in your comment unless you are 100% sure you can get replies via email to your comments. If I cannot get in touch with the winner via email I will redraw.

Lastly, don't forget to go visit Cindy, Hadley and Susan's blogs where there are other great Fluffy Sheep Quilting giveaways running today! Thanks so much Cindy for having me be part of your great launch and good luck with your exciting new venture :-)

Retail Therapy

No sewing to show you today. I am busy busy behind the scenes finishing some projects that I can't show you. But, seeing as I am in a pretty good mood tonight, I thought you might appreciate a little eye candy! So I'm going to show you some of my retail therapy results that arrived in the last week or so! 

First up was this gorgeous bundle of fat quarters and half yards from Julie at The Intrepid Thread. There is lots of goodness in this one, some FMF, some Apple of My Eye, some Sunny Happy Skies and lots more. I am itching to cut into this fabric and I think I'm going to have to make a quilt with some of it sooner rather than later.

The week after I ordered this, there was a big sale at The Intrepid Thread and despite the fact I had a package on the way, I couldn't resist the opportunity to stock up on yardage for quilt backs and I bought 9 yards, the max Julie could cram in an international envelope. I love both these prints. The grey is for the back of my Ruby quilt, and the Navajo tile will work perfectly on 2 different quilts I am thinking of it for. Perfect (and cheap too!)

When I saw Hadley's post about the new Fat Quarterly book, I got a little carried away. I ordered it about 5 minutes after reading her blog, and I threw in another book for good measure! I was visiting Fi a couple of weeks ago, and oohing and aahing at her projects when she pulled out this book. A flick through it and I was sold. So now I have both in my hands and looking forward to reading them tonight when the kiddies are in bed. There are really great projects in each - I love books that have ideas that are a new twist on traditional blocks, or make a simple block idea really interesting through tweaking the design and these both hit the mark for me. I can see myself diving into more than a few projects from them. In fact, I have my eye on one of them for some of that FMF in the picture up there!

The last thing that arrived just this evening was my new quilt labels. Alas, no photo to show you right now, but I am really pleased with them. They are little folded labels to stitch into the binding, and once I have a quilt done with them in I will take a little picture. Its the first time I will have my own labels, I am super delighted!

A little me-time trip!

As you know, Thursday I got to pack my bag, set off all by myself in the car and head to Dublin. What bliss, a whole journey without having to look over my shoulder into the back seat constantly! And I even got to listen to the radio in peace and quiet :-)

I landed at the Knitting and Stitching show reasonably early, it was already jammed with people. But I valiantly founght through the crowd in search of fabric goodies and I did not fail in my mission to overspend my budget ;-)

The very first stand I arrived at was, by chance, Oakshott Fabrics. I have seen their shot cottons on a few blogs, mainly Judith's lovely Needles and Lemons, but I'll be honest, I found it hard to really see the difference to regular cottons online. Oh, how wrong was I!! I was completely blown away by these fabrics. Take my word, they are absolutely and utterly fabulous. Really gorgeous quality, the array of colours and fabrics looked like they were shimmering in real life. So vibrant and beautiful. Here's one of the pink shot cottons I bought, to give you some idea of the colour balance:

 

It is really true that browsing fabric online is nothing like seeing it in reality and this was especially true here. I spent a long time drooling and stroking fat quarters in an amazing array of colours before finally deciding on an Elements fat eighth bundle in Spirit. They are a little bit pricier than your regular cottons, but, oh my, SO worth it! I have tried to pick up the quality of the fabric in my photo here, but in the watery November sunlight today, it was really very hard. All I can say is if you like solids and you want to treat yourself, you should definitely check them out.

Next I wandered around the corner and found the Pippablue stand. Now, lots of you will know that Eva there was one of my secret partners in Cindy's Goodie Swap back in August and even though they are up in Galway, I've never been to their shop or met Eva in real life. So meeting up with her was one of the things I was really looking forward to and chatting with her and Ger was a real highlight of the day for me. Not to mention their gorgeous fabric - I hadn't realised what a lovely range they stock. Look at this FQ bundle I picked up:

They also have a fab range of Japanese imports and myself and my friend Helen picked up these 3 lovelies to go with the Russian doll fabric (top) that I am basing a quilt for Helen's niece on.

