Time really seems to be flying at the moment! I have just got off the phone to Michelle, she has been with the printers today checking on a new batch of Bugs. They also ran off samples of my newest range...I just finished designing it on Sunday and here's a sneak preview just for my lovely blog followers!

I'd love to know what you think! Also, I don't have a name for the range yet, or the designs within it, I've just been calling it beach huts, pinwheels, bunting, pink spots etc but I don't know whether to call the range seaside or maybe even name it after a British seaside town? Ideas please!

I had a lovely day last Saturday, I joined the Castle Quilters in Farnham for their International Quilt Day. If anyone is local to that area I would highly recommend joining them at one of their evening meetings or popping along to one of their shows as they are hugely welcoming and fantastic company, I wish they were closer as I would definitely become a regular!

Cerys and I still have spaces available for our workshop this Sunday so please contact me if you are interested in spending a lovely day creating your own set of nesting baskets.

spring has sprung

I am really enjoying the lovely weather we are having at the moment, it still feels like a real novelty to be able to go out for a walk!

Another springy thing (boing) that is happening is that I have participated in my first Flickr swap - the 6-12" mini quilt group's Spring Fling. I received my quilt this morning, all the way from Virginia,

I just sent mine off today so I will only post a teaser pic of it in case my lovely swap partner Dena happens to look ;)

My laptop project is now out in Sew Hip, I am pretty pleased with it although, annoyingly they have got my website address wrong again, not sure why that has happened twice now. I also managed to get hold of a copy of Selvedge today with a small feature on us and another small feature in Popular Patchwork.

My current project is working on my new ranges, this, I have to say, is the most fun part!

I am also running 3 workshops over the next few months along with the aforementioned super talented Cerys!

We are doing Reversible Nesting Baskets on the 28th March, Covered Books on the 17th April and Appliqued Woodland Panels on the 15th May. The workshops are £30 each and run from 10-4 at the Old School House in Ashley Green, Buckinghamshire.

Here's an example of the nesting baskets for the first workshop

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!).

Happy New Year

Wow, it's been a long time since I have posted! I am currently 'stuck' in France. I came over on the 24th December and had a ticket booked to return on the 9th but then on the evening of the 8th it started snowing here. My Dad and Grandmother already had their flights cancelled on the 5th because of the snow in the UK and they had rebooked to come home on the same flight as me but when we woke up we saw there was no chance of that happening! Our flight wasn't cancelled in the end but we couldn't get out onto the main road let alone over an hour to Toulouse. Fortunately BA were offering to change tickets for flights between the 8th and 11th free of charge. Dad and Gran have left today (well, they will have in another hour hopefully!) and I am leaving on Saturday. Let's hope this is it for the snow for this year.

I have managed to get quite a lot of making done while I've been here at least. I have been working on a project to be published in Sew Hip (March issue) so I have been making up a couple of examples and taking photos of stages. I am just finishing up writing out all of the instructions to e-mail over for my deadline tomorrow.

My sister gave me a couple of balls of Bamboo yarn that she bought on a recent trip to the states so I have knitted that up into a wide ribbed cushion cover. I will have to post pics of that when I get home because I have a cushion pad there for it and I need to find some nice big wooden buttons too.

I have been doing a bit of crochet too, I bought 4 balls of yarn and two crochet hooks with the intention of teaching Michelle how to crochet, thinking we could make a garland of crochet hearts. Trouble is, Michelle didn't really like crocheting, she found it just as frustrating as I did the first (10..15?) times that I tried to learn. Oh well, I had lots of fun crocheting lots of hearts to string together,a little ball that Lucky decided was for him, a little flower just to see if I could make one then finally a cushion cover front for the flower to live on.

I have finished the quilt top for baby Stella, it just need embroidering with her birth details before I quilt and bind it.

I quilted and bound a top that I have been working on over my last 3 trips to France, I don't think I had even finished sewing in the last thread before my Dad claimed it to put on a wall here. I guess that is only fair seeing as it was made entirely from my Mum's stash!

Yesterday I started making heart shaped lavender bags to use up the last of the lavender harvested in 2009 - I ended up making 10 but I think I might be able to scrape together enough for another 3 this evening.

Oh and I made a little drawstring bag with pockets inside from a book that was another gift from Michelle, it is just the right size to fit my make up in and the mascara and other tubey shaped things all fit into the pockets. I think it would be a good idea for a crochet project bag if I drafted a pattern that would fit a few balls of yarn in the main pouch then the hooks in the pockets.

I think that's everything, here's the quilt that Dad nabbed.

I have been laminating felt today, I made my cousin a holder for his Oyster card for Christmas, I'm pleased with the way it turned out, I couldn't find any patterns or tutorials for one that I liked for him so I played around until I worked out what I wanted. I hope he likes it, making things for men is soooo much harder than making things for women!

I like that it is grey and masculine but still has a secret hit of colour in the edges and hidden behind the card.

My street is covered in a thick blanket of snow today, it snowed through the night last night and has just started again, it's pretty but I hope it rains soon, I am a complete wuss about driving on snow or ice and I need to go out tomorrow!