The Big Sale Is On This Weekend!

I'm having a huge sale in the Sewmotion shop, and in my Etsy shop on this mad, frenzied big sale weekend - though hopefully sitting in the comfort of your own home, maybe in your PJs with a cuppa at hand, won't be frenzied at all! In fact I'm looking forward to some online browsing and shopping myself, I may even get ahead on some gift shopping, unheard of for me!

As you can see above, there are some great offers on including 10% off all quilt, cushion, wall hanging, table runner and pincushion kits, 15% off all fat quarter bundles, charm packs and strip sets (jelly rolls), 20% off all fabric by the metre including Michael Miller, Dashwood Studios, Makower and Riley Blake, and finally 25% off all my patterns, both in printed form and PDFs.

So if you're gift shopping for a fellow crafty friend, or maybe you need to give someone a nudge in the right direction for gift inspiration, why not send them to the Sewmotion Shop for a good old browse, and thanks to that little padlock in the web address, you know your shopping will be completely secure.

Finally, Happy Thanksgiving to all my lovely friends across the water - I hope you all have fantastic weekends surrounded by love and family.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social, and Midweek Makers 

Summer Sale & New Designer Fabrics

The sun is kind of shining, now and again, up here in the North East, so I thought I'd celebrate with a Summer Sale!

Simply use the code SUMMER20 at checkout to get 20% off everything across the store, including quilt and cushion kits, fabrics, pre-cuts and patterns or what about a backing for that previously bought quilt kit?

Talking of fabrics, I've also just listed some new designer fabrics in the shop, available by the metre. When I buy these fabrics, I have great intentions of making quilt and cushion kits in all of them, but time is catching up on me, so rather than have them sit on the shelf staring at me, I thought I would share some fabric joy. This first range, Wildflower Garden from Michael Miller comes in two colourways, and I know they would both make beautiful quilts, I thought my Mosaic Garden design would be perfect, it's on the list!

Next up is a collection I have been using in a secret magazine project. This Riley Blake range, Gingham Girls is in a lovely retro colourway, though I seem to have missed the actual prints featuring the gingham (?) Still, I love how the navy and yellow sit so nicely together....

Finally I've also listed the latest gorgeous collection from British company Dashwood Studios, Norrland is Bethan Janine's Winter collection and features her signature woodland creatures and gold metallic accent. I've also been using this in another mag project, and those animals are great for fussy-cut EPP!

Enjoy the sale, meanwhile I have larger-than-expected top to quilt so I can get on with my EPP BOM ;)

Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday

Something To Replace The Missing Sun

Where did the sunshine go?!?! Just when I thought it was springtime… ah well, maybe another dose of colourful butterflies and cute daisies will cheer us up. As you can see below, I’ve been busy playing with my Sea Holly and Kona fabrics – I do love how these blend with my greys and yellow.

My first project with these gorgeous fabrics is a new Beginner’s Quilt to add to the collection, I’m just waiting on a bright day to take some decent shots for the kit, but this will be available soon.

Then I made a jelly roll or two, you know how I love a stream of colour, and these are no exceptions - the Sea Holly Strip Set includes four prints from this Michael Miller range, which blend so well with Kona’s Graphite, Tomato and Banana. 

And I just had to play with some of my new Kona Solids to create this gorgeous Purple Haze Strip Set, for true lovers of ‘the purple’! And doesn’t that graphite work so well again?

Both of these stripper sets contain twenty 2½” x 44” cotton strips, which together with a base colour such as white or a pale cream, you could come up with so many designs. Why not start with our free All Squared Up pattern? I've worked out some layout possibilities below... With this simple piecing, and then maybe some straight-line quilting, you could make a gorgeous modern and fresh quilt, ideal for a wedding gift, or a treat for yourself.

 

Just a little note about these variations: as you have seven different designs in these fabric rolls and not eight as in the pattern, your cutting will be slightly different. As in the pattern, take two strips of each colour, and make eight blocks from each - you will get 56 blocks in all. To make up the remaining eight blocks, take two extra strips from the strip set and make 4 blocks in each design, two positive, two negative to make up to 64 blocks.

