The latest Liberty.

I'm falling in love with...

Emma & Georgina...

~ found here ~

~ found here ~

& Dora...

~ found here ~

~ found here ~

Sam xox

Thrifty finds and a giveaway reminder.

This week during my lunch breaks I have been exploring the local op shops. It has been a nice surprise to find that these op shops are a lot cheaper than the ones in Sydney. You can find many more sheets and pillow cases which have the potential to be upcycled (I have already began planning my Christmas craft projects).

Here are my goodies from this weeks visits...

~ A set of cream and mustard striped pillow cases for our spare bed ~

$1 for the pair.

~ An extra large mens grey hand-knitted jumper. Too big for Jamie.

Am considering making some cushion covers from it. ~

$1.

~ Gorgeous pink petticoat ~

50c.

~ Pair of vintage champagne glasses ~

$2 for the pair.

Have any of you ever cut up a knitted jumper and made cushions from it? What is the best way to do it to ensure the wool doesn't unravel?

Don't forget the giveaway ends soon!

Sam xox

Projects in the works.

Yesterday morning I had brunch at my house and invited Michelle and Mill over to eat it. I made a recipe from my new gluten free cookbook (given to me by my father-in-law, who has totally embraced my new dietary requirements by the way! He is finding all sorts of awesome gluten-free products for me!). I made baked eggs on a bed of leeks, spinach leaves and ham, accompanied with grilled tomato and mushrooms. It tasted so good that it was gobbled up too fast to get a photo.

After breakfast we sat on the couch and soaked up the autumn sunshine that was filtering through the windows, and talked craft of course. We helped Mill brainstorm a knitted wedding gift for a close friend of hers. She decided on a knitting project from a magazine I had. We then planned our next craft day and the three of us agreed to do a skills trade (an idea we have seen a few times on the net) at the next craft day.

The girls left, and I was so pumped from all the crafty talk, I headed down to my reliable Remnants Warehouse and picked myself up some fabric. Silly me never realised that all the rolls of fabric in the bins out the front of the shop were actually priced for the entire length on the roll, and not per meter.

Here is what I got:

The classic Walk Away dress pattern in my size requires around 4 meters of fabric, which is quite a lot when most of the nicer fabrics in Sydney will cost you between $10-$20 per meter. I managed to find this burnt pink and black spotted cotton for under $5 per meter. I teamed it with some sweet little rounded black buttons. I didn't have the pattern with me so will need to buy the bias binding later in the week. I desperately want to sew this dress up in time for my mini break to Melbourne later this month.

I wear jeans all week at work during winter, so I am desperate to have a bunch of skirts I can team with tights to wear on the weekends. This fabric has a very classic print (the tag called it the "David Jones" print - any Australian will know what I am talking about). I will line the skirt with the black fabric. This pattern looks promising as it is only two pattern pieces, and my size requires only 1 meter of fabric, which makes these skirts cheap to make.

This fabric is not appropriate for winter, but I thought it could go in my stash for maybe a summer skirt or dress? It has a silky feel to it and a nice shine. I picked up 2 meters of it.

I thought this fabric was just so beautiful. I have been thinking of making a white dress for a while, but had neither the perfect pattern or fabric. Now I have the fabric. It is a lovely weight and has a beautiful lined detail.

I'm going to be a busy girl!

Sam xox

P.S Also wanted to say "Happy Mothers Day" to my fabulous Mum. Love you heaps!

Autumn palette challenge progress.

The Autumn Palette Challenge is off to a slow and steady start. The dress patterns I purchased finally arrived and they look super cute! I am planning on going to The Remnant Warehouse this pay day to purchase the fabric for both of these dresses.

Both patterns look super easy to make! The Jiffy dress only has two pieces (now that is fast) so I am excited to see how it actually turns out. From the look of the pattern, the buttons, belt, and folds are features added to give it a bit of shape. I like the look of the other more 70's style dress pattern as I think it would look great in a heavier fabric, and when finished, teamed with tights and a little jacket.

Remember this pattern?

I finally purchased the fabric to make View 1. I had been seriously thinking about making it in a navy, but I was really worried that the scalloped edge would be lost in a darker fabric. So I took the leap and bought three yards of mauve pink gabardine fabric from www.trimfabric.com.

