Inspired

I'm back from market now, and I'm feeling particular inspired to start doing something. Making little changes here and there. Nothing specific, just anything. Inspired to create I guess.

I had such an amazing time, it's hard to put into words really. I started writing on the plane on the way home to stop myself from crying like a baby (it didn't quite work). It's so hard to go back to real life when I feel like I've left my heart in America!

Highlights for me include:

Hanging out with this guy. My partner in crime for the weekend. Love him. We went to a concert and drank lots of beer and ate breakfast and dinner and generally just hung out.

And this gall, who is the sweetest and most hilarious person. I miss them terribly now we're all separated by a couple of oceans.

Meeting the Yams and getting Yammered at the Yamboree. Yes, that's a lot of Yammertime. It was Yamtastic. Especially the Yam cupcakes. They were insanely Yammy... Ok, I'll stop now ;-)

Photo by the lovely Shari 

One Yam in particular and her amazing new line which I like to think she designed just for me (I think everyone at market thought the same actually, which probably means it will be a MASSIVE hit).

The Kokka/Seven Islands Booth. Melody's new line is amazing (and she is so so sweet in person, like a little pixie!).

Ellen's new line Folk Modern is incredible (I'm sure Ellen is sweet in person too but I didnt meet her and have a totally lame fan girl moment, which I did with Melody. Ooops!).

Meeting Luke Haynes, Angela Walters and my darling Heather for the first time. I dont think I have any pictures of this night, which is probably for the best really. But it was, hands down, my favourite. 

Mo Bedell's new line Full Moon Lagoon and her booth - she won awards for this booth, and rightly so. Isn't it the cutest?

Meeting and chatting with Rashida and feasting my eyes on her super cool booth... I can't wait to get my paws on some of her new line, Koi.

And seeing the lovely Jeni again on her booth with George bunny and her new line Nordika.... VERY excited for this line!

And finally, the Windham booths. Collage by Carrie of Such designs is going to be BIG. Let me tell you, it's amazing. I've actually been sewing with it already tonight. LOVE. 

And of course, everyone is buzzing about Heather Ross's new line Briar Rose. It is so so beautiful in person, as is she.... I'm definitely placing my pre-order now. 

I have a bunch more photo's on my flickr account if you'd like to see more! But now, this jetlagged girl is off to bed to dream a little more about fabric. Yes, I think that will do me just nicely :o)

To market, to market

It just occurred to me that less than one week from today I will be in one of the coolest towns in one of the coolest countries in the world. Yep, I'm off to Quilt Market, in Portland, Oregon.

I'm so excited to pop my Market cherry ;-) And to be going on behalf of one of my very favouritest fabric shops, The Village Haberdashery, well... does life get any sweeter?

There's a whole bunch of stuff that I personally want to see while I'm there:

The new Cloud9 designers and lines. Especially Koi, by Rashida Coleman-Hale... I'm loving that plus print, AND its coming in voile. I'm thinking it would make a perfect Washi dress no?

Jeni's new line for Art Gallery Fabrics - I'm loving the colours so far from the glimpses Jeni has shared!

Photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr

Violet Craft's new line, Waterfront Park, for Michael Miller - Madrona road is/was one of my favourite lines last year... I hear there are swallows in this one... swooooon! EDIT: I found pictures.... OMG LOVE!

I actually cannot wait to spend a whole 5 days out from the day job, and completely immersed in fabric land. You know that book, Chicken Soup for the Soul... Fabric is my chicken soup. 

So, I will be taking about a million more photographs than is really necessary, and instagramming and tweeting (I'm @laurajane7789 if you don't follow me already!). Let me know if theres something YOU are particularly excited about and I will try to get some pictures, okay? Later gators x

Patchwork pouches please!

So last week was 2 of my best gals birthdays, Justine and Trudi.

I made them some patchwork pouches, because no sewing person can ever have enough pouches! I just had to share them with you because, well, I can. And I miss sharing stuff with you guys! Its been approximately 5 million years since my last proper blog post, so you know, I forgive you for forgetting what I look like ;-)

Inspired by 2 central pieces of Liberty fabrics that I got from Jo Organic Stitch Company, I pulled prints that matched the colours. I then made 2 simple 10" quilt-as-you-go improv patchwork panels and sewed them up into zippy pouches using a 12" zip and the method that Florence describes so well, here (but without the zipper tab ends).

For Justine, that car print that she loves so much:

A purple zip:

And backed in Melody Miller Vintage Flowers:

For Trudi, a classy carriage print:

A yellow zip, and backed in her absolute fave, Art Gallery fabric:

I love that Art Gallery print too. Its the perfect yellow. It goes with everything. I should get more ;-)

Briar Rose

Have y'all seen Heather Ross's new line for Windham fabrics?

I'm sure you have by now.... It's so very lovely. Look at the strawberries, crickets and lady bee's!! How adorable! AND its being printed on quilting weight cotton again. Perfect!

Anyway, there's a presale and competition going on at Pink Castle Fabrics. All you have to do to enter the competition is design a quilt using these fabrics and the Threadbias quilt design tool!

It's so much fun. I just did it on my lunch break, and here's what I came up with. I called it Lilly's Pad.

I like it. I think its pretty damn cute actually. If the fabric gods are listening, I would quite like to win the fabric to make it. K Thanks. 

P.S. There is a massive 20% sale at Pink Castle Fabrics this weekend, use the code BUNDLE20 for 20% off ALL PRECUTS AND BUNDLES! 

Retreat Classes

Now that the cat is very definitely out of the bag, I can share with you that I am teaching at the Fat Quarterly Retreat this summer!

