Crafting Internet Style

It absolutely astounds me how many talented crafters/quilters there are out there in blogland. I can spend hours of the day chasing links and feel like only minutes have passed.

I have read craft blogs for a lot longer than I have had this blog, and I used to read enviously of all of the swaps going on around the world. How lovely to receive a package from a 'stranger' who may become a friend...the idea is so wonderful.

Thanks to the Open Yours Too project run by the supremely talented Dawbis I too have been able to participate in some swaps. The second swap I've participated in was a postcard swap. You send one card to one person, and address another two and leave them in public places in the hopes that the kindness of strangers will prevail and they'll post them for you. Of course we had already stamped them, so this act of kindness wouldn't cost the post-er anything :)

I had such fun experimenting with designs for the postcard. I hope that the recipients like their own Aussie Autumn leaf.

But the most exciting part was of course receiving my very own postcard from the lovely Ms Bird (pictured at the top of the post). I have it framed and absolutely love it!!

So why not travel around the net to find a swap you can join? I can definitely recommend the Open Yours Too swaps, but others pop up all the time - check out fabulous Whip Up or other crafty blogs and jump in. I'm glad that I did.

Sensational Scraps packs back by popular demand

AND AGAIN - ALL SOLD.....

You've all been so quick to email us. Doesn't technology make life fun!! And it was great that most of you that missed out last time managed to grab some of the packs. So we're all back on a level playing field again. Watch for the last, bumper, round of scrap packs. I'm not holding out on you for the date that it will go up - I just want to make sure that I have HEAPS of packs to post. As soon as that happens, they will go up. And the good news is that the 20% off has been extended for next week because it is the start of the school holidays and well, because we can.
Now they're sold, I've removed the pack photos so that the blog doesn't take an age for you to download.

Hello on this cold night from Tuncurry.

The packs literally ran out of the store last time - well, not literally but you know what I mean :) So for the unlucky who missed out completely I had whispered in your ear that more would be available tonight. Half an hour later than expected, but you know what they say!

I actually had a lot more packs than this, but as I've been making them up here customers have been walking in off the street and buying them. So there's just 21 tonight, and most I made up after we closed, so that I'd have something to offer you all!!

It will be the same deal as last time. If you see a pack that you like, email me (justpatchwork@tpg.com.au) with your daytime contact number and the numbers for the packs you would like. I'll call you tomorrow to confirm which packs you have, and collect your postal address and credit card details from you. Sorry, only credit cards can be accepted for these packs.

And like before, each pack is $4.00 (down from $5.00 in our 20% off sale). Postage on one pack is $4.90 and postage for 2-6 packs is $8.90.

And tonight you have the no frills version of posting - no names on the packs, just numbers. Those of you with eagle eyes will probably be able to spot who has designed the fabrics anyway. If the packs aren't taken tomorrow I'll post the link to the SCQ-Comm list, but for tonight it's just for you :)

SOLD No. 30

SOLD No. 31

SOLD No. 32

SOLD No. 33

SOLD No. 34

SOLD No. 35

SOLD No. 36

SOLD No. 37

SOLD No. 38

SOLD No. 39

SOLD No. 40

SOLD No. 41

SOLD No. 42

SOLD No. 43

SOLD No. 44

SOLD No. 45

SOLD No. 46

SOLD No. 47

SOLD No. 48

SOLD No. 49

SOLD No. 50

P.S. There will be one more roll out of scrap packs on the blog - a final hooroo for the moment for them :( It'll be sometime next week so keep checking back. We'll also be featuring some other great specials that have up until now been reserved for in-store shoppers. If you need a fix before then, check out our products over at www.justpatchwork.com all 20% off this week (except PFAFF sewing machines and SewEzi tables).

More Sensational Scraps packs coming

I've got another 21 packs to post now, and am just fighting with Blogger to get them all posted. Stay tuned in the next couple of minutes!

Playing on the Surface

Gloria's samples for the Playing on the Surface technique

Janette working hard on her gorgeous quilt

Back to the Gloria Loughman Workshops, and the pictures from the brand new class Playing on the Surface. The South Africans had experienced this wonderful exercise a couple of weeks before us, but ours was the first outing for this class in Australia.

Gloria did comment that the South Africans were using the strong African colours and fabrics whereas many of our group had the watery balis and hand dyes that are so evocative of Australian coastal living. We even had one quilt that was a dead ringer for a Coral Reef! I guess that geography will out...

