Yay!

I just got an e-mail from the lovely ladies at One Yard Wonders to say that my project submission has been accepted and will be in their next book! I am so excited! I only found out that they were looking for submissions two days before the deadline and just tried it as a long shot but I got in! Here's a pic of the 'Drawstring tidy caddy' that I designed for them.

They want me to make it in a different fabric so I am crossing my fingers that they might consider one of my other designs but that might just be asking too much!

swapping fun

Dena, my spring fling swap partner who sent me the lovely pink bouquet of flowers last month finally received my mini quilt last week (I am so not impressed at it taking 4 weeks to arrive!). I posted a sneak peek earlier but here is the whole thing.

I am participating in 3 swaps this month - a mini coin, an anything goes mini and a placemat swap. I heard from Karen this morning that the wonky mini coin I sent her has arrived so here it is! I had lots of fun making it, I can't remember where I saw a wonky coin quilt but it was at least a year ago and I have been hankering after making one ever since.

non fabric crafting!

I have been practising icing biscuits today and all I can say is it is harder than it looks!

Cerys is moving this summer and she is planning a party for her daughters to say their farewells, the party is going to have a garden theme and Cerys and I have been having a lovely time of late dreaming up the food and decorations.

One thing that we have decided to do is biscuits in the shapes of snails, caterpillars, butterflies, bees and flowers iced in lovely bright and glossy royal icing.

I have searched the blogosphere for hints and tips and inspiration and today purchased a packet of rich tea biscuits on which to practise (waaaaay easier than making biscuits to practise on!)

Here are the results, I certainly hope I improve and I am SO glad I did a practise run!

Goodies from Shanghai

I have just been out for yummy Thai food with my parents who are over from France, even more exciting though - they came laden down with goodies passed on from Michelle who has just arrived in France from Shanghai!

Samples of beach huts so I can check the colours and scale - I have been longing to get my hands on these!

And presents! Lovely linens and pretty prints from Laurie - thank you so much Laurie (and Mark and Stella!) I love them all! So, so, pretty!

And even more gorgeousness from Michelle! Thank you sis! I can't believe you gave them all to me in the end!

I have just spent the last hour drooling over them all and planning how I will use them (who am I kidding? I will just stroke them, far too precious to cut into! although who could resist making a handbag with turnips or pigs?!)

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.