Have passport, will travel

I think I need another holiday. Where should I go? Maybe Paris?

Or perhaps Morocco?

Istanbul?

There's always Sardinia. I here it's nice this time of year.

Of course, wherever I choose, I must remember to write home.

Say hello to 'Have passport, will travel', the newest addition to the Notions family. In stores soon.

Too many shoes...

Firstly, is there such a thing as too many shoes? I think not. And what is too many? My mum thinks I have a 'lot' of shoes. At last count I think I was up to 36 (and that's after a vicious culling earlier this year). Ok, maybe that is a little excessive. I have to admit that I really only wear 6-7 pairs regularly. But they're all so pretty. Even if I don't wear them they're nice to look at. In fact I have one pair on display in my living room (above)! I bought them last year in the US and have never worn them (as often happens). Before I started quilting and became obsessed with quilting fabrics, shoes were my big travel weakness. I think the minimum number of pairs I came home from overseas with was 4. I have my London shoes, my Canada shoes, New Zealand shoes and my USA shoes. I can't part with them, there are too many travel memories connected with them.  But I can part with these ones.

These little lovelies will be heading to the market with me on Sunday. But before then they have to be transformed into brooches and bookmarks.

Usually I head down to my parents house on Sundays for a family dinner, but with the horrid weather and the lack of electricity at their house our weekly family get together was cancelled. So what's a girl to do on an unexpected free Sunday evening? Start a new quilt top of course! After a dinner of muesli (no roast chicken for me this week) I ironed all my fabrics and started trimming the edges.  The fabric is Basket of Flowers (Moda). The top image is the salvaged salvages, my favourite part of fabric.

I know I've posted these images over at my other blog, but I love them so much that I decided to post them here too.

This evening I cut all the strips and have started sewing the blocks. Below are my 72 strips, ready to become blocks. I love how this image looks kinda like a sandwich (see the lettuce?)

And the sewing begins. Eight blocks down, four to go.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party & Give Away

Since the weather is so appalling outside, I thought I pass the day by throwing a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Here are my guests: the Cheshire Cat, a few knaves (what's a tea party without a few knaves, eh?), the irrepressible Alice, and, of course, the White Rabbit (who is always fashionably late!).  Hmmm...does that make me the Mad Hatter? These sweet brooches are heading to Inside  later this week. They are exclusive to Inside and only available for a very limited time. I only have 1/2 yard of this fabric and it is no longer available, so when it's gone, it's gone. So, if you want one for your self or to put a away for Christmas, be quick!

I like these brooches so much that I have decided to give 2 of them away. To enter, just leave comment with your choice of characters. The winner will be chosen by a random number calculator and announced on Friday 2nd October. Good luck!

A must read

I know I've blogged about Cafe Cartolina before, but if you haven't popped over for a visit you must go. Go now! It's such a fabulously addictive read, full of wonderful images, some more quirky than others, but each interesting in their way. One of my favourite things to do is to drink my morning coffee while browsing Fiona's entries. She's a prolific blogger. It's taken me weeks just to get through the 2009 entries! Here are a random selection of images from CC. Please, do take the time and have a look...it's worth it!

Inspiration

A ball of prettiness.

My NEW creative space

I few weeks ago the spring cleaning of my work room turned into a big spring mess. After smashing a glass jar filled with hundreds of vintage buttons and ceramic bowl (the result being tiny shards of glass and china amongst all the buttons and bleeding hands), I was close to tears and decided to shut the door and forget about it until I got back from NZ. Well, I'm back now. I decided that what I needed were some shelving units to keep all my fabrics in. After looking at all the lovelies on the Ikea site my mum suggested I take a look at the shelving units at Chickenfeed. They are great! Easy to put together and 1/3 of the price of Ikea's. I bought three 8 cube shelves and a 5 tier shelf.  I put the last unit together this morning. While I was happily hammering the back on I was mentally composing this blog. It was going to entitled it: The Flat Pack Queen, but then I realised that I'd nailed the back on backwards! So it a quick title change was in order. Now I have one unit just for my Notions fabrics, another for my quilting supplies and one for all the paper work. There is still some work to be done until I get just the way I want it, but here are some before and after photos.

Can I do it?

After yesterdays posting frenzy, I am going to see if I can get through the day with posting...damn! I just did.

Oh well, may as well go with it now. Here's an image I've been wanting to share for a while. Enjoy!

A World of Colour

I know, I've gone a little overboard with the posting today...but I'm on a roll, so here's another one.


Have you been over to Color Combos? It's a fabulous web resource for finding and exploring colour schemes.  If you're like me, and have trouble stepping put of your comfort zone when it comes to colours and their use, then this is the site for you! Here are a few of my favourites:

More fabric goodness

Before I left for work this morning I answered a knock the front door. My local parcel postie (I two posties- one for parcels and one for letters) was standing on the step with two packages for me. Opening them I discovered these lovely new fabrics. The top ones are hard to find Lara Cameron fabrics (Ink & Spindle). The colours just scream Autumn, so I'll hang onto these for a few more months. The two below are Japanese cotton/linen blends. I only bought a at quarter of each, so I'm not sure if I'll keep them for quilting or use them for brooches and/or hair clips. I must say, the little aqua fruits would go well with my new Aqua Girl range.