Pippablue have also started to stock some Klona solids, so all in all I think I'll be doing a bit more online shopping with them in the future!

I also found The Crafty Fox, who are a new shop in Drogheda and picked up these super cute Tilda fabrics there. I'll definitely be popping in to visit them next time I'm up in my mum's!

And I picked up these half metres from a huge fabric seller called Doughtys at a great price.

In addition to all my fabrics, I got some great basics - batting at fantastic prices, new cutting rulers, etc. And I also discovered another thread brand - Wonderfil - who had a stand. I grabbed a trial pack of variagated threads in 50wt cotton to try:

And also found some perle cotton tucked away in the corner of another seller's stand which I promptly bagged. I'm slightly scared of that orange, its for a particular project but its so bright!!

All in all a great day was had. I also managed to have a chat with Anne Marie of Kilbora Quilt Shoppe where some of us Sew Irish girls are heading for a quilting retreat in Feb (places still available if you're interested! Just drop me an email) and to Sherry of Irish Quilting magazine. Plus I had a lovely wander around the quilts exhibition which was really interesting.

It was then on to an evening meetup with my some of my real life buddies who, for the first time in over a year, were all in Dublin on the same night for a meetup and we had lots of fun over some good food and wine. I scarily realised that we have been friends for almost 20 years - since our early college days -somehow, it really doesn't feel that long!

The next morning, I finally got to meet my great blogging buddy, Cindy of Fluffy Sheep Quilting. We met for a coffee and yapped happily for over and hour and a half and I think if I had not had to leave for home, and she for the show, we possibly would be still there talking! We had so much fun chatting and I can't wait to meet up again. I am always a little nervous meeting people in real life who you have an online relationship with - in case it doesn't turn out the way you expect, but happily this trip showed me that there's nothing to fear - they are all even nicer in real life that they are online. And now I have faces to put with the names. Happy days!

So, yesterday evening it was back to real life and I realised that I am really a big softie - 24 hours away from my kids and hubbie and I just couldn't wait to see them all, it was like I was away for a week. So now I need to put away all that new fabric and decide what I am going to use it for. But in the meantime I'm fancying some handquilting on the sofa this evening catching up with the new series of Grey's Anatomy on the Sky Plus :-)

Blogiversary Thoughts and Giveaway!

I still can't quite believe that I have a year's blogging under my belt. Back last August when I started, I had NO idea of where it would take me, or how much fun it would be. I didn't even tell anyone about my blog for a couple of months and then spent quite a few weeks with just 4 followers - two good friends H and L, my sister and her good friend. Not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that in a year's time I would have close to 2000 followers!

It's been a huge learning process - there have been great times and stressful times. Blogging is fun, but very time consuming - all the more so because I love following blogs myself and all that reading takes time :-)

In the year that I've been blogging, my blog has changed quite a bit. I feel now I have found my niche as I've become more and more obsessed with quilting - and I love the little community of quilters that I've become a small part of, and the great friends I've made - even if I've only met 1 of them in real life :-) Its been so, SO much fun, and I hope it continues to be as much fun next year.

But now to the important stuff! I want to say a huge thank you to every one of you who reads, checks in, and comments on my blog - I really do appreciate your support and I hope that you continue to read and enjoy. So I have a little giveaway! Something nice for your stash :-) Amy Butler was the first fabric designer whose fabric I used to swoon over back when I started out sewing, so its appropriate that I'm giving away some of her "Love" fabric line.


I have 6 pieces of fabric from this range to give away. Each piece measures approx 12" x 20" - a little bit smaller than FQ size.

A nice little addition for your stash - you wouldn't have to add too much to it to make a baby size quilt (like my Across the Sea QAL quilt!), or they would be perfect for a pouch/purse or bag.

I'm keeping this one simple. Enter by leaving a comment if you are a follower - tell me your favourite quilting/bee block/sewing tutorial or resource.

If you want an extra entry blog/Facebook/Tweet this giveaway and come back and let me know in a separate comment.

