A New Week

Thank you for all your wishes of success for the craft fair, please accept this as my personal thank you. I promise to get back to individual replies, starting this week. The craft fair was a success in more ways than just selling items. We learnt so many things from valuable information shared with us from other booth holders. Information that we'll use in the future. I came home from the three days to over 1,000 new blog posts in my reader, so I think I need to start the week fresh, with a clear list.

It's a new week, and in many ways a new beginning. My sweet Hollie will be moving back home this week with her precious bundle, Tayla. Without going into loads of details, she's coming home to be safe and stay alive. My heart breaks for her, but I know it's the only thing to do. This means that I'll get to spend lots of quality time with my beautiful grand daughter.

So this week will be a week filled with moving my sewing room out of the room it's in now and trying to find space for all my "stuff" elsewhere in the house, and stocking the refrigerator with Hollie food:))

Prayers for Hollie would be appreciated and cherished.

Happy Stitching.
Linda

Craft Fair Time

Thank you for all your congratulations on the wholesale offer and well wishes for the craft fair. Yesterday we spent the better part of the afternoon setting up the booth.
I was amazed at how long it took to get it all done.

Today is the final pricing and praying all goes well.

Freezing weather, so layers will be needed.

I probably won't have an opportunity to get back on here until after the weekend.

Until then.

Happy Stitching.

Linda

Almost Bursting

I'm still running around like a chook (chicken) with it's head cut off, but in between all the busyness I've managed to do the final editing on the last of the patterns before the craft fair begins.
All the photo's are provided with permission by Nancy. She's done a fantastic job with this quilt, and somehow managed to finish it in record time. Please visit Nancy and tell her what a great job she's done on this quilt pattern.

She also comes up with terrific photo's for the cover.

It was far too good not to be on the front cover.

Thank you so much Nancy.

Set up for the craft fair is Thursday, and Mr ASU and I are doing the finishing touches on the items and booth display products.

Now to the title of the post, I'm almost bursting with excitement. I've been asked to sell my patterns wholesale to a quilt store in WA. They want to use them in a bag of the month class. This would have to be the best news I've had in a long time. So now I need to get busy and finalise the paperwork for my Federal tax number, and get the other patterns onto paper and tested.

Happy Stitching.

Linda

Quilt Books & Magazines

Thank you for the offers of either finding or purchasing the Embroidered Village Bag for me. I'm constantly amazed at the generosity of bloggers, stitchers and quilters. The good news is I found the book. It was one of those light bulb moments, I know we all have them, I just seem to have them less frequently.
So I thought I'd share with you where you can buy it if you live in the US or Canada. Stonehouse Publications is based in Canada and they stock all the Australian quilting/stitching magazines, along with a wide range of books and speciality magazines. This is where I buy my quilt magazine subscriptions from. Their service is excellent and reasonably speedy.
The other place that I like to check out for books is HamiltonBook.com. Bren very kindly told me about this store quite a while ago. They carry a huge range of quilting, applique and embroidery books, along with just about every other topic, at huge discounted prices. Definitely worth a look through their selection. Unfortunately they only ship within the US.

Happy Reading.
Linda

What Customer Service?

Before I begin my little rant, I wanted to thank everyone for your sweet words on my last post. Please forgive me for not replying to your comments. I'm a little snowed under with craft fair stitching. All will be back to normal in a week.

Last month Jenny showed this photo of a book/pattern and I fell in love with it. Shipping from Australia was a little high so I went on a search here in the US to find it.

I was so excited to find it at this store, so it didn't take more than a second to hit that buy now button. Now normally I wouldn't spend $30.00 on a pattern but this was just too pretty to leave sitting on a shelf. At the beginning of the week I thought it strange that it hadn't arrived yet. So two phone messages and an email were left. No response. By this time I was more than irritated, I mean she had my money and my purchase. Time to step up the complaint. I'm so pleased I chose to purchase this item through Paypal and not use my credit card. Within 4 hours this dispute was settled and I have a refund. It's amazing how I couldn't get a response from her with the phone messages and email but, using the services of Paypal got this store owners attention immediately.

My lesson in all of this, shop at stores that are known to me or recommended by friends and fellow quilters. The down side, I still don't own this beautiful pattern.

Happy Stitching.
Linda

Keeping Busy

Yesterday saw this precious bundle here for a visit. Tayla is such a good baby, I don't think Hollie realises how blessed she is with her. Life is filled with eating, sleeping and growing. In-between sewing I snatched a few Gran hugs to keep me going until the next visit.
While she was here I worked on this stack.

Appliqued bibs for the craft show next week.

Only seven days left and still mountains of things to be stitched together.

Happy Stitching.

Linda

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy is doing it again, another quilt festival. The previous one was such a huge success, and so much fun to participate in. She's asked us to showcase our favorite quilt. With the number of quilts I've made over the last few months for the craft fair, it was hard to decide. I'm really partial to Georgie the Giraffe with her cute smile and bright flowers, but as you've seen it before, I thought I'd share with you a new finish. You did get a little peek a couple of months ago. So here it is all finished, "Lady Bug Love".