                            

Hot Coffee

I needed one of Luisa's coffee covers today. If I just stopped procrastinating an bought one I might not have burnt fingers. For all those so-called coffee baristas out there, coffee should be served hot, not scalding!

Inspiration...

Sad and Confused

Amy Butler has just released her latest range, Love. Usually I love Amy Butler, especially her Midwest Modern and Lotus collections, but I'm not feeling the love (excuse the pun) for this collection. After months of waiting for this fabric to be released, it's a great disappointment; like waking up on Christmas morning expecting to find a Chewbacca under the tree only to discover that Santa has failed to deliver (and that was last year!). I'm finding it really hard be enthused by this range. I like to the colours, but the patterns do nothing for me. Maybe it will grow on me. On the upside, I won't be rushing out to buy it so at least I'll save some money (yeah, right....like I won't just go out and buy something else!). I'd love to know what you think of the collection.

UPDATE: After reading Luisa's comment (thanks Luisa) I've added a link to the Love slide show so you can see the patterns on a larger scale.

  

Coming Soon...

Ok, so here are some photos of the packaging I have been working on. I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out. I like the contrast of the bright colours against the back and white fabric. Vintage fashion seem to have developed into an ongoing theme with my Notions products and I was sad today to have missed out on another retro fashion fabric on etsy today. 

A little bundle of joy

No, I'm not pregnant. Nor has someone abandoned a baby on my doorstep. I'm referring to the little bundle of fabric joy that the postman left on my door step today (my postman regularly leaves packages on the doorstep if they don't fit in the mail slot in the door). This is Moda Charisma. My niece and I saw this fabric in a shop in Auckland, but they didn't have any layer cakes left. This one I ordered on etsy. I love the fresh colour palette. I have no idea what it will become...but that's half the fun.

Colour Me...

...Orange. In the spirit of spring here are some cute orange-ish images for you to enjoy. On the work front, I spent most of the weekend designing packaging for some new lines. I'm always fascinated by the creative process that occurs when I'm designing ways to present my products. It's amazing how many times I'll start with a clear idea of what I want to do and end up with something completely different....and better!  This time I went from very simple monochromatic to bright summer colours and I love them! I'll have some sneak peek pics for you in a few days.

Fabric Stash

Here are some pics of my New Zealand fabric haul. I love the sweet summer colours in the second photo. I should have enough of these fabrics to to make a few baby quilts. 

Amy Butler, what can I say? Love her! 

These black and white fabrics will make a great monochromatic quilt (I may throw in another colour...any suggestions?). I love the bikes. I haven't seen that design anywhere else. I think that the the bikes and the black & white houses are New Zealand Designs. 

Heading home...

After a relaxing break in NZ I'm heading home tomorrow. Usually I'm sad when a holiday is coming to an end, and although I've had a great time, I have to say that I'm looking forward to getting home and getting stuck into some new projects. I've got two orders to fill next week, a market to prepare for and all my lovely new fabrics to play with! Over the last few months I've been collecting fabrics for my summer collection, but now I have a dilemma. I love the spring lines (and they've been very well received) and this is the last market before the Christmas market season begins (I have some gorgeous products for Christmas...will post a sneak peak soon) which means that if I go with the spring products a again that my summer lines will have to be released in the New Year. Any thoughts? 

Another Confession

They say that admitting that you have a problem is the first step to recovery. Well, okay, here it goes: I’m obsessed with stationery. There, I said it. I LOVE STATIONERY! It’s not just a fling, it’s a true romance, and has been going on for some time. I remember playing ‘offices’ as a kid. I would spend hours getting the ‘office’ ready; collecting the required apparatus, pens, tape, paper, calculator, type writer (this is before the computer) and laying them out on the desk. I only liked gathering the supplies, not using them. I think the most time I spent actually playing the game was about 5 minutes, after that, I usually got bored. Not much has changed! I still love to collect stationery and office supplies. I’m especially drawn to all the vintage goodies that have been around the last few years. Just the thought of one of those ‘old’ brown school notebooks that fastening with string warms my heart. I also love Kikki K. On my last trip to Sydney the only big purchase I made was at Kikki K, and I must confess that, along with my big spend up at the fabric store in Auckland, I also raided the Kikki K store, twice! I adore the Scandinavian influence in her collections. This time round I stocked up on a Nordic inspired collection. I bought a set of 3 notebooks, paperclips, gift tags and a 2010 diary. I also bought the sweetest calico bag, decorated in vintage bikes. I needed the bag. I mean, I had to carry my goodies in something, didn’t I? I like bikes. Particularly vintage ones…I feel another confession coming on…but not today.

A bag of goodies

Here is delicious bag of pretty fabrics that I bought in a fabric shop in Devonport, a ferry ride across the Auckland Harbour.  I could have bought more...

Sneak Peek

I'm off to lovely New Zealand early tomorrow morning. I hope to add a few posts while I'm away, but in the mean time, here's a sneak peek of what Notions will be offering this summer...

I love...

my new earrings! I bought them at the market this morning. They're part of little twig's delightful range. It was so hard to choose from the sweet designs. I particularly liked the apples and the fence, but I'm a retro girl at heart so this are the ones for me.