I've had a busy couple of weeks, I am currently making a commissioned piece for my synagogue - a cover for the Torah - I will post pictures when it is in situ, it should finally be finished tomorrow - in fact it HAS to be as someone is coming to collect it! I am still doing the rounds of retailers which is in equal parts loads of fun because I get to talk to lots of people about my fabric and see lots of lovely shops and frustrating because I get lots of rejection purely on price. I can understand it from the retailer's perspective because we ARE more expensive than mass produced fabric but it is something we can't actually do anything about, it is really expensive to produce fabric on a small scale and surely it is evident that two sisters working on their own can't compete on price with huge multinational companies? I guess the thing is that the right retailers get that it is like comparing Marks and Spencers with an independent boutique - yes, you are paying more but you are also getting something DIFFERENT!



sorry, vent over! I don't expect (or want) my fabric to be mainstream staples, it's just hard to fight over the price when we've actually dropped it as far as we can without actually paying people to buy it!



Other stuff that is going on....I have started working with my fabulously talented cousin, Cerys Gasson, we are going to start offering workshops....soon! In fact we are looking at venues this week. We are having Friday morning meetings and it is so much fun!



Last week Anne Williams (the editor of The Quilter) came to interview me, she is lovely and made it so easy that I just nattered on and on...at this point anyone who knows me in real life is laughing at the idea that anyone needed to encourage me to natter on and on, I am not known for meaningful silences. The interview will feature in their summer edition.



I am looking forward to three magazines coming out soon - I have a project in Sew Hip - a laptop sleeve using my new 'Bugs' range, I'll be included in the snippets page of Popular Patchwork and I'll be in a textile design/quilters advertorial in Selvedge. I expect people will start asking me for my autograph in the street soon ;)



Joanna from Things [Hand Made] blogged about this cool site to play with your photos, here's my first attempt, it's my stall at Northwood last Saturday.

tonight (last night? it is past midnight) I went to my most local quilting group for the first time, I have been wanting to go for ages but then I've been away so much I keep missing the meetings. Anyway, it lived up to my expectations, everyone was lovely and we had a mini workshop - tesselated stars

- mine was a bit messed up because I hand sewed it and made my seam allowances too big (even though I measured them out, grr), anyway, it's quite a pretty pattern and if you make 4 of them you end up with a magical 5th star appearing.

The workshop was run by Sheila Wilkinson, I liked her, she had the right mix of tell you how to do it then let you get on with it without you feeling as if you were abandoned.

On the road again

I am in Devon this week, Michelle and I have rented a holiday cottage just outside Launceston to use as a base while we go around all of the retailer that we can find in Devon and Cornwall. We had planned to visit the Eden Project and perhaps take photos of products on the beach but the weather is GROTTY and even grottier I have developed a lovely rash on one side of my face which has necessitated trips to pharmacists then doctors then more pharmacists, we can only conclude that I am allergic to the detergent they use to wash the bedding. Other than that things are moving along well, just this afternoon I found two gorgeous shops that I hope will go ahead and stock my fabric. I will go back and see them tomorrow as the owners were out at both of them, after that I hope we will manage to get to the Eden Project, I have been before but Michelle hasn't and I think it is a shame to be all the way down here and not go. We will head slowly home on Friday and visit some retailers in Dorset along the way.
Last week we went to lots of lovely shops in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Surrey. It has taken a LOT of self control to go into them and not shop! Out of all of them so far my favourite has to be in The Wandering Line in Purley (www.thewanderingline.co.uk). If you are anywhere near and haven't visited then you must, I was blown away by the size of the shop. It is lovely to have space to stand back and look at all the colours.
I am off now to watch a film in front of the log burner while I sew the binding to the back of little Stella's quilt (pics soon!).