I hope I have inspired you to indulge in some fun with colour, as always, I'm linking up with Lorna's Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts, and Needle And Thread Thursday over on My Quilt Infatuation - come and say hello!

A Springtime Hexy Kit

Do I feel spring in the air?? Though this morning's weather mentioned snow, so maybe this bright sunshine is just fooling me. What better way to coax springtime from under winter's shadow than to make a bright and cheerful new cushion... such as our new Hexy Cushion Kit in fabrics from Michael Miller's gorgeous Sea Holly collection.

As with our other Hexy kits, this one contains all the fabric strips, pre-cut papers, glue pen, thread and wadding you need to complete the top, plus full instructions to help you every step of the way. There are also handy links to our online tutorials for even more help. You will just need thread for quilting, and then a cushion back and pad. These kits are great portable projects for your hollibobs or a long car journey - EPP definitely kills the time on a long flight!
These kits are available in our Sewmotion, Folksy and Etsy shops, priced at £22 with free UK shipping.

Elsewhere in the quilting world...

It seems I'm not the only one feeling spring-like, The Village Haberdashery have some beautiful new ranges in stock including organic collection Park Life by Elizabeth Olwen for Cloud9 Fabrics - aren't these gorgeous!! Not only would these make amazing quilts, but also the cutest little dresses!

Meanwhile over in Hereford, Doughty's have just revealed their latest collections from Lewis & Irene, this first one is Bunny Garden and you can't get any more Springtime than cute bunnies, ditsy florals and pretty butterflies in a gorgeous modern colour palette.

Another new arrival from Lewis & Irene is The Botanist collection, an elegant range featuring delicately drawn plants, butterflies and insects.

I do recommend subscribing to Doughty's Newsletter to be kept up to date with their ever-growing fabric collections, as well as following them on Facebook where they share these gorgeous pics of their new arrivals.

Talking of Newsletters, if you would like to be hear about Sewmotion's latest news, products and special subscriber offers, you can sign up below to recieve our monthly email. If you would like to follow my weekly blogs, you can follow me by email or Bloglovin in the right-hand column.

If you're looking for more quilting fun and inspiration, why not pop over to Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's Bee Social linky party and say hello.

Sunday Stash #13 & Today's Quilter

Having just finished a big project, I thought it was about time I had a tidy of my messy stash... you know how it is, you get these flashes of inspiration or emergency gifts to make, and you end up pulling fabric and not putting it back... or maybe that's just me!

There are two issues with tidying a stash - 1) you scare yourself silly when you realise how much you have, and 2) ideas for new projects and patterns bombard you from all angles - I'm exhausted!

I did come across some gems though - at Christmas I treated myself to some fat quarters of Mini Pearl Bracelets by Lizzie House, I know it's a strange colour range, but I quite like it and can see maybe some four-pointed stars on a white background... I only have 6 FQs so this one will need some thinking about. These came from The Village Haberdashery who I've just noticed have a brand spanking new website, very nice indeed!

My other recent purchase were these gorgeous teals and orange from Doughty's Je Ne Sais Quoi range - I do love this whole collection, not only are they quality cottons, but they're a whole 65" wide and come in cute ditsy designs. I am planning some new patterns with these babies, and maybe a new kit or two... 

I also wanted to share some great Sewmotion news, we've been featured in this month's Today's Quilter magazine. I'm pretty sure I've raved about this mag before. Aimed at the modern quilter inspired by traditional fabrics, patterns and techniques, this monthly mag features great patterns - which tend to be at least eight pages long - a breakdown of new techniques harking back to the history of quilting, and to top all that, the truly inspiration Lynne Edwards runs a virtual workshop in which she breaks down the basics of quilting - superb for beginners! Lynne also features in this month's pullout in which she talks about her amazing life, her beautiful collection of quilts, and her love of teaching.

There is also a well researched round-up of quilting news and events - the piece on Sewmotion is spot on and very lovely (gush!), as well as features on world class quilters who provide even more inspiration - this month there's a great article on pre-cut queens the Lintotts. So I suggest you get to the shops asap, sit back with a cuppa and get inspired!

This week I'm linking up with Molli Sparkles' Sunday Stash - come and say hello.