Most of us got too excited making the pieces for the quilts and decided to save the embellishment/stitching for hometime, but some disciplined souls did stitch as much as cut and fuse over the two days. But it shows we all approach projects differently, and I'm just sorry I can't post pictures of all of the wonderful class projects!

Sensational...

Golly Gosh! We certainly have a lot of scrap pack fans out there in cyberspace! Most of the packs are gone, but there are a few remaining, the list below has been updated. I will be making more, plus posting other great bargains as part of our 20% off week, so keep checking back...

And just a reminder - any mail order purchases of kits or fabrics are also 20% off at the moment.

Sensational Scraps packs

ALL SOLD

You SCQuilters sure are addicted to fabric, but that's why we love you - we're addicted too! All of the packs below have now been sold, and I've removed the pictures so that the blog loads more quickly.

A popular 'in-house' find are our Sensational Scraps Packs. These are all $5 a pop, no matter what type of fabric is included, or how much. Some are monsters because I just kept adding big pieces, others are a little smaller with teeny tiny scale precious pieces of gorgeous fabrics, and lots of them. One thing they all have in common - they are all great value at five bucks. The even better news is that they are also a part of our huge 20% off items in stock starting tomorrow (Tuesday) and running until Saturday afternoon.

Here at Just Patchwork we don't throw sales on a regular basis because we like to make sure that they are real fair dinkum savings and not just a gimmicky way to draw people in. So this time we've decided to take 20% off the total of our customer's bills...even on thread, needles, wadding, books, kits etc. Normally sales specify this or that is on sale and everything else is normal price. But the only things we're not reducing are the PFAFF sewing machines and the SewEzi table (because they're already at rock bottom bargain price). EVERYTHING ELSE including oh-so-soft, chenille, samples and ready made quilts and importantly the scrap packs are all 20% off.

So how can you choose between the scrap packs? I've made up 28 today and taken photos of all of them. If you want one or more, email us at justpatchwork@tpg.com.au to 'reserve' it. Just give us your business hours phone number and we'll call to get your credit card details and address to send it to. First one in on the email gets the pack...

And I hear you asking about postage. Well, one scrap pack will go into a 500g satchel for $4.90. But if you buy more than one...the postage for 2-6 packs is a flat $8.90 for the 3kg satchel. So why not pick a few? Maybe have some backups in case your first choices are already gone.

Just to recap - each scrap pack is now a tiny A$4 each ($5 minus this week's 20% off), plus postage.

SOLD No.1 Superman!!!

SOLD No. 2 Pastel Flannels

SOLD No. 3 Dark Floral Beauties

SOLD No. 4 Balis

SOLD No. 5 Golden spots and retro florals

SOLD No. 6 1930's orange and purple

SOLD No. 7 More balis and mottleds

SOLD No. 8 Kaffe, Heather, Denyse and more

SOLD No. 9 Heather's fishy friends

SOLD No. 10 Shot Cotton and floral fusion

SOLD No. 11 Perky Pinks and Hot Chocolate

SOLD No. 12 Raspberry Reds (incl. Chenille)

SOLD No. 13 Butterfly heaven

SOLD No. 14 Spiderman again

SOLD No. 15 Not quite Christmas

SOLD No. 16 Guest starring the Red Hat Ladies

SOLD No. 17 Blue and White monster pack

SOLD No. 18 Noahs Ark and other cuties

SOLD No. 19 Again not quite Christmas

SOLD No. 20 Glorious Greens

SOLD No. 21 Raucous Reds

SOLD No. 22 Lovely Lilacs (incl. Balis)

SOLD No. 23 Black and White magic

SOLD No. 24 Pink and Brown, Brown, Brown

SOLD No. 25 All natural

SOLD No. 26 I found some more Balis!

SOLD No. 27 Fall florals

SOLD No. 28 Silver sparkles and gold accents

Quilt Workshops Part 2

Detail of Gloria's Kimberley Mystique quilt

As promised, I'm posting some pictures from the fabulous Landscape Mosaic class by Gloria Loughman. Unfortunately the lighting in the workshop room wasn't ideal for photography, so some unlucky partipants won't be posted :( but here are some of the backgrounds completed in the class ready to be embellished in Gloria's inventive style. We've asked everyone to send us a picture of their finished quilts, so we all look forward to seeing them done.

