Update from Sewmotion HQ

It’s amazing how productive you can be after a holiday! Which is just as well as I have so much on my to-do list right now. I know it may be a little too early for some, but for us makers Christmas is not too far away at all, so last week was spent building up some stock for the coming season. It was so nice to spend three days just sewing with no keyboard in sight!

I’ve been looking forward to using these Riley Blake fabrics (centre pic), a Doughty’s buy at Festival, and I think these new pencil cases/make-up cases are so cute! I used shower-proof fabric for the linings that make them easy to wipe clean, and also adds some body to the case. So we have this new collection, as well as some others made from ‘the stash’, and of course I had to make some small pouches to go with them. I’m planning to make some larger pouches in matching fabrics and selling them as sets, these would make lovely gifts don’t you think?!

Some items that have been selling well lately are my novelty pencil cases, so I thought I would make some more, this time a little larger so they will hold all the ‘stuff’ for school, as well as some large purses. These will hold cash, cards and keys – ideal for the young at heart.

A friend has been saying for a while that I should personalise my items, so I decided to try out my embroidery stitches on the machine, and came up with these lovely name labels, so sweet. These are now an added option in my Folksy shop.

Having spent three days sewing, it was then time to photograph and upload everything – wow, this took sooo long! I’m starting to realise that because I do some many different things, sewing, writing, photography, website stuff, that I tend to forget how to do things and need to re-teach myself regularly. So when it came to taking the pics and then writing the blurb on Folksy, my muscle memory took some time to kick in. Three days later (!) I now have some lovely fresh items on Folksy… though Etsy will have to wait a while I'm afraid.

Having got all this finished last week, I was glad to start something new on Monday, and I finally got round to making up some jelly rolls from my Kona stash. 

It has always been my intention to use these gorgeous cottons in luscious colours to design and make up some quilt kits from pre-cuts, mainly 2½” fabrics strips and charm squares. The first is a 20-stripper in a lovely rainbow colour scheme – I think the two greys sit in so well.

This second strip set is actually made up of 21 strips, and will hopefully be my first kit for this quilt...

I designed this one ages ago, I think I was actually sitting on a beach in Thailand at the time… useless at relaxing! Anyway, my brain hurt trying to work out the measurements, so I knew this one had to be made first before writing the instructions, which is the plan for the rest of today. I am hoping to get some pre-cuts for sale in my shop soon and will let you know when.

Before all that though, I managed to squeeze in another puppy dog for the Dog Gone Cute QAL over at Sew Fresh Quilts.

I think I’ve cracked the fabrics now, that grey background sets off the white really well, and I love this Louden Flitsy range. I think it may well be a wall hanging with three dogs, and the words Dog Gone Cute in there somewhere. I’m enjoying following someone else’s pattern for a change, and Lorna’s is very easy to follow, though I do find I have to concentrate more than usual with the piecing, but that’s just me. To join in this quilt-along, pop over to Sew Fresh Quilts where Lorna is sharing the instructions for the puppy blocks over the next few weeks. There will then be a Blog Hop in October, which includes me (!) – I’ll let you know more about that nearer the time.  

For more quilty love and inspiration pop over to Lorna's Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday over on Freshly Pieced.