Ding Dong!

Its been an interesting week this week ... DH has retired from work! Friday was his last day and I can honestly say I have never seen anyone look so happy. He was beaming from ear to ear as he walked out the house. I haven't seen him look like this for many years and I am quite looking forward to having  the 'real-non-corporate-him' around again. He'll be busy with his own interests but he has volunteered to play postman and take the shop orders to the post office. I'm sure he will love carrying those bright pink bags I use! 

So while hubby was smiley I was a bit grumpy this week. I've been waiting patiently for the delivery of the Alexander Henry Christmas fabrics for a few weeks now and I was more than just a little annoyed when I found out that they had been sitting in the delivery office for over 10 days and no one had bothered to inform me. How mad is that?  Anyway after a 40 mile round trip Friday morning I got my mitts on them!  Oooh they are lovely and VERY different. Alexander Henry Fabrics  are known for unusual fabric designs and Surfin Santa and All I want for Christmas fit the 'unusual' bill very well! 

Look at this chilled out Santa!  

Surfin the waves and sipping coconut juice.

Hope he's not so relaxed he forgets Christmas altogether!

and as for All I want for Christmas well 

...ding dong ....

 is all I can say!

Christmas fabric with a difference methinks!

 Joining the christmas stock too this week are some

Pompom trims in Red, White and Green 

The new Berties Bows ribbons were MEGA popular last week. 

So much so they sold out and I had to reorder. 

Thank you. Hope you all liked them!

Quilted with Love , Knitted with Love  and  Baked with Love 

These Vintage Doily Sewing kits came in too. 

Normally I wouldn't go for anything like this but at £5.50 I think they are really good little stocking fillers. The scissors won me over actually. They have a very clever slide and fold mechanism that makes them tiny enough to fit safely in the tin. 

I also managed to get some crochet and a wee bit of sewing done too. 

On the sewing front I've been making some zigzag blocks with the 
1930's fabrics with Kona Ivory and Celadon. 
(oh, while I remember I got 5 new ones of those this week too)

I haven't got a piccy of the blocks yet but I'll post mid week if I think to. 

So thats it for this week.

Happy Quilting!

Tracey 

xx

ps My broken toe is mending nicely .. you can tell from the reduction in my facial grimaces ..lol!

Christmas has Arrived

Woohoo, Christmas has arrived at Quiltmehappy!

More's the pity that I was only able to get my hands on 3 of the fabrics from Val Pillow and Anne Maxfield Christmas line but I think you will agree they are 3 very beautiful prints. I know they are not your usual Christmas colours but I do love fresh and clear-toned hues. I also like that they can be used for other times of the year too.

 I have a plan to make a new christmas table cloth and place mats although I quite like the inspirational cushion they have on their website too.  A simple envelope cushion is an easy 1 hour project too. No buttons or zips to mess with .. so easy. You can download a free envelope tutorial I wrote years to make it even easier too. (Download my  free envelope cushion tutorial from the website)

Azalea Kona cotton solid from Robert Kaufman arrived this week too and it really blends really well with the Christmas line. Very Mod! Its one of the new Kona colours released recently by Robert Kaufman, so they have 243 in the collection now! Thats alot of colours. I think we carry about 40 odd in the shop with Kona Snow, Kona Ash and Kona White being the most popular. 

 I'm a bit of a green colour fan myself and this Zucchini is a lovely shade somewhere between yellow and green. It's what I call a sophisticated grown up colour. It looks good with Kona Putty and the Robert Kaufman Linens we have. New additions in form of Essex linens Black and Flax arrived in the shop a couple of weeks ago too and ... drum roll please ....I am also pleased to say that after months of waiting  ... literally ...restocks of Essex Linen in Natural  are here.





 But I am really excited about are these grosgrain ribbons from Berties Bows.

Supplied as precut 3m lengths on cardboard reels (UPDATE: Quilted with Love is now loose by the metre too) they come with a variety of crafting texts. I had to get the Quilted with Love ribbon of course but then I couldn't resist the Knitted with Love or the Baked with Love.  (Not that that I bake but I know people who do!)

These ribbons will be perfect for topping off handmade christmas gift packages don't you think? 

 I also managed to get some rather lovely red and white diagonal striped ribbon too that I am reliably told will be seen on Kirsty Allsopps new C4 programme "Kirsties Vintage Home" ! Cant wait to watch that. If you pop over to her website she has the most gorgeous piece of screen printed recycled furniture designer by designer Zoe Murphy  that I am lusting after!




So what else can I tell you?  On the home front I am recently back from helping daughter (who turns 20 this week .. blimey I must be old) into her shared house for uni. That was eventful!  I dropped a book shelf on my big toe and broke it but being the northern lass I am I mustered on and we had just got things sorted out when the upstairs flat sprung a massive leak and brought the ceiling down ! Good job we were there is all I can say. Place is all fixed up now and I'm home for a rest! 

Happy Quilting!

Tracey

x