Landscape Mosaic examples - in the two days you design the quilt,

construct the background and begin adding detail with applique and stitching.

Luscious Landscapes

Gloria demonstrating to the lucky Landscape Mosaic class participants

We were so excited this week to be hosting Gloria Loughman, world-reknowned quilter and teacher for two workshops in Forster/Tuncurry. The popular 'Landscape Mosaic' and the brand new class 'Playing on the Surface' were both two-day workshops and we've all left inspired, ready to sit down and create our own masterpieces.

If you're not familiar with Gloria's work - where have you been? Gloria and her quilts have been in all of the Aussie and international magazines and we love going to a quilt show and seeing her magnificent quilts. These are quilts that you can't even imagine creating yourself...the detail in the piecing, applique and stitching is magnificent. Then you start noticing the paint effects that she's achieved and you really do feel like you can step right into the picture. It makes you want to start that large project you've been dreaming about....

But back to the workshops. The Landscape Mosaic class breaks down the tehniques to create your own design in Gloria's fantastic landscape quilt style. I'm proud to have finished my Landscape Mosaic quilt - Brynly (the reef starfish) - and I've added the pictures here in case you haven't seen it hanging in the shop before.

'Brynly (the reef starfish) - and his day at the beach'

Detail of the stitched Starfish on the 'Brynly' quilt

It will be so exciting to see the 14 new quilts to come out of Tuesday and Wednesday's class. Look for some photos on the blog next week of the works in progress. The beauty of Gloria's teaching is that we all start out thinking - 'there's no way I can do this' and within a few minutes you're thinking - 'wow, I'm going to do this, then this, then....'. You can definitely tell that she was a teacher in her former life.

To keep this short I'll post more about the classes, and a ton of pictures over the coming days.

Quilter's heaven...

must look something like the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair held each June at the Darling Harbour Exhibition Centres. Fabric, fabric and more fabric everywhere you look plus everything else you could ever imagine needing for quilting. The other shows around Australasia are great too, but this one makes your head spin. The photo below shows less than a third of the stands, and doesn't show any of the huge quilt show.

Of course we always intend to take pictures of our stand (B20 - come and see us next year if you missed the show this time!) when we've just set it up and everything is perfectly placed and displayed. And inevitably we run around at 4.30 on the last day trying to get a few shots to record the week of craziness, with the last few customers who've rushed back to get that item they can't get out of their head.

The result? Signs are skewed, sold out items have been removed and new samples tacked up hurriedly, but the photos give you some idea of the colour and inspiration to be found at the Show. It's the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and I certainly found everything I was hunting for.

Here's Gai chatting away next to the fabulous SewEzi portable sewing table. It was a hit at the show!

And I couldn't leave Elwin out...

Milly Molly Mandy

The blog has been quite neglected of late, but we just got back from the fabulous Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair last night, and there's lots to tell. Until I download those photos though, I decided to write about the other exciting news.

We've just received a copy of the latest Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine (Vol. 14 No. 8) and my 'Milly Molly Mandy' quilt is one of the included projects. The bright colours in the quilt photographed so well - I was thrilled to see my cuddly quilt in print!

Do you remember Milly Molly Mandy? I loved reading, and still do actually, and I devoured all of the popular children's classics. I also loved birthday parties, tea parties, and just general entertaining. I still enjoy throwing a dinner party...setting the table, and thinking of just the right foods to serve. So I guess I haven't grown up as much as I might think :)

But back to Milly Molly Mandy - the stories by Joyce Lankester Brisley - she was always adorable in her pink and white stripe short frocks (only in summer of course) and saving her pocket money to buy penny sweets like aniseed rings for her friends. So I decided to join the party with my own tea party tablecloth in pretty pink, green and blue with white borders to make their lovely white cottage. If you wanted to host your own tea party all of the instructions to make your own are in this month's APQ mag!

Non-Quilting related post!

In May, Gai and Elwin attended a trade show in South West Rocks designed to showcase the wealth of business knowledge and expertise in our region. The range of businesses was astounding - from Steber International (who make beautiful boats!) to Cassegrain Winery in Port Macquarie, Just Patchwork :) from Tuncurry and even a free range egg company from the Manning Valley (plus many more....).

The 40 businesses selected were profiled in a book 'World Class Business on the NSW Mid North Coast', and we were honoured to be included in the lineup. The pages were to 'visually represent' the business with minimal words...and I think our page does that!

