Look at all the thready goodness that arrived in the mail this week! LECIEN sent me the full range of their delicious Cosmo multi work two strand embroidery floss on the spool.
Sigh..... I think I am in love! Look at all the delicious muted colours and 88m per spool! I have 74 spools to play with- can't wait.
How wonderful will it be for stitchery to have two strands ready to go at any length??? I think this is what I will be playing with over Summer. I will let you know how it goes but if its anything like the rest of the Cosmo range I'm excited.
Less than a week till the AQM and the furniture for display is going well. Check out the blouse chest
I know that it looks great but you don't want to look too closely! There are some bubbles and this is totally devastating! The amount of work that went into getting it right and now I have some bubbles!!!! Feeling sorry for myself- sniff...sniff... I knew that watching the Lifestyle channel was going to get me into trouble! The question is - Should perfectionists attempt DIY furniture projects with no idea of what they are doing????? I think maybe not! The Mrs Perkins brigade don't seem to mind though
Till next time- enjoy your creation!
Rosalie xx
Tassie was fantastic! Deirdre and Leonie sure know how to put on a beautiful sewing day! Here is the hall all set up and waiting for the ladies to arrive
Here they all are having a lovely day of sewing, chatting and eating. It was such a lovely time and Leanne and I were thrilled to teach ther
The Quilted Crow ladies had also set up a beautiful store with all sorts of sewing goodies including my new fabric range which had just arrived in time for the day
It was pretty cool seeing all the bundles of my fabric wrapped up so beautifully
We were staying in the Historic town of Richmond which had some amazing shops and also the oldest bridge in Australia
On the afternoon when Leanne took the above photo, we went walking around the town and found an old catholic church which meant we could wander around the graveyard (I know, a bit weird but an activity I really do enjoy!) It is quite amazing what can be learned about the history of an area while walking around the graveyard.
Well, we are home again now so back to work! Here is
the photo I promised you of the screen. I used the teal house fabric from "Grandmother's Flower Garden" It looks great. It will be all ready for the AQM. I am working on the rest of the furniture and some projects using the PVC coated fabric. I am really looking forward to the AQM next week as several of the girls will all be staying in the city in a lovely hotel. I think it will be heaps of fun (a bit old for pajama parties???)
Till next time,
enjoy your creation,
Rosalie xx
My MIL has told me that Tasmania is actually the "mainland" of Australia. It is to this mainland that Leanne and I will travel tomorrow to teach for Leonie and Deirdre at The Quilted Crow. We are quite excited to catch up with the girls again! Actually, they were both in Houston so Melly and I have seen them recently. Quilt Market just isn't the place to catch up with friends when you have a booth to attend to!
The girls from the Quilted Crow spoiled us terribly the last time we taught for them and we are so happy to be coming back. I'm sure we will meet some of you and also catch up with the women we met last time.
Since returning home, I have set my hand to some furniture "renovation". I purchased an old screen room divider, was given an antique fire screen and have an old blouse chest. These pieces have been stripped, sanded and painted. They are starting to look quite good actually.
The next step is to create the fabric panels for the screens and cover the blouse chest drawers in fabric. I bet you don't need three guesses to work out which fabric I will be using! I am making over these pieces for display at the Australian Quilt Market. Charles Parsons will have a booth featuring their fabric companies including LECIEN. As part of their booth they will display "Grandmother's Flower Garden". After seeing all the gorgeous displays at Houston I was keen to put my fabric to good use in the booth here. In Houston Melly and I are forced to put a booth together with string and pins. It is much more fun to have access to furniture and props when a show is in your home city.
I will show you photos as (if) the pieces come to life!
Rosalie xx
P.S. I think I deserve a special gardening award for letting a dandelion weed grow to 8ft tall before I found it in my garden! Not everyone is that talented!
Well, where do I start??? Houston was amazing! What a blast! Melly and I had an awesome time with our husbands at the Quilt Market. After setup, I spoke at School House with Brenda Riddle about our new fabric lines with LECIEN. It was very exciting but also quite nerve-wracking! It was a full house with standing room only and I must admit that nerves almost got the better of me! I think it went quite well though. The next event was our booth at Sample Spree. We had not done this before so didn't really know what to expect. When the doors opened at 8pm hundreds of women came flooding in to buy whatever they could get their hands on! It was a bit of a feeding frenzy especially around the Moda booth. I did manage to purchase a delicious fat quarter bundle of the new French General fabric called Rural Jardin. It is gorgeous! My fabric bundles with LECIEN sold out in the first half hour so I was very excited! We also did really well with our sample bags of patterns so it was a worthwhile thing to do. I am sure we will do it next time also.
The next day was the first day of Market and here is a photo of our booth
The next two photos are from "stop staring and start sewing" I hope they don't mind as I have very few photos of my own as we didn't have time to take very many!
Here is a photo of Melly, Brenda and myself. It was such an honour to meet Brenda after all our emails back and forth!
