comfortstitching

Kathreen Ricketson

The crafting community was deeply shocked and saddened last week to hear of the tragic loss of Kathreen Ricketson and her partner Rob Shugg whilst travelling around Australia with their two young children.  Kathreen was a passionate leader in the online crafting community and writer of the blog Whip Up.  The news of her sudden death has been untimely and devastingly sad.

In honor of celebrating Kathreen's life and commitment to the crafting community, Mason-Dixon knitting are remembering some of their favourite links from Whip up and encouraging others to do the same.  You can find out more here. A recent favourite post of mine is this especially poignant read.

An education fund has been set up for Kathreen and Rob's children - Otilija and Orlando.  You can find out more here or make a contribution using the button below.

rest of the house pics

If you are anything like me you probably love having a good old nosy around someone else's house.  So today, I'm inviting you to come in and take a look around mine.  This post has only taken me about 3 months to do, thanks to losses of internet and damaged memory cards.  I've taken the pictures over the last couple of weeks, just before the curtains went up.  I am not the best picture taker and I have two camera lenses that both only take close up shots, need to sort that out but for now here we go.

This post is very long.  You might need a cup of tea and maybe a tube of smarites or something.

This is the front door and my kitchen window.  In styling terms, the exterior of the house is modelled on a townhouse.  I didn't think modern architecture was for me but I really loved everything about the details in these homes.  It is a brand new house on a new development which is still being built around us.  See that wooden fence reflected in my kitchen window?  There are men and machines on the other side building away daily.

And see that big window there on the first floor?  And that little one next to it?  That's my new sewing room/design studio/fabric cave.  Right outside my window, I have the very pretty view of a cherry tree, which is just perfect for me.  

These are some of the plants right under my kitchen window.  The plants came with the house, a gardener just turned up the same day we moved in and planted them up while I was busy unpacking my crockery in the kitchen.

And this is my kitchen.  We bought this dining set a couple of years ago but we hardly used it until we moved here.  We eat all our meals here now, sat down as a family like it should be.

New kitchen.  I still haven't worked out what those two red switches are either side of my cooker.  I guess I should as I think they are important emergency buttons or something.

The lounge.  This room has the best lighting in the house and I probably spend the least amount of time in here.  Everything is still covered in handmade quilty sewey goodness just like the old place.

This is our new side board.  If I'm honest, I prefer to look at the side board than to watch the t.v.  I also placed the plant there in case I ever get fed up of looking at the side board.

OK we are almost at the end.

Just a quick look at the bedroom and my new lamps, these are from John Lewis and are called Penelope lamps.  I waited a long time to buy my first ever bedside lamps and these are really what I was waiting for.

And that's it.  I won't show you the bathrooms, the hallways or the girls rooms.  I'm sure the girls rooms will pop up in another post sometime.

For now, I'll let you get on with your day, I'm sure you have lots to do.

I hope you enjoyed the look around?  Do come back.

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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