Did I mention I love quilting books?

So today was a happy day, because not one, but two stunners arrived in the post.

 

I order Sarah Fielke's new book Handquilted with Love a couple of weeks ago and have been anxiously watching out the window early each morning since hoping the postman would arrive with it in hand. Today, finally, the van stopped outside my house and I opened the door before he could even knock. And I was not disappointed.

String Sane

The Made to Measure quilt on the cover  is what drew me to it - but there are even more beautiful treasures inside. I took some pics of a few of my favourites - just a few, I love pretty much every quilt in there.

Ups and Downs

This book is stunning. I love quilting books but sometimes I love just looking at them and end up feeling I wouldn't/couldn't actually make any of the patterns for myself. But this is not one of those books. There is just one gorgeous pattern after another all the way through. It's fab.

Lady Marmalade

 My biggest issue now is - which one am I going to make first?

Bangles

 

I really can't decide! I think I need a few more days poring over it to decide. Whatever one I pick, I have no doubt that any of these patterns would be perfectly suited to reducing the size of my overflowing scrap box. 2013 is going to be a stash busting year for me, I'm on a mission to clear out my mahooosive stash as much as I can! (Of which, more anon...)

The Bass Line

I also got a book which I have had on my wish list for a very, very long time. Free motion quilting is something that I can do in the most basic of fashions, but I'm tired of looking at fabulous quilting on other people's blogs and not being able to even attempt it. After finding a project that I made a complete mess of last year attempting to pebble quilt it, I decided to order it at the same time.

When the kids were in their music lesson today and I was sitting in the car for half an hour, I sat and started reading it. I am SO thrilled I got this book. It is inspiring and practical in equal measure and I can't wait to start trying some of the patterns.

Check back in tomorrow when I am doing a small giveaway to help my destash process and celebrate the fact that my "sewjo" is back! In fact, I'm doing 2 giveaways. The first is currently running over on my Facebook page for 4 bright and cheerful FQs so pop over there to enter that. And I more to give away here tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you!

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!