don't mess with my crew

I always thought it'd be cool to be a gang member, but without the whole violent shizzle and the street corner drug selling. I think I probably watched too many episodes of the wire. And fell a little too much in love with Stringer Bell. Hmm, from my nice, English, middle class neighbourhood where the worst thing that happens is my cat, Fatticus, doing his morning business on the neighbour's precious lawn (actually there was a really terrible and weird kinky murder in one of the houses on my street a few years ago - it was all kinds of exciting when that happened, ex-hooker kills boyfriend that was a heap of dodgy kinky stuff. Oh Em Gee - the TV and the papers were all over our neighbourhood, I used to pretend I was either the nanny or the cleaner - depending on what mood I was in at the time - to get rid of them. But that was only once, and nothing of that kind has happened since).

Fortunately the only street corner selling going on in the Art Gallery Fabrics Crew is phat quartas. Word.

Go check out the rest of my mareros* over on the Art Gallery blog. And make sure you follow us, because we have some sick* projects heading your way over the next 12 months (heck yes - I said 12 months!)








(*according to the urban dictionary means fellow gang members,
*according to the urban dictionary means really good)

Prepping for the Fat Quarterly retreat

Things are busy here in Monkey Towers. It's only a skip and a jump away until the Fat Quarterly retreat, 4 more sleeps in fact. Although I am heading down on Thursday for no real reason other than I like to be early.



I'm busy with making sure we have all of the prizes, all of the goodie bag goodies and all of the stuff we need - like jelly rolls for the jelly roll race, and fabrics for the iron (wo)man challenge. And my own class prep too - do not forget that, Katy. Do not forget. I've also been sewing some little gifts for my roomies using some of Laurie's new mini line for Kaufman. Next stop London - pretty appropriate, right?
Brioni and me loaded up her car tonight with boxes and boxes (and more boxes) of stuff. I'm not quite sure how she'll fit in the rest of the stuff, and herself, for the drive to London. I'm also very glad I'm going by train - there's not a cat's chance in hell I'd have fitted as well.

So I think we're all set - and as the weekend creeps (speeds?) closer I am getting more and more excited. And a little nervous things will go horribly wrong, but mostly excited. Not to mention overwhelmed that so many people are coming and from so far away. Spending the weekend hanging out and sewing and chatting and meeting everyone is going to be amazing, it's the perfect way to spend the weekend.

quilt market re-cap {part 1}

I guess I started my Quilt Market recaps already, with my (somewhat excited) post on the new Liberty Lifestyle fabrics. Heck - am I glad you're as excited as me.

Rather than starting with booths I'm going to give you my predictions for the coming year and the things that grabbed me the most (other than the Liberty fabrics - they got their own blog post because they were truly the best thing to happen at Market).

1; Text Prints
It's not going to surprise anyone when I say that text prints are all over the place. We can't get enough of them.



Obvious ones are the Mama Said Sew fabrics from Sweetwater, which are even greater in the flesh than in pictures. I love the look of this line, and whilst I'm sure I won't use all the prints because there's not enough colour for me, the text prints will be bought in multiple yards, in multiple colourways.





There were more text prints at Michael Miller thanks to Violet Craft's new line, Madrona Road, and featured in cream puff, Bon Appetit and urban grit. as well as over at Blend in the Crabtastic collection.

My absolute favourite text prints from Market came from Kokka - sewing themed newsprints with metallic print text. Before you turn your nose up at that, think about how much everyone loves silver gel pen, now scribble some silver gel pen onto a bit of black fabric. And admit I'm right. Metallic prints might be sneaking into the must haves. Bet you never thought that would happen, right? Seriously though - start to imagine other fabrics with just a hint of sparkle. I did almost scream at Melody Miller that she must have glitter next time. She's looking into the possibility with the Kokka folks.



I also did the scratch test - no rub off, no glitter face, no worries. Kokka's metallic fabrics get a big thumbs up.

2; non-solid-solids
Whether it's with Kaufman's yarn dyed Essex linen, or a printed blender like Timeless Treasure's Sketch prints, there's going to be more and more of the non-solid-solid.
I'm a huge fan of them, they add depth and texture and make a quilt come alive.
Michael Miller had a similar cross hatch print to Sketch, called Pencil Check which had a really great range of colours, Haystack from Madrona Road was a big favourite of mine (I'll be stocking up on that one in multiple yards), and Painters Canvas (Michael Miller) is so good it makes me weep a little.