I can't wait for it to arrive! I had decided on a Wiltshire lining for the jacket if it had been in navy, but now I will have to decide on a pink-based one.

Sam xox

I won.

Sorry I have been a bit quiet round the blog lately. Work has been really busy, I have had suicide intervention training and hearing voices training - both fantastic training for the work I do, but I have to admit such intense topics leave me feeling quilt emotionally drained at the end of the day so I have been coming home and crashing on the couch, so I have not done any sewing over the past week.

* * * * * * *

At the end of last month I won my first ever Giveaway! Angela over at Country Scrap Quilts made a beautiful quilt from a fabric range with 70's inspired prints. Angela asked us all to have a guess at what the range was called... but no one was able to name it (it was called Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt).

I was the lucky one drawn as the winner, and her scraps from the quilt arrived in the post today.

I am really surprised at how large the fabric pieces are, this was a really generous give away Angela, thanks so much. I think if I combined my bundle with a nice calico, I would have enough fabric to make a lap quilt... or baby quilt... or wall hanging... oh I can't decide!

Leave it with me.

Sam xox

Retro quilt top.

Have you been wondering why you haven't seen much action from the retro square quilt top I was planning to make? I spent hours musing over which combination of fabrics to use for the quilt top. I arranged them in different ways. I tried different colour combinations, but nothing felt right (all you quilters out there know how this feels right?!). I have since worked out why. All the fabrics I bought were mostly orange, yellow, green or purple and all were medium to large print florals. The result being that the squares all seemed to blur into each other. See what I mean?

Anyone who has made a quilt will (hopefully) know the rule of having 10% pizazz! Thats right, 10% of your quilt top should be made up of a fabric that does not match the rest of your quilt. It creates a pleasing contrast without taking away from the overall look of the quilt. I hit etsy in search of pizazz and these four fabrics are now on their way to me, ready to make my quilt top complete!

Not all florals, not all orange. Perfect. Fabrics from PoppysRoom (sister shop to Zwizzle).

Sam xox

Too much of a good thing.

When you log into your etsy account, and it reminds you to leave feedback for 20 items, you know you are in for a treat. I have been falling in love with the fabrics featured in Frankie magazine, and have been thinking (hard) about making a simple tied quilt made from 8" squares of vintage florals. I turned to etsy to satisfy this urge and discovered Zwizzle, a store that sells the most amazing retro fabrics that are cut to a really useful size (fat quarters or larger).

Zwizzle were having a sale, so I purchased 20 fabrics, and because they are based in Australia I only had to wait 2 days for the parcel to arrive!

My photographs did not do their packaging justice! The photo above was taken before my parcel was sent (it is now featured in each listing) and shows the beautiful packing details so much better than my photos did. Brown paper tied with fabric strips. Perfect.

Unwrapping my parcels I found that I had been sent 5 extra fat quarters plus the two doilies! Such an awesome surprises. You can see that I have already put one doily to use under my vase.

Some of the beautiful fabrics.

Watch this space. This quilt is going to be super quick to make and I want it finished this month. I think I will either use a light weight batting or no batting at all, as it is intended as a summer quilt. I need to find a nice sheet from a thrift store to back it with, and some thick white thread to tie the quilt together. I also need to decide how big I want to make it. I am planning on doing the cutting tonight, and if time allows, I might even get the quilt top sewn.

Thanks again Zwizzle, you made my week!

Sam xox

Liberty quilt along.

I know I promised a Christmas post, but I just had to share this first! You all remember Helene from my Parcels. blog entry? Well, she is organising a Liberty of London quilt along on her blog 25reasons! You can read about it here.

The basics:

Diamond start quilt

8 x 8 blocks

74" x 74"

Tana Lawn (or similar) fabrics

Hand or machine piecing

Here are some of the blocks Helene has made so far...

I absolutely love the contrast of light and dark fabric that Helene is using. If you want to buy a bulk order of a variety of Liberty fabrics, you can always browse Shaukat, as I think their prices are very competitive when it comes to Liberty prints, and their service is first class.

Have fun and let me know how you all go! Thanks Helene for organising such a fun quilt-along.

Sam xox

Parcels.

