well, the weather outside is......

Scorching, and yet for reasons I can't divulge right now, I'm about to start listening to Michael Buble's Christmas album and make a batch of mince pies..... 


..... as you do!

The Happy Elephant....

I recently discovered the delights of Etsy. Admittedly I had tangled with it in the past when I tried to use it to sell stuff (unsuccessfully on that occasion), so more accurately I should say I discovered the delights of buying fabric on Etsy.  And to be even more accurate, I should say I discovered the delights of finding an Etsy shop that stocks all sorts of hard to find fabrics that I've been drooling over but thinking I'd missed out on buying.


I found this little shop Blije Olifantije which I always want to call Blue Elephant, but apparently it means the Happy Elephant, which is obviously much nicer!

I found a whole load of stuff I've been hankering after, such as Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope, Cosmo Cricket Tape Measures, and Melody Miller's View Finders. It's where I also tracked down the Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush fabric from which Charlotte made me the uber-impressive Kaleidoscope Crush mini quilt which you can see on her blog here.  (I'm very excited to say I should be taking delivery of that very same mini this weekend - yay!  Not to mention having the opportunity to once again attempt to steal the Love emblem mini.....)

Kit was really, really helpful. condensing my purchases down into 1 parcel to save me on postage and instantly refunding any over-spend there.  She was also very, very patient when as an Etsy virgin I followed up far too eagerly to see why my purchases hadn't arrived yet!  As it happened, by coincidence they arrived that afternoon, and I was delighted to find Kit had also included two little extras, just for me!

It's well worth a browse through The Happy Elephant, to see what's available.  I've had to hide my purse in the car whilst researching this blog post so as I can't hear my credit card calling....

Getting ready to convalesce in a treasure trove...

I'm a terrible patient!  From mid-August I will need to be off work for a whole month, and when combining my huge levels of impatience with my control freakery tendencies, it's going to take something pretty amazing to keep me out of the office. (Granted the inability to drive will help - I will be quite easily left stranded!)


Anyway, I am making a list of projects to work on to try and keep me busy.

Firstly, towards the end of this month, beginning of August I should be able to get my sticky mitts on the much coveted Ruby Star Vinyl and I have a couple of things in mind for that. Thinking about that made me remember I needed to go and check if The Village Haberdashery's pre-sale offer is still on....


while I was thinking about that I got an email from Annie about Cherry Christmas, another covet, and if there was anything I specifically wanted.... 'where should I start?' I thought. So off I went to check the website and see what there was to choose from...

While I was there, I started exploring - what else could I find that would be useful... I started thinking about my two on-going projects, one a Christmas present for someone, and the other my colourful, migraine-inducing raw circles quilt!  They both need wadding purchased for them so I can hopefully have them in a suitable state that i can do some hand quilting on them during that month.  Lucky for me Annie has that in stock too, and just the right size, much more reasonably priced than I've bought it in the past, too!

Then I spotted the embroidery and needlepoint section.  I was thinking about taking some embroidery into hospital with me to while away the 3 days.  I've got a Sew Stitchy plan for my niece's quilt which would include some embroidery of Aneela's designs, but I don't think that fabric will be here in time.  I wondered what kits Annie had, and was besides myself with excitement to spot these Emily Peacock 'Kiss' and 'Hug' kits - I've been coveting these since I saw them on the Kirsty Allsopp TV program, but I thought I'd missed out on them.  Not sure I can afford the two of them, but might stretch to one to keep me occupied!


What can I say?  It has become clear this afternoon that whatever you need for all kinds of projects, Annie is your woman!  Her customer service levels are second to none, and your stuff is sent out super-quick in fantastically cheerful dotty bags that you just can't help but smile at.  So if you're a fan of internet shopping or have never tried it before for your fabric and quilting supplies, do go on over and give The Village Haberdashery a try.  


I, meanwhile, have to go off and negotiate a small mortgage so I can place my order for all the things I just won't be able to get through August without.....

Ruby Star Vinyl pre-sale offer......