I think this would be my next favorite after Georgie. I love these happy little bugs, and it's so obvious that Mr Bug has a definite crush on Miss Bug.
But you know the old saying "Two's company, Three's a crowd". I wonder if Junior Bug will get the message?

Happy Stitching.
Linda

Now Available

My fourth pattern Uluru Sunset, along with,

the fifth pattern, Darling Harbour, are now both available in my Etsy Shop. A big thank you to the pattern testers who so kindly tested both these patterns.
I did say that I'd give away an Uluru Sunset pattern from this post , and the random number generator chose number 46, who is:

Winona said...
Congrats Linda and family. Nothing better than grandbabies! She looks like a cutie and her mama is beaming! Winona

Because I'm loving being a Gran I decided to give away a Darling Harbour pattern from this post, and the random number generator chose number 16, who is:

Jackie said...
This pattern is probably my favorite so far. I love the blue bag.God bless.

Ladies if you'd like to email me with your postal details, I'll get your patterns into the post for you.

Happy Stitching.

Linda

Tested

A few days ago I showed you the latest pattern, Darling Harbour that was out being tested. It's always exciting to receive photo's of a pattern back from pattern testers to see how they have made it up. These two ladies certainly didn't disappoint with their versions. I appreciate the time they take to proof read and edit my patterns. I have a habit of being a little "wordy" and they graciously edit without criticism.

Mary used decorator weight fabric:“Fusion” by Kingsway Fabrics – the floral and “Farrow” by Kingsway Fabrics – the stripe . I just love how Mary's bag turned out, and it's so nice to get positive feedback about a patterns construction. Thanks so much Mary.

Back view.

Jenn used Bohemian Rhapsody" by contemporary quilt dzynes and some coordinates from her stash. Gorgeous blues and brown with a dash of green. Thanks so much Jenn, for your kind words added to the pattern.

Back view.

The pattern has been edited and is ready for printing. All that's needed is time, which I seem to be a little short on at the moment, but I do hope to have it available next week, along with Uluru Sunset.

Happy Stitching.

Linda

Quilt Festival

Amy's doing it again, a Blogger's Quilt Festival. She has it timed to start on the same date as Quilt Market, October 9th and finishing on the 16th. We all know that Quilt Market is not for the general public, but being quilters we'd all love to go and see all the wonderful new lines available. So as not to miss out on quilting fun, Amy is running another Quilt Festival, where you can showcase one of your favorite quilts. She has sponsors who have wonderful prizes on offer and I'm sure she'll have a huge list of quilters showcasing their favorite quilts for us all to visit. So if you'd like to join in on the fun, either visit Amy's blog or grab the button from my side bar which links directly to Amy.

Happy Stitching,
Linda

Peek Revealed

Most of you know that I love to share with you places in Australia that have meaning to me, and that I think you may be interested in. Darling Harbour is one of those places. Nestled in Sydney Harbour, just around the corner from the Coat Hanger, otherwise known as Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, always full of color and things to do . I know it's changed since I lived in Sydney, I'm sure even I would probably get lost there now. Always colorful, easy to enjoy, and handy to so many other areas of interest.

















Now you're probably wondering what on earth does Darling Harbour have to do with the sneak peek I showed a couple of days ago. Easy, it's the name of my latest bag pattern.
This is what I started with, not bad but it was missing something.

A pocket to keep a cell phone safe, and handy.

I've had fun playing with different fabric combinations. Not all of which are my taste, but it's good to step outside of our comfort box when it comes to color.

These are just a few that I've been busy making up in the last couple of days. Got to make sure all the measurements work out.

Three new pattern testers have tested the pattern, and the draft pattern is on it's way back to me for editing.

I like to come up with easy ways for beginners to try a pattern that perhaps they otherwise wouldn't consider. Hence the broom handle post yesterday. It makes the construction of handles so much easier. I'm not suggesting that you all discard your sweeping so you can make bags, but it's amazing what we can find in our homes that works just as well as expensive gadgets.

I hope to have this pattern available in the next couple of weeks. There's a few more patterns swirling around in my head, but they will have to wait until after the craft fair.

Happy Stitching.

Linda

Yesterday's Discovery

Yesterday was a busy day bag making, and while I was in the process of making the handles I made a discovery. Now this may not be new to you, and it's not rocket science but it was like a light bulb went off in my head. So I thought I'd share it with you all today.
You know how some handle directions tell you to make a tube, press the seam open, and turn right side out and press so that the seams runs down the middle? The majority of times, you'll have interfacing attached to the handle, which makes the process a little tricky to say the least. Plus you end up with press marks where you don't want them that are difficult to remove and crinkly interfacing from over pressing.
So my light bulb moment, I was on to number 10 handle when I glanced away from the ironing board and saw my broom, (don't ask, that's an entirely different story). So I decided to insert the broom handle into my handle tube and press the seam open. Voila no pressed creases where I didn't want them and a nice seam pressed open, and no burnt finger tips. This sent me into the shed and I found an old mop that I no longer use. Remove all the hardware from it and I have a terrific rod for handle pressing. I don't suggest that you use a plastic handle, unless you want to spend hours removing plastic from your bag handle. A short piece of dowel would also work just as well, but if you don't have anything else on hand a broom handle will do the trick.
I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with the promised reveal of the sneak peek.
Linda.