New Projects

My turn to write this week, as Debby has posted the last two blogs, and I will be away for the next two weeks.  We have had a busy week with our sale.  We have lots of lovely new stock in the back of the shop and need to get rid of some of the old stuff to make way for the new.  If you haven`t been come along because we have some great bargains, mostly at £7.50 per metre, and it`s going fast!  Enough of the advertising.

  Our new workshop list is out now and the classes are filling up with several full already.  Debby and I have made most of the samples, but there are still a few to make.  I have to come up with a Christmas wall hanging for our Christmas present workshop.  I am hoping that if Debby see`s this she might oblige as originally she was going to do one!  I have actually made two advent calendars, and Debby one, which I can`t believe.  Although we have some Christmas fabric out, we do have quite a bit more to put out within the next couple of weeks.  One lady came in a couple of weeks ago and bought about 16 fat quarters to make bags to put bottles of wine in as presents, which I thought was quite a good idea.

I seem to have the patchwork and quilting equivalent of writer`s block at the moment.  I keep trying to start new things and then they don`t seem right, so I put it all away and try to start again to no avail.  I had a great idea for a cushion this week for a present, but it wasn`t a great idea when I started to put it together, so came up with plan B which was even worse, so that was abandoned.  The only thing I have made this week is the cushion shown above.  I have made this lots of times.  I am afraid I cheat and just applique the stripes on and then put the heart in the middle to hide the mess!  Anne Baxter has done a fantastic Union Jack shabby chic cushion workshop for us, but it is foundation pieced, which I am just too lazy to do I am afraid.  The cushion is actually square, but the angle I have taken the picture as it not quite right.  I have a new camera, which I am just getting to grips with.  Actually who am I trying to kit, I  never really go to grips with the old one, so I don`t expect I will with this one.

  I said earlier that I will be away for the next couple of weeks.  I am going on my holiday to Italy.  We are going by train and I am very excited about it as I love trains.  Some of you already know about this, so I apologise for boring you yet again!  The reason I am telling you this is because we have a guide on this holiday and he is an ex BBC cameraman whose hobby is photography, and he is happy to give advice on taking photographs, when he is not issuing us with train tickets or guiding us from place to place, etc.  Hopefully I will come back an expert.  Just in case you would like to know, we are going on the Eurostar to Paris, then transferring to the TGV to go to Tuscany via Turin.  While in Tuscany we will visit Florence, Luca and Piza amongst other places all by train, then we transfer to Venice for three days before we come home via Basle and Strasbourg.  This brings me to my new project.  If you follow Shirley`s blog Stitcherydo you will have seen her amazing hexagonal quilt that she has just completed.  I have quite fancied making one for some time, but didn`t want to do one that looked like my granny had made it, and hers certainly doesn`t.  She came in the shop this week, and I showed her a jelly roll that I wanted to do it in called Coquette, but didn`t know what colours to use to go with it.  She had a look around the shop and produced a bolt which matched perfectly for the centres and suggested I did the background in white - sorted.  My grand plan is to take this on holiday while I am on the train, just in case I get bored.  I always do this when I go away, and don`t touch it, but I know that if I don`t take it I will regret it.  I will let you know if I actually get any done.

In my usual way the photograph does not do this project any justice at all, just wait until I get my hands on that ex cameraman!

Trying to find inspiration a customer came in the shop the other day with a book called Making Baby`s Clothes (not a very exciting title I know).  It is by a man called Rob Merrett, but the projects are quirky and a bit different.  She wanted to make a little dress for her niece.  Needless to say I got straight on to Amazon when I got home ordered it, and discovered the author has written several other books including one called Sew it, Stuff it, which was again full of quirky projects, so I had to have that as well.  I am desperate to make the little Russian Dolls on the front cover, but they will have to wait until I get back.  His background is in trend forecasting for the colour, textile, fashion and interior industries, but he also works as a stylist.

So I have a few little projects planned, but I have the desire to make some original amazing quilt but can`t seem to get going.  I don`t want to use a pattern, I want it to be mine.  Lots of people think Debby and I have a great life working in a shop surrounded by fabric all day, and it is great, but we don`t have time to sit and sew all day, there`s always lots of other things that need doing.  When we decided to do a week on and a week off in the shop, the plan was that we would be able to concentrate on projects on our week off, but it never seems to work out like that!  I follow the Material Obsession blog, and the work shown on there is incredible.  I will settle down, now the nights are drawing in, and I will keep you posted on how I get on!

Reading this post back it has been a bit me, me, me, so if you are interested Debby is fine.  She has been to the paralympics this week, and thoroughly enjoyed herself!