I'll leave this open until 1pm on Friday (Irish time) and will draw the winner over the weekend. International entries welcome as always. Please make sure your have an email address associated with your profile (or leave your email in your comment if you're not sure). If there is no email address for me to contact you on, I will redraw immediately. Entry by blog comments only.

Enjoy!

Great new fabric swap!

My friend Cindy has just posted a great new fabric swap over on her blog, Fluffy Sheep Quilting! It's a Japanese import fabric charm swap and I'm really excited about it :-)

It's open to Irish and UK based peeps so click on the button above to get over there and sign up fast!!!

Birthdays All Round.....

It's been a week of birthdays here! There are 6 birthdays in our family in June, and 4 of them were this last week, including my son, my sister and myself. So I decided today to make a little pressie for my sister using this gorgeous Tanya Whelan fabric that my friend H bought me a little while ago.

I used this great tutorial at The Plaid Scottie that I found through Elizabeth and it was really a very straightforward make - even though I was, as always, afraid of getting the zip ends all messy. It takes only 2 pieces of 8" x 10" fabric, the same of lining fabric, a zip and some twill tape. Oh, and interfacing of course! But for a simple, gorgeous little bag its a winner and I'll definitely make more of these, I can see lots of use for them. Even the zip was easy!


The outer fabric is Darla Rosie Dot in Red (although I would see the colour more as a cerise pink) and the lining is Darla Rose on a pale blue background. I love Tanya Whelan fabrics and this is so girlie - its perfect for a makeup bag.



Then, when I had made it I felt it was a bit lonely - so I decided it needed a little purse to go with it - something that would work for coins, or some lipstick & eyeshadow - just a little handbag purse. I looked at the coin purse pattern in the Amy Butler Style Stitches book, but, to be honest, wanted something quick and easy and those patterns tend to be over complicated. So I cut a couple of 6" squares, made a small pleat and kind of improvised as I went along. I had a bit of a panic when it came to sewing up the side seams, but it turned out ok. I lined it with the same fabric as the pouch and its pretty much done, except I need to do a tiny bit of hand sewing to close the lining at the zip ends.

I think the two of them make a nice pair and I hope you like them M, if you're reading!


Even though I'm supposed to be working from my stash only at the moment and not buying new fabric, I was browsing through the shelf of fat quarters in a little city centre craft shop yesterday and, to my total surprise, came across these:


They are Penny Lane by Riley Blake fabrics and I've never before seen Riley Blake fabrics sold in any shop here in Cork! I just couldn't resist them, it being my birthday, so I bought them - aren't they pretty? I also was very naughty (as I would tell my kids!) and did a little internet shopping on Friday evening (I felt I deserved a little extra present!!). I bought some FQ bundles - 1001 Peeps by Lizzie House in 2 different colourways, this blue and also in dusk/orange:

Source: etsy.com via Sarah on Pinterest

And Just Wing It by Momo for Moda, also in 2 of the colourways, this lovely pink and the blue also.

Source: etsy.com via Sarah on Pinterest

I just can't wait for these to arrive - lots of plans are flying around in my head for what to do with them!!

I'm linking this to {Sew} Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday as well as some other lovey blogs - links in my sidebar -->

Another finished quilt top

I managed to get finished today this quilt top which is for a commissioned quilt. Its based on my previous "Sophie's Dreams" quilt, using a similar colour palette but with a different colour balance and many different fabric prints. I'm happy with how its turning out :-) I'm hoping to get the baby girl's name appliqued on the backing and get it basted tonight so that I can start quilting it on Sunday after picking up some natural cotton thread tomorrow.

Not sure what I'm going to call this one - I don't want to call it Sophie's Dreams 2! Any ideas?


I also decided to join up with Elizabeth's Kaleidoscope Quiltalong which I'm really excited about!

These are the fabrics I have picked - I'm going to do the baby size quilt for a little boy.


What do you think? I love them!!!

Fabric Splurge!

I love love love fabric! So, I was super excited today when no less than 3 packages arrived from the US for me! I ordered a heap of new fabrics and some old favourites last week and couldn't wait to get them home and have a proper look.

