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!

Liberty Lifestyle: Bloomsbury Gardens

Pale Blue Colourway

Hooray!  Liberty are releasing a new fabric collection of quilting weight cottons called Bloomsbury Gardens under their new 'Lifestyle' name.  What?  You didn't know?  No, of course you did... and we are all very excited about it.  And we should be excited.  I've got a swatch book and it is really very nice and not pricey like the Tana Lawn.

Magenta Teal Colourway

It took me an age to choose the prints that I was going to stock here at Backstitch.  I had the little squares of the swatch book arranged on my cutting table for days.  Switching them this way and that way.  Inviting anyone who looked willing to listen in to have a look "What do you think? They are very nice aren't they?"  The number of times I had to clear them off the table to cut orders was great.  Each time I got them out again I was definitely going to make a decision.



Rich Red Blue Colourway


I finally settled on 8 of the best prints in 3 of the best colourways: Pale Blue, Magenta Tea, and Rich Red Blue.  I have put the selection into the shop as 'coming soon' so that you can ogle them and fuel your sewing dreams.

We are expecting these in toward the end of August, but I will be taking pre-orders at the Festival of Quilts (Backstitch will be there on stall G6 - more on that (and a discount voucher) later).  If you would like me to tell you when the collection comes in then send me an email.

Sketch from Timeless Treasures

Sketch Bundle

It's here!  It's finally landed in the UK.  The much ooh-ed and ah-ed over Sketch.  This is a lovely quilting fabric from Timeless Treasures with a printed cross-weave for when you want it to look textured by feel like quilting cotton.

 

 





We have thirteen colours from Charcoal to Lipstick and Tangerine to Chambray.  There is also a bundle of all thirteen for those that need it in all it's rainbow goodness.

Right now, and until the 13th of August you can win one of our Sketch bundles over on Laura's blog.

Greyhound

So many collections are coming out with a grey colourways at the moment and I totally approve.  It is a great 'mixer' of a colour, complimenting every other so well. 

This new bundle 'Greyhound' is a mix of six grey fat quarters and is in the shop now.  I'm coming to the end of my current quilt project and think that this might be the basis of the next one.  What to mix it with though?  Yellow?  Blue?  Green?  Hmmmm...

Simpatico Giveaway

Another giveaway?  I know, I'm going nuts.

This week you can head over to Karen at Blueberry Park and win yourself a full Simpatico bundle from Cloud 9 Fabrics.

All you have to do is comment on her blog post, and you can get extra entries for following this blog and signing up to the Backstitch newsletter (which you want to do anyway, right?)

Go, go, go!

Ashland Dress and Paloma Tee

Ashland Dress

Paloma Tee

Meg at Sew Liberated Patterns has just brought out two cracking new designs.  The Ashland Dress is new in this week.  A fantastically versatile dress that works equally well in a summery print (for all this sunshine we are having!) and a winter wool.  The MOST brilliant thing about this dress is that as well as including pattern pieces for (US) sizes 2-20, it also has pieces for A-D cups. So you can get a great fit 'up top' without he headache of bust adjustments... What a great idea!!  My fabric pick for this dress would be the 'Minty Straws' from Cloud 9 Fabric's new Simpatico collection.

And, we've had the Paloma Tee, Tunic and Dress in the shop for a couple of weeks now and it is already set to be a favourite.  The Tee is one of those wardrobe items that is comfortable and casual, but elegant enough to dress up.  And, a hugely flattering shape.  The fact that it has options for a tunic and a dress is a great bonus.  How about trying the Paloma with this yellow Cafe Dot interlock knit that we have in our clearance sale.

Remember that until Tuesday 17th July we have Ellen Luckett Baker's Quilt Blocks collection on flash sale at 15% off.

FLASH SALE! Quilt Blocks : Ellen Luckett Baker : 15% off

Head over to the shop now for a once-in-a-lifetime, limited-period-only, get-it-whilst-it's-hot FLASH SALE!!

We've put the Ellen Luckett Baker (of The Long Thread) Quilt Blocks collection on sale at 15%.  This is only running for a limited period, so don't miss out on this favourite from Quilt Market.

Whilst we are talking sale, we have a whole stack of bargains in clearance at up to 20% off: Oliver+S fabric, Anna Maria Horner, Dena Designs, Hoodie, Erin McMorris, Lotta Jansdotter, as well as some Cloud 9 and some Oliver+S patterns. 

Go get 'em tiger... we need the space for all the exciting new things!

Cloud 9 Fabrics Simpatico

I am so excited about Cloud 9 Fabrics latest range.  I have been looking forward to this delivery for an unhealthy length of time.  So I'm very pleased to announce that Simpatico is now here and on the shelves at Backstitch HQ.

Simpatico is a collection of summery pastel prints designed by Cloud 9 co-founder Michelle Engel Bencsko and are to die for.  Even the colour names are brilliant: peachy, minty, pinkish and golden.

Of course these cottons are the premium quality organic of the sort that we now know to expect from Cloud 9 - silky and strokable!  And, equally brilliant for quilting and dressmaking.

We have the entire collection of twelve prints in the shop and also a fat quarter bundle of all twelve.

What will you make?

Lucky Rainbow - Win a bundle!

Just a quick one to say that we have a new bundle called the 'Lucky Rainbow'.  I know, a sickly sweet name, but an AWESOME bundle of fabric.

Ten prints spanning the spectrum to create a rainbow of goodness.  Each bundle is unique and so is a fantastic surprise... AND...

You can win one right now over on Katy's blog.

Quick, go enter!!