Christmas... Eeek!





So the countdown has begun and I am, like many of you must be too, in a position of mild fear and panic, mixed with feverish excitement.  I have been beavering away on the machine... must blog that, and packages are arriving in a steady stream at our door.

Backstitch will, of course, be open for orders throughout the festive season, but (gasp) I will not actually be going to the Post Office every day. 



Normal service will be in place up to and including Friday 21st December.  From Friday 21st there will be no dispatches made until Monday 31st December (I know, how dare I take a holiday!).  From this point.  Normal daily week day dispatches will resume.

I am very much looking forward to closing the laptop, getting out my knitting and curling up in front of the fire.  Will you be doing that too?

And, the Christmas fabric is selling out fast in the shop, with many lines already gone.  If you want some lovely fabric for those festive projects than take a look here, here and here.

By Hand London - Elisalex and Charlotte

Nothing excites me more than discovering a new independent pattern designer that prints paper patterns, and I like to actively search them out.  Most pattern designers we stock were at Backstitch before any other UK shop (parp parp - that was me blowing my own trumpet, sorry about that).  So I was supremely excited when By Hand London came and introduced themselves to me - virtually of course.  And, THEY ARE BASED IN THE UK! 

Sorry to shout but this is truly exciting.  Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against all the lovely independent designers from beyond our shores, but I do have mild complaints about transatlantic shipping costs, import taxes and slow boats.

By Hand London are Charlotte and Elisalex. Don't they look lovely?  The two patterns that make up their Autumn/ Winter 2012 are (very sensibly) named after themselves and have fantastic British style.  Both the Charlotte Skirt and the Elisalex Dress have loads of good versions and are great value and £10 and £12 each.

And finally, when the box arrived this morning (all the way from London), on opening it I let out a little squeak and then may have even let a swear word escape for the packaging is very very nice.

09/11/12 EDIT: Disaster! The lovely ladies at By Hand London have discovered some issues with the printing of the tissues for these patterns and have recalled them.  They will be back in stock in about four weeks.  Click here to be told when they come back into stock.

A Quilt for Boy Two

  

A few months ago my boy number two learnt how to climb out of his cot.  This heralded 'The Big Upgrade'.  Boy number one would move from the bottom bunk to the vacant top bunk and boy number two would move from the cot to the bottom bunk.  Sorted.  All except that a cot quilt is like a postage stamp on a single duvet.  Boy two needed a new quilt to match the new bed.

I made boy number one a quilt when he upgraded from his cotbed to the bottom bunk. If you are interested, you can read about it here.  I wanted a quilt that would be different, but still 'go' with this one.  And, since I have had a bit of a thing recently with half square triangles (I've not even blogged my linen quilt yet, but Florence spoke about it here), I thought I would go with a chevron quilt. 

Mil's quilt was blue, so that had to feature, and some of the same fabrics too.  The greys were inspired by my recent grey buying spree, and well, grey + blue = yellow, does it not?  For fabric inspiration see the Gotham Bundle for greys, the Bitter Sweet Bundle, or the Caipiroska Bundle for blues, and the Butterfinger Bundle covers the yellow. 

The backing echos the front a bit with the yellow and blue which are Corn and Turquoise Klona.  My husband likened it to the Swedish flag, which in turn reminds me of my very good friend Sarah, unimaginatively nicknamed 'Swedish' by our gang, who has returned to her native country, and who I miss greatly (boo hoo, come back Sarah!).

Quilted in my current favourite method of circles... circles have been a revelation to me. They look lovely and neat, yet do not have that horrible habit of showing up your non-matching points and seams.  Straight quilting always seems to glare angrily at my haphazard piecing!

Oh, and bound in Simpatico Golden Straws because stripes on binding are ace.

Amen.

What's Your Favourite Tipple?

The bundles section on the website had started to get a little sorry looking. But sorry looking it is no longer!

I have added 13 new tonal cocktail bundles. Go and take a look and tell me which is your favourite.

If you head over to this post on Katy's blog right now you could even win your favourite bundle!

Do you like Elephants?

I have had some VERY good elephants just in.  In fact this whole line is super.  I don't normally buy nursery ranges as the designs are usually too twee for me, but this one is a cracker.  Bungle Jungle by Tim and Beck for Moda Fabrics.  Rebecca and Tim are a husband and wife team living in California, and this debut collection for Moda is brilliant... I'm going to put it down to all that sunshine and rollerblading.

The colours are bright and great for girls or boys, and the animals are simple and graphic.  And, did I mention the elephants?!

