hyperventilating

Yesterday Kerry verykerryberry emailed me to ask if I'd see the new Amitie fabric clubs.   Well you know I am working on two Amitie BOMs (the Gypsy Wife and Green Tea and Sweet Beans) and have previously made a third one (The Circle Game).  Why?  Well for two reasons.  One - I love the beautiful, random, whimsical quilts Jennifer Kingwell from Amitie designs.  Working on them keeps you interested for a full twelve months which is hard for someone like me who hops from project to project and gets bored easily.  Here is the block for month 4 in the Gypsy Wife BOM.

And the other reason is the fabric choices.  I genuinely believe Jennifer has the magic touch when it comes to fabric choices.  She seems to have her finger on the pulse of what is cool and now out there and has an extensive and eclectic mix of beautiful and unusual fabrics.  So many times, I would post a picture of an Amitie block and get a flood of queries about the fabrics in the block.  So when Kerry told me yesterday that Amitie were setting up two fabric clubs, I had one of those hyperventilating moments where I knew I had to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW or BAD THINGS WOULD HAPPEN.

Firstly there is the Stash Club.  Sixteen 25cm squares of new fabric are shipped to you six times a year.  The picture is just a sample of what you might be sent.  If you do any of the Amitie BOMs, they give you a good idea of the kinds of fabrics Jennifer chooses.

And then there is the Amitie Liberty of London Addicts.  Eighteen 6" squares of Liberty of London prints (seasonals and classics) are you are shipped to you four times a year.  Again, the picture is just a sample of what you might be sent.  For those of you who haven't used Liberty lawns before, they are a real special treat.  Beautiful designs and colours and a lovely supersoft light weight.  Those of you who have used Liberty lawns before won't need telling how special they are.  

Whether you have an extensive stash or are just starting out, these clubs are going to be a great way to build up some special pieces in your collection to add real interest into your quilts.  You can find out more by going to this blogpost about the new clubs here.  And if you watch this space, I will show you the fabrics as they arrive so that you can see what I'm talking about.

Geared for Guys Blog Tour

Well I am the penultimate stop of the Geared for Guys blog tour.  You may have spotted the book touring around blogland.  It's written by Emily Herrick and is jam packed full of quilts for the men and boys in your life.  You can buy a hard copy in your favourite bookstore or get an pdf version in Emily's Etsy shop.  There have been opportunities to win a copy of the book along the way and this post is no exception.  Leave me a comment telling me what song you would sing if you were stuck in the desert overnight (see end of post...) and Mr Random will pick a comment one week from now for a chance to win the book.

Here's a picture of Emily at Quilt Market with her book.  And the final stop on the blog tour is back at her blog tomorrow.

I have three guys in my immediate family in the form of my long suffering Welsh husband and my two teenage sons.  So a book of manly quilts is just what I needed.  And as a special bonus, the front cover depicts a quilt designed and made by none other than Fat Quarterly's John Quiltdad.

My other favourite quilts in the book are Oddball,

this retro text Gamer quilt...

and my favourite of the whole book, Switchback

which has a whole cowboy out in the wilderness thing going on reminding me of when the Three Amigos were out in the desert singing Blue Shadows on the Trail.  Little known fact...our three cats were called Ned Nederlander, Lucky Day and Dusty Bottoms.  Goodnight Lucky.  Goodnight Dusty.  Goodnight Ned.  Leave a comment letting me know what you would sing if you were stuck in the desert overnight for a chance to win a copy of Geared for Guys.

Go Laura, Go Hadley, Go Marianne

Well three of my quilting friends have hit the jackpot in Amy's Creative Side's Blogger's Quilt Festival and are in the final five in their categories.  If you have a moment to vote for them, hop on over to this post.  Firstly my real life friend with the impossibly glamorous hair, Laura Needles Pins and Baking Tins with her to-die-for Brit Bee Star Beast quilt in the Group/Bee Quilt category.

And secondly mad as a bag of spanner Hadley Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle with her fabulous rainbow made in cherry quilt in the ROYGBIV quilt category.

And finally, Marianne The Quilting Edge's  extraordinary Oakshott quilt in the pieced quilt category.  I confess this might be my all time favourite quilt ever and a little birdie tells me that anyone going to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham this year might just get a chance to see it in person on the Oakshott stand but that's not finalised yet.  

The Village Haberdashery

As you may know, there is a new haberdashery kid on the block - Annie at the Village Haberdashery only opened her shop three months ago but she is already stocking up fast.  She aims to be a crafter's one stop shop, whether you're a quilter or prefer knitting or crocheting.

She's just back from quilt market so has lots coming in: Lilybelle by Bari J for Art Gallery, Simpatico by Cloud9, Ruby Star Vinyl by Melody Miller and Nursery Versery by Heather Ross for Kokka, Hope Chest by Josephine Kimberling for Blend (I could keep going...).  Choose one of her fabric bundles or maybe build your own.

And she also stocks essentials such as Kona solids, Aurifil threads, wadding and tools.  In spite of the recent Royal Mail price hikes, she's still doing flat rate UK shipping for £2.75.

As well as tapestry kits, full range of DMC embroidery floss, ribbons, trims, buttons...

If you want to keep up to date with the new fabrics coming in from her Quilt Market orders, why not sign up to her weekly newsletter which you can do by scrolling down to the bottom of her home page and entering your email address.

And finally, if you're coming to the Fat Quarterly London retreat this weekend, you will get to meet her in person so stop and say hi and tell her what your must have new fabric lines are for this season!