LECIEN had made a whole booth just to display "Grandmother's Flower Garden" which was a huge thrill. Elizabeth from "The Late Bloomer" and Pam from "Pam Kitty Morning" Had made some gorgeous samples from my fabric for this part of the booth. It was great to catch up with those girls again! One of these years I'm going to have to remember to take some more photos at Market! If anyone has any good ones of our booth PLEASE email them to me!
Well, I do feel like I'm back on deck after feeling a bit jetlagged for a few days. I am longing to get into my studio and see what comes out! I promise it won't be this long between posts again.
Enjoy your creation!
Rosalie xx
I am still making new samples for Houston. I really enjoy all the new looks I am achieving. Here is the "New" Nellie's sewing bag....
Of course I made two - why not? This time I used my fabrics and Matilda's own bag batting which is my new favourite product. It has given so much structure to the bags. Here you can see the inside pockets.
It all ties up by threading the handle through the two loops in the top.
Anyway, I know lots of you have made this cute little sewing bag but it's always been a favourite of mine.
The preparations for Houston continue and it is all becoming quite exciting now. We can't wait to see friends we have made over there. I hope Pam and Di are up to sharing a meal at our favorite teppanyaki restaurant! We are always so happy to visit there and get some fresh vegetables (fairly scarce in Houston!) Six sleeps to go!
Rosalie xx
Only nine sleeps to go til I am off to Houston with Melly! We are getting quite excited now. We just sent ourselves 175kg of patterns and books for the big show. This may have been a bit overenthusiastic! I have been busy with new samples, as I showed you last post. Here are 3 Mrs Perkins that I have made from my new fabrics.
I think they look sooo cute in the little daisys. I also received a photo from Sarah of Quilt Fabric Delights who made this beautiful child's raincoat from some of my PVC coated fabric she was having a play with. Sarah agrees with me that the LECIEN PVC coat is much softer and easy to work with than others she has used before.
It looks lovely, doesn't it? Many of the stores in Australia have already received their orders of "Grandmother's Flower Garden" fabrics, so keep an eye out for it. In fact, I had a phone call from Leanne Beasley today from Norway! She and Gail Pan are over there teaching for Siw at Quiltegaarden. They are having so much fun, they have been filmed teaching for a popular Norwegian TV show and were just boarding the cruise ship where they are spending a few days teaching while cruising through the fjords and up into the arctic circle. It's a hard life for some!! Leanne said she was in Siw's shop when my fabric arrived there from Japan! How exciting! It seems weird to think about my fabric arriving on the other side of the world while my dear friends were there to see it. Anyway, I can't wait to hear their stories when they return. I guess Melly and I will have some stories of our own. It will certainly be a long catch-up lunch when we are all back together again.
I am having a little play with Linen, Cosmo threads and felted wool at the moment. I am not sure if the project I am working on will be blog- or pattern-worthy, but it is fun experimenting with some new ideas!
I hope you are all enjoying your creations!
Rosalie xx
P.S. I have had lots of emails from Fabric stores wondering how to order my fabrics for their store. Here is a link to the LECIEN agents who can help you in your part of the world. Hope this helps!
It is amazing what some new fabric and some fresh samples can do for a pattern! I have been having a great time refreshing some "Old Faithfuls" by remaking them in "Grandmother's Flower Garden" fabrics before I take them to Houston. Here is "Sweet 16"...
Here is the "new" beauty of a flower carrybag....
This one is my favourite- the Rebekah Amy quilt. I have made it using the browns, reds, pinks and creams from my range. I think it looks like a block of rocky road!
Here is a shot of the completed quilt top...
I think I am off to make some Mrs Perkins now. They need a bit of refreshing!
Rosalie xx
After a long wait today, the truck finally arrived at about 2pm. Mum, Dad, Cait and I unloaded the truck (because the truck driver refused as we didn't have the correct hydraulic lifters!) Nothing like a bit of exercise! Anyway, with all of that, I forgot to take a photo of the pile of books in the driveway. Here is a photo after some of the books were loaded in the car for transfer to our storage place.
All in all, it was worth the wait. I LOVE the way it has turned out! I can't believe that I got it all done with three weeks to spare before Quilt Market.
The book has 16 projects, many of which are made up in my new fabric range "Grandmother's Flower Garden". I actually saw all my fabric in a local Patchwork Store today. It was very exciting seeing it all on the shelves for the first time. I know it is on it's way to stores all over Australia over the next few weeks and in other countries after Quilt Market. Anyway, I think I need an early night after all the excitement!
Good night,
Rosalie xx
P.S. For the chance to donate to Pink Ribbon Day and possibly win one of my new books while you are at it, click on the new button on the side of my blog. Please give generously.
I think it will be a very sleepless night tonight. My book "A Stitch in Time" is arriving from the printers tomorrow. I am so excited and so nervous about seeing it in the flesh for the first time. I thought I would share some more pics from the photo shoot with you....
Pretty pink storage canisters
Molly
petite thread basket
Reverse redwork stitchery.
I will let you know as soon as I am holding the new book!
Rosalie xx