You can see what I mean in this quilt from the Green Bee patterns booth. It's a gorgeous quilt and a wonderful pattern (it'll be available soon). It was my favourite quilt at market, but if that background had been something solid it wouldn't have had the same feel. It jumps at you, it has depth, movement and you just want to go right on up and touch it. I think people are more and more aware of the possibilities of alternative background fabrics, I'm not saying that solids are becoming redundant - that is never going to happen - but I think we are becoming more experimental in our choices. Choice is good. If you've never used a printed blender before, give it a try. I'm pretty positive you won't be disappointed.

3; crabs are the new fox
I'm not entirely sure what I think about that. Foxes get thumbs up from me, crabs make me curl my toes.
Still, it can't be denied - there were crabs all over the place. (Notice my lack of crabby photos though...that sums up my feelings on the matter, I guess). If you are a crabby fan, spot them in Crabtastic from Blend (below), Shore thing from Emily Herrick for Michael Miller, amongst others.

4; nautical is nice

This is another theme that doesn't grab me too much, probably because it's an extension of the crabby theme and I'm just not a huge fan of all that seasidey/beachy/coastal look - it's too refined for me, you've all seen me, I'm not refined, I like colour and a whole heap of it. But if you are a lover of nautical you are going to be really happy this year.  Seven Seas from Cloud 9 (actually, I really love this one - it has something that makes me smile), Sarah Jane for Michael Miller, Blend, Emily Herrick for Michael Miller - the seaside theme is all over the place.



5; the fox will never die
Thank the Lord. He's still about and still slinking his crafty little way through the fabric companies.
Monaluna has the most amazing alphabet animal print in her new collection, Fox Hollow, and Birch were previewing a great new line that's due out in August called Scamper (below)

be still my beating heart

Spring Market in Kansas City was fantastic, and as soon as I get my hundreds of photos sorted I'll start sharing with you the exciting things that are coming in the world of fabric.

The one thing I really cannot wait to tell you about are the new Liberty Lifestyle Fabrics. It honestly didn't matter what the heck else was in Kansas City, my favourite shop in all of the world that makes my favourite fabrics in all of the world has launched a range of quilting weight cottons that will be available in regular quilting stores everywhere and at a way more reasonable price than the Tana Lawns are.



So what is the difference?

Tana Lawn is a high thread count, very lightweight, superior quality cotton fabric that has amazing drape and is primarily a dressmaking fabric (although it quilts beautifully, and is much more hard wearing than you may imagine from it's hand). It is as soft as silk, can be tricky to sew if you're not familiar with it and has a hefty price tag - especially if you're not UK based. $40+ a yard for US peeps. That makes for pricey dresses (but it is worth it, I swear).



The new lifestyle cottons are a quilting weight, regular cotton. Just like the cottons we buy from our quilt stores and make into all kinds of things. These are going to be super versatile, super affordable (I'm going to estimate they'll be slightly more than regular cottons, but a bit less than Japanese - the wholesale plus freight cost is making me think they'll be around $15/yard, I thought they might be less at first, but that was before freight was factored in, which bumps the wholesale cost up a little bit, and then obviously the retail price. I'm still only guessing that price though, but it'll be around that kind of area).

The collection, called Bloomsbury Gardens was designed and curated by Sholto Drumlanrig, from the ridiculously expansive Liberty archives (let's face it - that is some kind of awesome job. I'm not even going to pretend to hide my envy. I would kill for that job, or even the job of tea girl to the people in the Liberty design studio. I can make a lovely cup of tea, and I'm cheap, in case there's an opening). Sholto was manning the booth at Quilt Market and looked ever so slightly afraid, a bit like a rabbit caught in headlights. Quilt Market can be quite a scary place for a softly spoken Brit. I probably should have rescued him. He might have enjoyed karaoke with Tula and me. Next time, I promise...