Green Tea and Sweet Beans - a start

For those of you who don't know, Green Tea and Sweet Beans was a BOM from Amitie Textiles a couple of years ago which will shortly be coming out as a book.  Today I've made a little start on my version.  It's just a start.  Four little blocks.  Two little propellors each 3 1/2" across.  I tried hand piecing them drawing around plastic templates but that doesn't work for me so I gave up and EPPed them but with the seam allowances left unsewn so I can piece the whole thing together at the end on the machine.

I did the same with these two little 4 1/2" inch churn dash blocks.  Ever since Felicity asked us to make scrappy churn dash blocks in our bee, they've been nagging at me to make more.  I couldn't make a whole quilt of these, it would take forever and I'd get bored, but mixed in here and there into a whole scrappy, blocky quilt, I can make as many as I like.

I probably won't follow the Green Tea and Sweet Beans pattern to the letter partly because I don't yet have a copy of the book so am just working now from other people's photos of the quilt and guessing and partly because I'm going to just make what I fancy and move things around, change things around but make a quilt in the style and mood of Green Tea and Sweet Beans.  Once I have the book (coming out later this year), I'll have a better idea of where I'm going.  In the meantime, it's hot and sunny here in the UK.  Perfect for hand sewing in the garden or for taking the laptop outside with your twin sister and no doubt doing something very important on it.

And the winner is...

Yes the winner of the Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop book (my fave quilting book right now and deservedly no. 10 in the Amazon.com craft/quilting book chart) has been picked by Mr Random.

Come on down and claim your prize Lindaroo!  And for all of you who entered with your comedy tenuous links to the members of the Fat Quarterly team, thank you, you have kept me well and truly entertained this week.  

Seven more sleeps

This time next week, I will be in London with Katy, Brioni, Tacha and John getting ready for the Fat Quarterly London sewing retreat.  

For those of you who will be there and don't yet know me, my name is Lynne but I won't be in the least offended if you get confused and call me Lily as that is what my long suffering Welsh husband calls me.  And for those of you who haven't met me in person before, I look like this only I now have glasses and am hoping not to be wearing a jumper because I'm hoping this weather will last and we'll have moments where we sip cocktails (or more realistically warm white wine from a wine box) on the roof terrace.  

And I am going to link this post to the Fat Quarterly London retreat linky post which I will be posting tomorrow morning so we can all hop from blog to blog and find out who's going to be there too.  So if you're going to the retreat, make sure to write a retreat post and link up to the FQ linky post tomorrow morning.  In my FQ retreat post, I am going to show you some of the things I'm bringing as well as telling you what I'm excited and nervous about.  I will be packing lots of useful sewing items in this swoon pouch Laura Needles Pins and Baking Tins made for me.  And I'm excited about meeting Tacha and John who I've never met before and spending the weekend with the Fat Quarterly team for the first time ever.  I'm not in the least bit nervous about that bit. 

I will wear this t-shirt with a label made by Jo Mancity 0327.  And I'm excited about spending the weekend with all my sewing, quilting, blogland, twitterland and flickrland peeps, whether or not I've met you in person before.  I'm not in the least bit nervous about that bit either. 

I will be carrying this bag which Jo Mancity 0327 made for me.  And I confess I'm excited but also a little bit nervous about teaching my classes.  But I'm pretty sure that once I get started I'm going to love it.  So if you're in one of my classes, just smile encouraging smiles at me until I get into my stride if you don't mind.

And finally I'm sad that there are a few of you out there who can't make it this year for various reasons and I'm hoping that this becomes an annual event and we'll see you there next year or the year after.

BIG FAT GIVEAWAY!!!

Some of you will already know my pal Jo Avery and her blog Bearpaw, with its lovely mix of quilts, crochet and embroidery.  Jo's day job is running her Homewares and Gifts shop in Edinburgh, and earlier this year she began to stock fabrics, wool and haberdashery there too.  And now Jo has added a craft supplies department to her website as well, and is having a massive giveaway on her blog to launch it.

Here's what you could win: 15 FQs, 8 balls of wool plus a pile of ribbons and buttons! Head on over to Bearpaw to find out more and enter.  She will also be offering an introductory 15% off any orders till the end of May!

Slow slow slow

Still plodding along on my Hexy MF, inspired by (which is a quilter's word which really means copied from) Katy's Hexy MF.  On the plus side, I'm learning applique for the first time and loving it.  On another plus side, it's now lovely and warm here in England so having a hand sewing project which you can take into the garden is perfect.

On the downside, it's much slower than machine piecing so there's not a lot to show.  I've appliqued the whole hexagon to the background and done one quarter of the background applique.  I'm no Cathy Cabbage Quilts (my applique hero) as yet but I'm working on it.

I'm using the freezer paper method which a few of you told me about and which I love.   You trace the applique shape onto freezer paper, cut it out fuse it to the back of your fabric, cut with a 1/4" ish seam allowance.  Tack the seam allowance down to the freezer paper, folding over the edges and using a short running stitch.  Press using starch, remove the tacking stitches and then you have a shape ready to sew down.  Sounds convoluted but I love it.

And that's what it's all about

So three quilts got wrapped up, boxed up, picked up from my doorstep by the courier and, for a ridiculously small cost of £20, they trekked down through England, across the Channel and then down through France all the way to Mont Blanc or so to arrive chez my sister and to be photographed with her in use and in situ.  There was theyoutube quilt which was a thank you to my sister for so kindly following my blog all this time.   

There was my ginormous swoon quilt which was for my niece with swirly hearts quilted by Tracey Pereira.  

And there was the Comic Book Batman quilt for my superhero nephew which was in the latest Kids issue of Fat Quarterly with my amateur hour quilting.

And photos like this make it all worth while.