Gai and Elwin also enjoyed the chance to meet other business owners and discuss the international and domestic markets that our region services. It's amazing to hear where some of our local products end up. The Austrade reps there gave some more insight on the ways to cut through export red-tape, and the Deputy Prime-Minister Mark Vaile was in attendance to support his own local area.

The Mid North Coast Regional Development Board and the NSW Department of State and Regional Development organised the booklet and the event. We were very pleased to be part of it!

More Book News...

Life has been very hectic around here at Just Patchwork lately. With Gai and Elwin in Perth for the Craft and Quilt Show last week and a busy, busy time in the shop my head is spinning to try and work out what I need to be doing now.

The good news is that part of last week's business was a whole truckload of new fabrics and books arriving. Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy range is looking resplendant on the shelves, and we've got copies of her book in stock again too.

The Quilt-It kit also arrived in, and the project cards are the cutest way I've ever seen patterns packaged. Actually the whole kit was a joy to open up and fossick through. I might even have to dive in and make the cushion using the fabric procided in the kit!

I'm also working on a pattern for my 'Tag Sale' Quilt using Denyse's fabrics along with some Amy Butler and Kaffe Fassett favourites. That'll follow this week (once I recharge the digital camera's batteries!).

Colour Matching for Quilting

Many of our customers arrive in the shop and become overwhelmed when they have to start putting colours together, whether to match or contrast, mix prints or blend plains.

We've just received hot off the presses copies of the new book from Fun Quilts, Quiltmaker's Color Workshop. In fact it's so new that they haven't even got it listed on the Fun Quilts website yet. This book is actually an updated and expanded version of Color Harmony for Quilts. This book is a wonderful resource for people scared of colour...leading you step by step through colour decisions, but is also inspiring for quilters comfortable with colour - with a gobsmacking number of colour photographs included.

And the quilt patterns in the back are fantastic too, in a similar style to the graphic, clean lines of the quilts in their earlier book The Modern Quilt Workshop (we'll have copies available soon - they're so popular they're on backorder).

Finally, as I was playing around with the blog design this afternoon, I discovered (thanks Blogger Help!) this colourmatching website. I love that you can easily see 6 complementary colours at once, and thought that this would be an invaluable tool for quilters to create their 'big idea' from (a concept dealt with in the Quiltmaker's Color Workshop).

Banner testing 2

Tag Sale Quilt in progress....

Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy fabric line is due in store soon, but as I've blogged about before, we have been sent some samples to play around with in advance (don't you love that!). So instead of waiting to photograph the quilt when it's done, I've actually remembered to take some in progress shots.

These were before and during the basting process last week. And I've started the quilting, so hopefully the quilt will be ready for it's grand unveiling before the week is up. 

Plain or print?

Whenever I am working on a quilt with lots and lots of prints and colours, I always seem to be planning a quilt using plains or solid fabrics in my head. I'm not sure why - maybe it's like when you eat something really sweet, and you need something salty to counteract it...

I made a very improvisationally pieced strip quilt last Christmas to give to friends. And I intended that it would be the first in a series of these, but I haven't gotten back to it yet. This series would be the "Baustelle" series - a play on words with Bauhaus and the geometric shapes and solid colours of that style, but also representing that these are a bit of a building work in progress. Baustelle is a construction site in German, and I liked the idea that some of the bright coloured strips may run into the white/cream strips when the quilt was washed. So effectively the quilt design was still growing as it was used.

I'm not sure if the recipients would be as keen if the colours all start to run, and I don't think they will, but really there is no down side if they do or they don't in my mind.

Baustelle #1 is a combination of cotton solids, flannel solids and subtle prints and a big selection of different off-white/cream fabrics. They included a couple of different cotton weights/grades, 'oh-so-soft' fabric, linen and others that I can't recall at the moment (there's been many quilts since then).

I saw on weewonderfuls that Hilary has used the Freezer Paper stencil method, and I also used this to stencil a Dr Seuss quote on the back, that's the second and third photos. It's silver fabric paint on grey fabric so that's almost impossible to see (so look carefully!). But the 'oh-so'soft' backing on the back was definitely a hit!

So, now I think I can go home and work on my Flea Market Fancy quilt which is print crazy, toned down by white sashing strips. And photos of that quilt will follow shortly!!!

