comfortstitching

dresses

I've been dress making crazy these last few weeks.  I'm hoping being wardrobe ready will help speed up the arrival of some warm weather.  It hasn't happened yet but I'm ready for when it does.

This number is my first attempt at The Staple Dress pattern, made in my Ditsy fabric from Posy.  It was so easy and I would definitely recommend even dressmaking beginners to give it a try.  The pattern is by April Rhodes and I think she named it just right, I will definitely be making a few more.

My fav part of this dress is that it has pockets!!  I love me a dress with pockets, somewhere to stash those tissues and keys or sweets.  They seem to be sadly lacking in many dress patterns.

In other exciting news, we finally got curtains!  After 3 months!  I was so ready for a little privacy around here.  I went for plain linen through the whole house and it's perfect.  

I am never going back to bare windows!

winners

Thank you to all who entered the giveaways held here this past week.  I loved reading about all the fabric lines you are excited about.  Makes me feel crazy happy knowing that there are so many of you out there as fabric obsessed as I am.  May the fabric never run out!

The winner of the Fat Quarter shop giveaway of a fat quarter bundle of the new The Boo Crew line by Sweetwater is Megan, who said 'Indian Summer is a favorite of mine right now! But I would love to win Boo Crew! Thanks for the opportunity! Have a great day!'

And the winner of The Intrepid Thread giveaway of a fat quarter bundle of the new Tsuru line by Rashida Coleman Hale is Katie, who said 'I love Happy Go Lucky!! And she should check out all the cute fabric shops in Portland! And ofcourse VooDoo doughnuts!'

Congrats to the winners, I am about to email you.

And a big Thank You to both Julie and Kimberley for sponsoring the giveaways!

project book pouch

I made this project pouch almost a year ago.  I wanted something that could hold everything I needed in one place when I was in the middle of embroidering something.  When my book came out with it's pullout pattern pages I came up with this idea - a pouch that opened up like a book so you could see everything in it easily (so much easier than fishing things out of the bottom of a project bag don't you think?).

Even better this book is perfectly sized to hold your latest favourite craft book and any pattern sheets/pullouts or special papers plus all the notions and supplies you need for your current project all together in the same place.

Perfect for embroidery, applique or english paper piecing projects.

I use mine ALOT.  When I'm home, when I'm out, when I'm teaching.  Whenever I teach I keep getting asked if I have a pattern and I usually reply that I hope to do one soon.

But no more because I finally sat down for the last couple of days, drew up all the pictures in illustrator and got the pattern written.

If you fancy making one for yourself or for someone else, you can find the pattern right here.

The pattern is really straight forward and pretty quick to put together. Not quite a doddle but pretty much so I'd say.

Guaranteed to make you stitch faster, which is perfect if you embroider as much as I do!

The intrepid thread special and a giveaway

Today we are going fabric browsing again (told you it was a favorite hobby of mine).  For today's trip we are flying over (virtually speaking but buckle up anyway) to Milpitas in California USA to visit Julie Dueck of The Intrepid Thread.  Julie's shop is both online and a bricks and mortar quilt store (yep she likes to keep busy).  Here is a little about Julie in her own words - 

 

"I started sewing when I was six years old. I have always had an obsession with fabric. It is kind of like never being satisfied with the 8 crayons in a box and always wanting the big (at the time) 64 crayon box with the sharpener on the back. Honestly, how can you use a crayon that isn't sharp? I made clothes when I was a teenager and learned to quilt in my late 20's. It has been nearly 20 years since I started quilting and I am still as much of a rabid fan as I was in the beginning.

 

The shop came about because I was looking for a way to better support a charity that is near to my heart, and because there are a distinct lack of contemporary or modern quilt shops in my area. I started out with two collections and it grew from there. I never really expected it to become a business. All of a sudden I turned around one day and it had out grown my house. Now we have a brick and mortar and the online shop. Running a ground location has some unique challenges but I love that I get to meet my customers in person. Even people that have been my online customers have come from around the world to see me. I guess it is a good thing we are here in the heart of Silicon Valley."