I ordered layer cakes for the first time - It's a Hoot by MoMo which I've seen a lot of in blogland and is a gorgeous collection of fabrics (I can think of so many things to make from it) and Origins by Basic Grey which I bought just because I love the colours and fabrics in it - it doesn't match anything in my house and I can't think of what I'll do with the quilt I'll make from it but its all MINE!!! I got a Hideaway charm pack too, love this line, its really cute!

I also ordered some fresh yardage for my baby blankets and bunting. Aren't these lovely blues and greens? I love the snails!

And I was SO excited to get my hands of some of Ann Kelle's new line Ready Set Go (the trains and the cars) which is extra special being organic cotton. I also love the 2D zoo, the teal, navy and green is so vibrant, and the dino print is perfect for a baby boy's blanket. I found the Amy Schimler owls in a blue colourway and couldn't resist!

I also got some gorgeous fabrics for the baby girls! More Amy Schimler owls, some Alexander Henry Willow on green and I love the Riley Blake umbrella tops in vibrant pinks.

I managed to find more yardage in the cute cats too - this fabric is getting very hard to find! I also got some pretty Riley Blake fabrics from the Quite Contrary and Sweet Divinity ranges - these are very fresh and I am really happy with them :-)

So its been a big week for supplies shopping here. I spent Saturday afternoon flitting around between my 3 local craft shops picking up essentials and spent a pile of money on thread. My kids love looking at thread displays in shops and seeing all the colour shades, and when I lined up my new thread purchases this evening my little boy was over like a shot to have a good look. Aren't the colours pretty?

Time to get sewing again, now that I'm restocked and ready to go!

Amy Butler's Style Stitches Bag Challenge!

One of my aims for this year is to get involved in some online sew-alongs and quilt-alongs. They seem like a great way to challenge myself to learn some new things, broaden my technical knowledge, get to know other bloggers and crafters and also to have some, hopefully lots, of fun! So I was really excited a couple of weeks ago when I saw a bag challenge over on JemJam, particularly because I had just bought the book the day before. So I entered there and then, bought my fabric and then did precisely nothing on it till tonight!

This challenge is to make all the bags from Amy Butler's Style Stitches book in 2011. Yes, every single one! All 17 of them. Eeeek!

Pretty challenging, not least because some of the bags look to be quite difficult technically, and Amy Butler's bags tend to be huge so I foresee a lot of money spent of fabric this year. (*sigh* I suppose if I have to I'll just force myself to go online and find some. No, I am not secretly doing a dance in my head. Really, I'm not. Really. OK, so I am!! I am going to start a new Pinterest board with fabric ideas for these bags. More anon....)

The first bag is the Cosmo bag above, which is listed as an easy make although I'm not sure, from reading the instructions if I would think it terribly easy! Although this might be because I realised (too late!) that the instructions in the book are not accompanied by pictures or diagrams for the most part. When I'm working with fabric and patterns I tend to be a very visual person so fingers crossed that I will be able to get my head around the written instructions. So possibly this will be just fine and striaghtforward to make, but I freaked out a little at the pages of instructions!

This is the fabric I am using:

The main fabric is "Memento" from the Amy Butler Love range and I adore it, the colour is deep purple blue with aqua, lime green, red, cerise and orange flowers. I have cut the main pieces tonight and happily have enough left over to make another small bag & other bits and pieces. The lime green solid is the contrast for the handles etc, and the small floral print is for the lining. This fabric is more lavender in hue than it looks in this pic (where it looks pink for some bizarre reason.) I'm hoping to get the remaining fabric and interfacing pieces cut tonight and then to start making up tomorrow for the deadline of the 31st January.

I also finally got around to getting my Pinterest account up and running this week. Have you heard of this site? It's my latest favourite thing! It is, in essence, a virtual pinboard where you can save pics, links, and all sorts of things. I have set up a few boards already - one for keeping track of the tutorials I love, or want to try. Another for my favourite fabrics. Also, an essential, an inspiration board. And an Owls board because, as you know, I love owls in my fabric and little softie owls (will have my own design coming soon!) So, a board for keeping track of my ideas for fabrics for the various bags makes perfect sense :-) I have a link on the sidebar so pop over and take a look at my boards! And join up, its great. I have had so much fun browsing through people's boards - and there is so much to explore, fashion, art, interiors, food, all sorts really.

Right, back to the cutting board here......