Happy Easter!

I shouldn't be here at the shop today as it is Good Friday, but you know what it is like when you want to get a project finished....

I'm working on a quilt with the fabulous Denyse Schmidt fabrics and I finished all of the blocks - yay! So it is on to the sashing strips, and of course that fabric was here at the shop. But it let me pick up a new packet of sewing machine needles that I badly needed, so it was worth the 15-minute drive. Sometimes it seems like that old saying 'no bread at the bakers house' etc. when it comes to replacing needles, rotary cutter blades and other patchworking necessities.

Because we don't have to physically go into a shop and hand over the money we forget that we need these items at home to complete our projects and samples for the shop. When we run out of something, downtime is forced upon us, so it's not always a bad thing.

Last week seemed to be a never-ending 'to-do' list with Gai and Elwin preparing for the Brisbane Stitches and Craft show next week, and many miscellaneous items like magazine ads to prepare. It is fun playing around with photo editing software, and I am in love with the magnetic lasso tool. Such a small thing, but very satisfying when you can remove the background from a photo so easily. And the image above was the latest victim of my magnetic lasso. The brilliant colours of the new oh-so-soft range needed to stand alone without background distraction.

And on that bright note, I will wish you all a happy easter!

More from Amy Butler - WOW! And a Denyse Schmidt update too....

I've just spotted the latest quilt weight range from Amy Butler, named 'Belle' it is truly beautiful. The image of just one of the three colourways above is from Amy's website. This is Amy's first range for Rowan/Westminster fabrics, who you will all be familiar with - they bring us the fabulous Kaffe Fassett, Martha Negley and more fabrics saturated with both colour and detail.

We've already fallen in love with all of these fabrics, so you will be sure to find them on our shelves as soon as they become available.

We're also looking forward to seeing the new sewing patterns and book she'll be releasing in coming months.

We presume that Amy's products will be as lovely as the Denyse Schmidt range - we're expecting another shipment of Denyse's book in store before the end of the month, and we have a lot of her stationary items here too... And, with some samples here ready to be cut into we should have a quilt available to show as soon as the bolts of Denyse's fabrics arrive too.

Diamond Days of May

We received our copies of the new Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine today (Vol 14 No 5). I have a project in this issue, and there are also a bunch of other fantastic quilts featured as projects. And they have covered the Australian Quilt Convention and the Best of Australia quilts.... so it certainly is jam packed with quilting goodness.

Of course I have to say that though because it also includes my profile, and pictures of some of the quilts/projects I have finished lately. Very exciting stuff.

One of the pictures shows my Diamond Days of May quilt. It is nice and bright, and (to my eye anyway) it jumps off the page. Coincidentally I've just finished writing the pattern for this quilt and have also cut some kits for the shop. So I decided to post about this quilt today.

The top photo is the whole quilt, and the bottom is a collage of some close-ups I have taken. I think that it is always interesting to see a more detailed view of quilts. You get a completely different impression of most quilts from flat photos to how they actually look in person, but a details photo bridges that gap.

Diamond Days of May was started last May, when we first received the Charm fabrics from the US but that's actually not the May that the quilt name refers to. My grandmother, May Taylor, was diagnosed with cancer in April 2005 and I spent a few weeks with grandma and pop in Cowra before she passed away in July 2005.

I cut all of the fabrics for the blocks at their kitchen table and sewed all of the half square triangle units on grandma's old Bernina machine. The diamond shapes were quilted sitting at a SewEzi portable sewing table set up temporarily in their lounge room.

Grandma was a keen sewer and soft toy maker and she was very brave in her fabric and colour choices. This was the last of my quilts that she saw me working on and she liked the bright colours and large patterns used in this quilt.

So Diamond Days of May seemed a fitting name for this quilt, a name that came to me during the many, many hours of machine quilting worked onto the large borders.

Once I finished the quilt I had to pack it away for a little while because I had become so accustomed to seeing these colours and patterns. But now, several months on, whenever I see or use the quilt the bright colours jump out at me and it seems a very happy quilt to have around.

Wow time flies....

I can't believe that it has been over a week since my last post. Time certainly is flying, but we are getting plenty achieved so I guess that is the main thing!

I ran around the shop last week taking photos of shelves, quilts hanging over the stair rails and other assorted scenes. I thought that I would post some photos here for our customers that maybe have never visited our shop in person.