 

Julie has an amazing eye for spotting a great new line.  Speaking of which, new in stock is Glimma by Lotta Jansdotter.  Just looking at this collection makes my head happy, I want to grab a pair of scissors and start cutting and stitching.  Those colours!

Also new is Ride by Julia Rothman, this one is selling fast and you can see why.  So quirky and original.  And now that I'm looking at them together, this would work perfectly mixed in with a little Glimma.

Another fast selling collection is the new Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie and Camille.  Pretty.Happy.Fabric.  Julie has precuts flying out the door right now but is expecting yardage this month.

Also expected soon is yardage of Winters Lane by Kate & Birdie.  These prints are so simple and sweet and I love that they have all those lovely textures in background colours (look at the weave effect in those greys).

So now that you have so patiently listened to me rattle about my favourite subject, I think we deserve a little treat, don't you?

How about a giveaway???

Julie is kindly offering one of my readers the above fat quarter bundle of Tsuru by Rashida Coleman Hale.  This is honestly one of my favourite lines of the year so far, perfect colours, love those florals, love that motif madness print and those feathers.  This line has it all, fresh & original, perfect for quilts and for dresses.  You could start sewing right now and just never stop.

To enter the giveaway, just let me know your favourite thing in Julie's shop.  If you like you can also mention something you'd like Julie to keep her eye out for when she visit's quilt market later this week.

One comment per person

Giveaway closes on 19th of May and is open internationally.

Good luck!!

If you'd like to keep up with Julie, you can follow her on instagram or facebook :)

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fat quarter shop special and giveaway

For today's post we are going fabric browsing (one of my all time favourite activities to do in any spare minutes I can clock up).  Fat Quarter Shop is an online fabric store that has grown phenomenally since it began ten years ago.  The success of the shop is owed to the hard work and dedication of it's owner Kimberley Jolly who started the shop as an after work enterprise and has grown it into a huge business employing many equally hard working and dedicted members of staff.  Not only does the store carry a huge array of fabrics and patterns, they also specialize in many one of a kind quilt kits and block of the month programs.

With quilt market just around the corner, now would be a very good time to start following Kimberley and the gang on Twitter.  Nobody does quilt market coverage like Fat Quarter Shop, it's the next best thing to being there.

Shall we take a little browse around?  There are some great new arrivals just in including the Ride collection by Julia Rothman.

Or how about these Razzamatazz Hipster prints by The Riley Blake Designers.

I especially love this print from the above line.

It's never too early to start crafting for Christmas in the company of a little Kate Spain.

 

Or how about getting spooky with a little Halloween fabric?

Fancy a giveaway?

Kimberley has very generously offered to give away a fat quarter bundle of The Boo Crew by Sweetwater to one of my readers.  This is such a great line, full of great basics, fabulous text prints and adorably cute monsters.  

To enter, simply visit Fat Quarter Shop and come back to let me know your favourite fabric line they have currently in stock there (you can name more than one if you wish).  Giveaway closes on Sunday the 19th of May and I will post the name of the winner soon after.

Good Luck!!!!!!!

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my space

 

Life has been pretty good here, things are starting to come together but there are always little set backs being overcome (for the good of all, these are getting fewer and fewer).  One of these set backs happened just as I was about to upload a couple of weeks worth of around the house photo's ready to blog here.  At that exact moment, my camera's memory card decided it was damaged and had to be replaced (the photo's on the damaged memory card of course went down memory lane with the now useless card and I'm currently in the process of re-taking them).  In the meanwhile, I thought I would show you a few pictures of what I've been up to this week.  Mainly, quilting the scrappy trips quilt as well as getting the making clothes bug and fashioning up a new summer wardrobe (more detailed pics to come).  There were two birthday celebrations last week, mine as you know and my eldest daughter became a teen yesterday too.