Retreat was in my top 3 moments of last year, so I'm super excited to be going again. Seriously, if you've never been to a sewing meet-up, hang-out, drink-beer, laugh-a-lot, cry-a-lot type of thing, I really urge you to consider it. The first 10 minutes are totally insane, and then it all settles down and it's like you've known everyone your whole entire life.

I'm teaching 2 classes, firstly an absolute beginner's crochet class. We will be making crochet granny squares, which are uber popular at the moment and such a cute way to use up leftover bits of yarn. Its a perfectly portable project as well, a bit like EPP, so good for the daily commute. In typical blue peter style, here are some that I made earlier:

And here are some others that I think are cute:

Source: loveit.com via Rubyrose on Pinterest

Source: luvinthemommyhood.com via Karen on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Madebyafriend on Pinterest

My second class is a slightly more complex pattern, not massively so because really with crochet, once you've learnt the basics it's downhill all the way! We will learn how to make crochet flower squares, which hook up into a really cute pillow! This is the one I made years ago for my step-moms birthday:

And here are some other versions I found which I think are awesome:

Source: flickr.com via Naomi on Pinterest

Source: craftster.org via Joyce on Pinterest

Source: followpics.net via Janice on Pinterest

I hope to see some friendly faces in my class! It will soon be time to choose your classes if you're planning on attending this years Retreat, and if you have any questions about mine, feel free to email me! If you're interested in who else is teaching, Tacha is running an expose on all of us throughout the week on the Fat Quarterly blog.

I'm EPPing again

Hellllloooooooo!!!


I hope everyone had a lovely relaxing easter holiday? It was all over a little fast for my liking, but still it was a nice break. I spent most of it sewing my heart out!

There's lots and lots of stuffs going on chez moi, most of which is either unshareable, or so mind numbingly boring that you wouldn't want to know about it anyway! You know what life is like... it takes these little turns every now and again. 

But, there are a few things....

Firstly, I'm EPPing again. I decided to cut into my precious precious Henna Garden FQ bundle, and use my low volume charms for the background. I think it's gonna be a bolster pillow... but I might change my mind and go big (like maybe a quilt size...???? Scary stuff!)

They are 1" side hexies and jewels, and some 60 degree diamonds filling the gap. I'm sure you can get pre-cut paper pieces for all those shapes, but I just drew them out on that funny triangle paper. Which again, I'm sure has a proper name but I can't think of it right now.


And secondly, my tickets for quilt market arrived from the lovely Annie this week!! Not long now!

Yes, I'll be representing The Village Haberdashery while I'm there and you can bet I'll be all over instagram and twitter showing the new fabric lines! If there's anything anyone would particularly like to see, give me a shout. I'll remind you again nearer the time of course. 

Which leads me nicely to my last point... I appear to be living my life very much through instagram right now. You can find me over there, even when I'm not blogging so much. I'm @laurajane7789 on both twitter and IG. 

Seriously, if you're not on IG yet, GET ON IT! It's the most fun. Loves xx

Easter Egg Bunting tutorial - A Sizzix Blog Hop!

Welcome to my stop on the Sizzix Easter blog hop! Yey! Bunnies and eggs and lambs and flowers and... easter stuffs!

Here's the line up for the rest of the week...

Monday 18th March - Katy
Tuesday 19th March - Carolyn
Wednesday 20th March - Me!
Thursday 21st March - Hadley
Friday 22nd March - Anna

To make the week even more exciting, you can enter this exclusive competition to get started with your patchwork and quilting adventure... Click here to enter! The closing date is 28th March at 10am GMT. Go go go people!!!

So let's get this show on the road, yes?

I confess, I am somewhat addicted to bunting. I just counted, and I have no less than 5 chains stuck up around my house. Including in the bathroom. It's just so cute! And such a simple way of bringing flashes of colour to an otherwise dreary corner. 

And speaking of dreary... how about this gorgeous spring weather hmmm?! I'm praying for some sunshine, soon, before I go stir crazy!

To make this cute easter egg coloured bunting you will need:

Sizzix die 657622  Isosceles & Right 4 1/2" Triangle.
Sizzix die 658328 2 1/2" Strips. 
Coloured Fabrics: 15 x 5" x 12" 
White Fabric: 5 1/2" x WOF


When choosing your fabrics for the pennants, make sure to go for really cutesy and sweet pastel shades, just like traditional easter eggs. I chose 5 colours; Blue, Green, Purple, Pink and Yellow, and cut 3 flags in each colour. 

Step 1. Take each of the coloured rectangles and fold, right sides together to form a rectangle 5" x 6". Layer 3 of these onto the triangle die, and roll through the machine. Repeat to make 15 pairs of flags. 

Step 2. Sew down both long sides of each triangle pair, right sides together, using a 1/4" seam allowance. 

Step 3. Turn through, poke out the point with a pair of scissors or turning tool, and press. 

Step 4. Using the strip die, cut 2 white strips from your WOF piece. Join at the short edge to make one long strip and press in half, right sides together. To make the double fold binding, open out the fold you just created and press each long edge in to meet the centre. Then press the whole strip in half to hide all raw edges.

Step 5. Arrange flags in desired order, then, starting with the flag that will be in the centre, pin inside the double fold binding. Slide the raw edge of the flag 1/4" inside the fold and pin in place. Take the next flag and position so that its left hand edge is 2" from the previous flags right hand edge. Use the marks on your cutting mat to help you. Pin in place. Continue until all flags are pinned.

Step 6. Sew all the way along the length of the bunting, 1/8" from the edge of the fold, removing pins as you go. When you have finished sewing the length, zig zag over the short raw edges of the bunting chain to secure them.

Step 7. Find somewhere in need of a bit of colour, hang and admire! Hoppy Easter everyone!