Can you keep a secret?  Annie over at The Village Haberdashery  is having a little pre-delivery offer on Melody Miller's fantastic Ruby Star Vinyl, due in within a matter of days.  All pre-orders will get a wonderful 10% discount.

Just make sure you save some for me....... 

Covet of the week....

So a few years ago now, in fact in 1998, I was lucky enough to be visiting friends in Sydney in July.  I'd been there the Christmas before too, and had the surreal experience of Christmas cards depicting snow scenes and model Santas and sledges on green lawns in 40' heat.  However, during the July visit my friend introduced me to their concept of Christmas in July, when all the stores did big features of Christmas decs etc at a time of year they felt was more wintry (still 25', sitting on the beach, came home with a tan...)


It's been really great this year then to see a whole flurry of Christmas in July activities in the quilting world, and my Covet this week is no exception!  With photos kindly provided by the designer herself, drum roll please........


Cherry Christmas!

Aneela Hoey's first Christmas collection for Moda, the range includes a whole host of funky Christmas images - Santa's washing line, snow shakers, dinky little Christmas cards,and some fantastic presents and snow balls....  all in juicy seasonal colours that somehow add something a bit different. I have never been one for wanting to make stuff specifically for Christmas before, but this range has changed my mind, and I have a huge list of projects in the planning bit of my brain.

Take a look at this fantastic vintage holiday quilt on Aneela's own blog, and then there's this lovely one by Rita on Red Pepper Quilts.  

Appetite whetted??  I had an email this morning to say the fabric is now available for sale over on Fat Quarter Shop - race you......

Triskaidekaphobia

So, today being Friday 13th, I managed to drop my sizeable bunch of keys - car, house, office - down the inside of our office staircase necessitating the removal of large number of items from under them and the actual back of the staircase....


What bad (or good) luck have you all experienced today???

Is it just me....

...or has this now become a quilt of two halves?  I made this little beauty a bit bigger, which meant adding in some new blocks made with fabrics I didn't have when I made the first lot.  


So of course that meant weaving them into those already laid out and doing some significant rearranging. then I decided I didn't actually like some of the new 'filler' fabrics, so I took those out.... 


then I decided I'd made it a row too long, so I took that off.....


then I decided I'd tried to make it too matchy when the first part went out of it's way to have every quarter block different colours and patterns. So I did some more rearranging.  


And this is what I have now, along with an absolutely stonking headache!

probably should have moved the ironing from behind the door BEFORE taking the photo!

It just feels to me that the top part which is laid out on a piece of wadding and so lying nicely with no gaps, looks like it has stronger warmer colours than the bottom part, which isn't on wadding and so not sitting so well together.  Could it just be because the bottom is nearer the window and so in brighter light which makes the colours look lighter?

I've put some of the stronger reds back in before taking this photo which did make the balance better, but does it look balanced to you, much more experienced quilters?

Let me know, 'cos I really want to start stitching it together!

and now for some Nina Simone...

'.... and I'm feeling gooooood!  Dummmm, de-dummmmm, de-dummm, de-dum, de-dum-di-de dummmmm.....'


On Wednesday, my machine and I went for a little trip, coffee, chat, sewing, and I was somewhat stunned to realise when I went to get my machine for this sojourn that it was still in it's carry bag where it had been since retreat!  A whole month without using my sewing machine.  I knew I'd been off my game, but that shocked me, even so.  


This weekend has seen me battling to finish a project I was doing for someone else, and then late last night, after singing along to 'Mamma Mia', in an effort to avoid the second half of the football, I decided it was time to get on with some fun sewing.

So out came this, a project I last worked on back in March on our Cornish holiday.  It's taken from this tutorial and I had completely forgotten how much I love it and the colours are so cheerful.  Last night I managed to get all the pieces laid out, and realised that I needed at least another 14 'blocks' made up, so I'm now going through all my fabrics trying to find about 20 more that I can make up into squares and circles, and then start rearranging the main part of the quilt I've already done to incorporate the new pieces so they're properly spread out.
Then I just have to keep them in the right order while I start sewing them altogether - think many photos will be necessary!  But hey, it feels great to be back!