Oh happy days are here!

some inspiration and some winners

Geranium top by Rose & Dahlia

Thank you to everyone who entered my pattern giveaway, the winners are Anna and Sonia  - Congratulations to you (I've just emailed you both)

I've been spotting so many cute things stitched up using Posy that I couldn't resist posting some eye candy pics for your viewing pleasure.  With the weekend fast approaching, I hope you'll see something that will set a seed for a future must make sewing project.  I hope you find something above or below that inspires you to get your threads and fabric out and get stitching.

Posy Honeycomb quilt top by Amy at nanacompany

Posy Granny Square Quilt by Jolene at Blue Elephant Stitches

Posy Squared quilt by Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew

Cozy Posy Triangle quilt by Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting (tutorial here)

The beginnings of a Marcelle Medallion baby quilt by Alex 

Posy Geranium dress by Janice at So-cal sewing mom

Posy Roller Skate Dress by At Luce Ends

Back of Posy dress by Party of Eight

giveaway

Thank you so much for all the kind birthday wishes I received yesterday!  I thought today might be a good opportunity to have a little celebration here on the blog to let you know how much I appreciate you all visiting along here.  I also wanted to yell yippee because at last etsy have allowed digital patterns to be uploaded directly to the site.  Which means if you now buy a PDF pattern from my shop, it will be emailed to you directly on payment ( no more waiting around for me to get to the computer first).

So, today I am giving away any three PDF patterns of your very own choice from my shop.  You can choose from embroidery patterns,

or quilt patterns (such as Bloom, above)

(or may be Delightful?)

To enter - Visit my shop and let me know which patterns caught your eye.  I will pick two winners who will then be able to choose 3 patterns of their choice (just in time for the weekend)

Giveaway closes midday UK time tomorrow.

Until then, good luck ducks!!

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Bear with me

It's my birthday today and until the family get home from work and school, I can think of no better way of celebrating than basting and quilting my scrappy trips quilt (it's been whistling to me from the shelves for days now).

I'm having a few technical difficulties over here, it has been discovered that there is a fault on our internet/phone line which makes it keeps disconnecting every couple of minutes (taking with it the odd blog post or two I've been in the middle of writing).  We are trying to resolve the issue asap but until then it will have to be short and sweet posts.  

Which is frustrating as there are now so many unwritten blog posts in my head that it's fit to burst all over the floor ( hopefully after the quilt has been picked up of of it).

I'm backing this one in my lilac Meadow fabric from Posy, I am in love with the colour purple right now and I think it complements the fabrics in the quilt perfectly.

Hoping to be back sooner than you think :)

step inside

As promised last week, I'm back to show you around a little of my new home.  Unsuprisingly it was my sewing room most of you wanted to start with so here we are.  As expected there is a ton of fabric.  In fact there is a whole wall of fabric ;) 

It's nice to finally be able to have it all out displayed on shelves instead of shovelled into many drawers.  The shelves are Billy Bookcases from Ikea and they are ideal for storage because only the middle shelf is permanantly fixed, the rest are easily adjusted, which is good if like me you are always chopping and changing your mind.  Annie at The Village Haberdashery very kindly saved up the bolts for me and it only took me about a week of ironing and pinning to get things done.

In complete contrast to the colour explosion belonging to the wall of fabric, the opposite side of the room is stark in it's whiteness.  I intended to add some colour in the form of accessories but I kind of enjoy the plainess over here.

(Cupboards and desk are Expedit, drawers are Alex, from Ikea)

Next to Alex is my sewing table (at least it will be soon, I haven't sewn a stitch in over two months).  The table is Liatorp (again from Ikea) and I have it at the full extended width.  I am revelling in it's hugeness, which will be a welcome relief after years of coffee table quilting.  The chair is Ingolf.

See what I mean about the whiteness (even matches my radiator).

Which takes us over to the big window (still no curtains after two months, although we have got around to ordering them at long last).

Over the other side of the big window, more shelves, more fabric and more colour.

And another little window.

And more fabric

And back to the wall of fabric.

And that's it.  Kind of turned out exactly as I'd planned in my head all those months ago.  I'm sure it's pretty much what you expected too?