They should be shipping around July for UK, and October for US/rest of world (for once we get them first! Yay!) Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics was the very first person to order them at Market, and as soon as they hit her store you know I'll be telling you (and you know I'll be having some kind of giveaway and fun shizzle planned when that happens as well). Annie from the Village Haberdashery has also ordered them, so for the UK peeps, sign up for her newsletter and get the latest news of when they're arriving. Annie is also giving away a swatch set on her blog (UK only), you should go and enter. I would share mine, but as you can see I've already cut it up (Sorry 'bout that. Actually I'm not sorry, I'm not sorry at all).

cutting corners

A (not so) little bit of a peek of the quilt I made for the retreat special of Fat Quarterly which is coming soon (although I should know this I am really not sure when it is - what with market and the retreat and a heap of other stuff going on over in Monkey Towers my brain has only got enough room for minimal information storage. I'm a bit like a very old computer and not very efficient. Someone needs to re-boot me and take some of the crap out of my hard drive, please).

Any hoo - this little quilty is only small at 37" square, but if you have a brain of a reasonable size you could make it as big as you like just by adding in extra fabric.



It's all made with moda fabrics - summersville by Lucie Summers, and Bella Solids and backed with a piece of the dotties extra wide quilt backing fabrics in scarlet. It's like a festival of Moda! Let me just tell you - the scarlet dottie is PERFECT for summersville. Apparently they're not re-printing it (I'm hopeful that's because they're bringing out more fun backings, keep your fingers crossed for me) so stock up now, especially if you plan on buying/or have bought Summersville already. Just remember to pre-wash it - it's red, it bleeds a little (only a little and shrinkage is minimal. I didn't pre-wash the summersville fabrics in this quilt and then when I did wash the finished quilt it stayed all lovely and flat, there wasn't any twisting as you might expect with a pre-washed backing and an unwashed front). It was pieced and quilted with trusty old Aurifil 50WT. You know the fact that this thread is thinner is really a great thing with bobbin re-fills. It lasts longer. So I'm going to add that to my ever growing list of why I only use Aurifil. I hate changing the bobbin mid quilting, and if I can do it less then I'm sure as heck going to try!

You can pick up Summersville from here and here. Hurry hurry - these are selling out FAST and once they're gone, that is pretty much it. You don't want to miss out on them, they're fab. And I'm not just saying that because I love Lucie.

everyone's a winner

Annie has decided that everyone should win something in the Flock giveaway....so for the next week (Until Monday May 21st) there is 10% off all flock in the Village Haberdashery store using the code FLOCK10. Thanks Annie!!!!

But who won the bundles?

Jenna won one...

And Clare won the other....

Congrats to the winners. All of you - now go shopping and buy some flock!!!

to the zoo with you

I am so excited to have this quilt finished. I'd planned on taking a little trip out to find some fun animals, we have highland cattle in the farm up the road from us and they have babies at the minute (too cute). But when it's not raining it's blowing a gale. So here you go - same old boring photos as always.




I had so much fun with this quilt, planning it beforehand and plotting how I wanted it to look and then really just working it out as I went along, which isn't how I normally do things. I like traditional structure, improv and me never seem to work out ok. Except for this time.



I quilted in a cross-hatch - without marking any lines, except for the first one, and then eye-balling it the rest of the time so it looks sketchy and fits with the hand drawn nature of the fabrics.

I mark one line so I know I have a rough starting point - and can then follow it without being too precise.



As always, I used Aurifil 50wt. I used that throughout, for piecing, quilting and sewing the binding on. I didn't think I'd ever say this, but since I've been quilting a little bit more recently and not sending everything out, I'm kinda enjoying it. I still don't enjoy free motion quilting, maybe I should set a target for myself to quilt a few things free motion and get some practise in. Maybe. I do like straight lines, these are spaced from about 1/2" apart. They're dull to do but the effect is lovely.

Oh - the back....



I used up the rest of the panel and some other prints to show off how the different scales work together. I love the back almost as much as the front.


Time to pack this little baby up and take him for his trip to the Cloud 9 Booth at Spring Market, if you're going too, won't you head over and say hi to him? It's a big adventure for a little quilt.


Quilt Deets;
Trip to the Zoo
finished size - 48"x52"
fabrics used - happy drawing by Ed Emberley for Cloud 9 fabrics and white klona cotton
(happy drawing is available from here, if you can find it anywhere else, snap it up super fast - it is selling out quickly)