I have had fun unwrapping parcels this week!

On Monday Helene from 25reasons contacted me on the blog asking about the Dante fabric I had used to make these shorts a few weeks ago. Dante was made by Liberty of London back in 2006, and it is pretty hard to find these days. Helene has been searching the internet for this fabric in this exact colourway, and asked me if I had any scraps left over that she could have to finish a second matching Dante star for the beautiful Liberty star quilt she is making. Luckily I had the perfect amount left, and we organised a fabric swap.

Look at the Tana Lawn beauties Helene sent to me...

Thank you so much Helene, I was happy to help a fellow quilter out, and over the moon to receive your very generous package! I can't wait to see your progress on the star quilt and what it will look like when it is finished. Thanks again!

* * * * * * *

Monday brought with it cards and parcels, as it was my birthday! I am now officially in my 'late-twenties' and have to admit I am still trying to get used to it. It is all a bit of an anti-climax and has left me asking "what now" but I am happy to wait for the answer.

"For your birthday... I grew you a cat"

- seriously, that's what it said!

Beautiful cards with words inside from beautiful people. I am so lucky.

Amongst the lovely parcels received, this little gem stands out. With its witty advice, it now has pride of place in my sewing room.

I think someone knows me too well. Your a gem Mel! I think this resonates with all crafters, no?

Sam xox

Talea jacket.

Many people have been telling me that I simply have to visit The Remnant Warehouse. It all started a few years ago when my friend and her boy used to shop there for fabric to have clothing tailored for them (so fancy!). More recently at the quilting group I would admire members fabrics only to be repeatedly told that they were purchased from The Remnant Warehouse. It was only going to be a matter of time. On Saturday I dragged Jamie to Alexandria to check this place out for myself.

Words can't describe what greeted me when I walked into the store. I felt like I had walked into some kind of sewers utopia. Walls of quilting fabric. Piles of dressmaking fabric. And hundreds of embellishments, supplies and tools. I didn't know where to start.

Jamie reminded me of the purpose of our trip:

1) Buy fabric for a jacket.

2) Buy cheap calico for practicing patterns.

3) Linen for his mum.

There was a large table to the left of the door as you walked inside the shop. On it (and under it) were piles of folded and discounted off-cuts of dressmaking fabric. I searched the pile to find something to make a jacket with and came across a hounds tooth print fabric that I thought would be perfect to make a coat from. It is a wool blend, so not the expensive stuff, but I thought it would be perfect for my first coat project. And seeing as it is only Spring time here, there will be no pressure of time to rush this project.

Here is a picture of the coat I want to make, but with a few minor changes to the pattern. The pattern Talea and is a Burda Style pattern. If you like it, you can download yourself a copy of the pattern free from here.

Now I just have to find the perfect lining fabric...

All of these fabrics available at Shaukat.

Too many choices. I think I may need to make more than one coat. But first I need to learn how to line a garment!

Sam xox

Liberty arrival.

The fabric I ordered from Shaukat arrived this week. It is the first time I have every purchased 8 meters of fabric in one hit, and I have to admit that it did feel particularly decadent to have it shipped to me from the United Kingdom! They are all Tana Lawn fabrics and feel and look so beautiful.

I was thrilled to open the parcel and unwrap my bundles of joy, however something wasn't quite right. I had been most excited about purchasing the navy Mauverina fabric. I had fallen in love with it months ago and knew that I had to - needed to - buy some. However, I could not understand why, looking at it in my hands, I was not excited by it at all...

Take a close look. You might notice that the Mauverina isn't the colourway I had originally ordered. The Mauverina fabric of my dreams was a navy print with popping yellow flowers, and in my hands I held a dark and dull purple mess (a tad dramatic I know). Disappointed and not expecting much help, I emailed the address listed on the website and was surprised to get an almost instant response! Leila was very apologetic and more than helpful, giving me many options that were all very reasonable. I decided to exchange the purple fabric for the navy (as I did not want to keep the 'dull mess').

I am thrilled with how easy this error was to resolve with Shaukat. I am now a very happy customer and would highly recommend Shaukat not only for their immaculate fabrics and swift delivery, but for their superior customer service too!

I cannot wait for craft day this Saturday! What do I make first?!?

Sam xox