We have nine prints from the collection, the best nine of course, and you can buy them as a fat quarter bundle here.  I also went crazy and got in some charm packs... brilliant if you want to whip up a quick cot quilt for a gift.

Would you like to win one of these bundles?  Well get yourself over to Ali's blog as she is hosting a giveaway for me... Hurrah!

It's the 'C' word again.

I know.  I'm sorry to do this to you but it is happening.  Summer will be over soon (shhh) and Christmas is coming.  Now, are you a 'planner-aheader' or are you a 'oh-bugger-is-it-the-middle-of-December-alreadyer'? I'm a bit of both.

So, Christmas.  Are you making plans?  If not, WHY NOT? For goodess sake - it's September already!!  For those of you who are organised then we have some lovely festive fabrics.  We have the new line from Aneela Hoey, Cherry Christmas.  Rosey robins and wintery washing lines with some fab blenders which are good for all year. Aneela Hoey does a top notch blender.

And then we have the three best prints from Basic Grey Blitzens.  These are more 'winter woodland' than in-your-face Christmas.  There are deer and squirrels, rabbits and toadstalls.

Both of these are available off the bolt and in bundles: Blitzens here and Cherry Christmas here.

Alma Blouse and Kelly Skirt

We've had a couple of hot new patterns come in recently and both are flying out. 

First off is the oh-so-clever Megan Nielsen's new release: The Kelly Skirt.  Isn't this just the perfect skirt?  I just have to make myself one of these.  The Kelly is an (incredibly flattering) high waisted A-line. It features a button fronted placket, wide fitted waistband, large scoop pockets and pleating in the front and back.  And, it is designed for beginners in mind, so everyone can give it a go!

Then we have the Alma Blouse which is the latest from Tasia of Sewaholic Patterns.  This is a great 'no button' blouse and as usual Tasia has given different neckline and sleeve options that mean there are almost a gazillion different versions of this blouse for you to try.  Thanks Tasia!

And, whilst I'm on patterns, Megan is hosting a Banksia sewalong starting in September, so if you have been thinking about making the Banksia blouse, then this is a great opportunity to get expert guidance through the whole process.  Details are on Megan's blog here.

Lotta Jansdotter : Bella

We all went a bit bananas last October when Echo, Lotta Jansdotter's first collection arrived, and so the tension has been building for Lotta's second collection with Windham Fabrics, Bella.

It's here. And, it's every bit as delicious as the first range.  The bold cut-out shapes are typical of Lotta's Scandinavian style and the colours are bright and fresh.

We have a selection of these fantastic prints and a bundle of nine, and right now over on Katy's blog you can win one of these bundles.

Festival of Quilts 2012

Oh My Word.  I am exhausted!  But, I did it! 

Thank you so so much if you came to visit me on my *tiny weeny* stand at the NEC.  Honestly, meeting all of you people, and all the other lovely quilty ladies was the best bit.

Thursday to Saturday was heaving and Sunday was a bit like a deflated balloon, but I had such a good time.  I met so many of you for the first time Trudi, Anna, Laura, Ali, Katy, Laura, Judith, to name but a few - really there are so many of you that I can now put faces to names and addresses.

A special mention to Florence who put me into such a spin of excitement that I kissed her.  I'm really sorry about that Florence - It was Sunday and I was feeling a bit emotional.  The rest of you got off lightly with a regular handshake or a polite and friendly wave.

Anyhow I am now pooped but will leave you with a couple of pics of my bijoux stand... honestly the smallest space that the Festival of Quilts people will let you have.

Festival of Quilts - A discount voucher

I am taking Backstitch to the Festival of Quilts 2012... Hooray!

It was a last minute decision to book my stand (G6) and so I have been working flat out for the last couple of weeks getting everything ready.  And, I'm not going to be able to do everything I wanted, but I will be there, and I will have lots and lots of lovely fabric to sell.

Are you going?  I would love to meet you.  Please do come and find us on our little stand G6.  And print off this blog post or this voucher and present at the Backstitch stand to get another 10% off your show purchases.

I will also be taking pre-orders for Liberty Lifestyle Bloomsbury Gardens and will have the swatch book for you to drool over.

Believe it or not I have never been so am VERY excited to be going next week.  The show runs from Thursday 16th to Sunday 19th August 2012 and is at the Birmingham NEC.  If you haven't got your tickets already, don't worry, you can buy them on the door.

For those of you not able to attend, don't worry, we will still be open online, although rather than dispatching your order same or next working day as we normally would, those orders placed between 3pm Tuesday 14th until Thursday 16th will be dispatched within 2 working days.  Many thanks for your understanding on this... I can't be in two places at once it seems!