In Print with Folksy, and Exciting News!

After a rathering shattering weekend with Doughty’s at the National Quilt Championships at Sandown Park – (as usual too busy to take photos, and yes I am kicking myself!!)… 

…I came home to find my mum had sent me a copy of the latest Homemaker magazine that features an article on Sewmotion! Yay!! This being a special Sewing edition, Camilla at Folksy contacted me for help with her regular column about selling online. You can see my top 5 tips below ;)

 

While I’m here, I’d like to say a bit about Folksy. Similar to Etsy, but British and much smaller, Folksy is an online marketplace providing an invaluable outlet for British crafters and makers in the UK. You will find over 17,000 handmade products made by over 5,000 designers and crafters - from beautiful lino prints, pretty silver bracelets, and quirky illustrations to knitted made-to-measure dog coats and funky overnight bags. Not only are these items handmade to the highest quality, but you know it has been made by a crafter/designer in Britain, and will often be a one-off item, making it all the more special.

If you’re feeling inspired to make something yourself, there is also a large collection of craft supplies and kits, including of course, my Quilt and Cushion Kits!

EXCITING NEWS… Sewmotion will be attending its first quilt show!!! I still can’t decide if I’m excited or nervous as hell!! We’ll be at the Great Northern Quilt Show in Harrogate on Friday 2^nd – Sunday 4^th September, 2016. All I can think about at the moment is stock and more quilt designs for kits, starting with a new All Squared Up Quilt Kit… It’s going to be a very busy couple of months!!

Back to the present – don’t forget we’ll be at Rainbow Plant Centre’s Vintage/Craft Fair this Sunday, 10am – 3pm – if you’re local to Nunthorpe near Stokesley, why not pop along and explore what our local community has to offer – the cream teas at the newly revamped Tearoom sound pretty good too!

Looking for more quilty fun and inspiration? Why not pop along to these Linky Parties and say hello!

Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts - who is having a fantastic Giveaway Week by the way.

Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

 

A very wet weekend, upcoming craft events & Doughty's Roadshows

What a weekend!! I can honestly say, I’ve never seen rain like it!! Having arrived nice and early for set-up at the Great British Food Festival at Ragley Hall, Alcester, the skies did look ominously grey and within an hour the rain started…  and then didn’t stop. Sunday wasn’t much better, which sadly meant not as many people came along as we had hoped. What could have been a great weekend of fantastic food, great music and fine shopping was more or less a complete wipe out, all thanks to this poxy weather!

Lessons to be learnt… maybe a marquee in a field in the middle of a grand estate isn’t for me… but I had to give it a go, so I think for the next few months I’m going to go a little smaller and more local - starting with the monthly Vintage & Craft Fair at Rainbow Plant Centre (Stokesley Road, Nunthorpe) on Sunday 26^th June, 10am - 3pm – if you’re local it would be great to see you there.

The next few weeks do look pretty busy in fact, which is great! This week I’m helping my old employers Doughty’s at the National Quilt Championships at Sandown Racecourse (Fri 17^th – Sun 19^th June)

Then good old Doughty’s are coming ‘up north’ for a couple of their fabulous Roadshows – on Saturday 2^nd July, we’ll be at Stannington Village Hall in Morpeth, and on the Sunday 3^rd, we’ll be at my local quilt group, Village Quilters, at Linthorpe Community Centre in Middlesbrough (both 10.30 – 2.30pm)

So if you’re a quilter or general fabric lover, why not come and see their fantastic range of quilting cottons including batik, novelty and blenders, plus all sorts of quilt waddings and extra wide backings.
My next craft fair will be the Dippy Craft & Gift Fair at Pickering Town Hall on 16^th July (10am-4pm).

So I may not be as regular with my blogs in the next couple of months, but I just wanted to leave you with some more May is for Makers inspiration. I know I’m a little late, but I did manage to keep to the plan and purchase five patterns from independent designers – you can read my original blog here to find out more about this great idea.

For my fourth buy I just couldn’t resist Hazel the Hedgehog by the extremely talented Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson. I have loved this lady’s work for ages and just needed the push to just buy a pattern! I’m really looking forward to making Hazel, complete with those fantastic specs!!

My final purchase was this great idea from Charm About You aka Lucy Brennan. This Stitchy Pie needle case is so cute, and a great opportunity to do some hand embroidery, something I don’t do enough of!! 

Did you get involved in May is for Makers? I would love to know what tempted you and, unlike me, if you’ve actually had the time to make something!

I do hope the weather is better wherever you are and that we get some sort of summer here soon… fingers crossed!

This week I'm linking up with

Main Crush Monday over on Cooking up Quilts 

Monday Making on Love Laugh Quilt

Going Dutch Again, & Two New Quilt Kits

When Justin plans our holidays, he likes to take inspiration from a favourite film, “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” – though this time it was a ship instead of a plane… so our week in the Netherlands started with a pleasantly smooth overnight ferry from Hull to Rotterdam. The fun really started the next morning when we realised that by updating the SatNav the night before, we’d somehow deleted the European maps… oops!

So, a little longer and a little more stressed than planned, we finally arrived at Duinrell Campsite to our cabin for the next few days. Apparently our accommodation had only been finished a few days ago, so we were the first to use it! This one had three bedrooms, a fitted kitchen and bathroom (with constant hot water) and a beautiful covered deck. Alas, the day we arrived was the only time we saw the sun - we managed a couple of wet bike rides to the sea, and a trip into Den Haag, but the highlight of the trip was the beautiful town of Wassenaar… and the food!

With its elegant architecture, cute cobbled lanes, and pretty brick houses, this town couldn’t be more Dutch! And the cherry on top has to be the impressive number of restaurants - all within walking distance - including a Greek (amazing pork), Italian (best king prawns ever), an American Diner (the flank steak was perfect), a traditional Dutch (so happy to catch the asparagus season) and to finish our night off in style, a gorgeous ice-cream parlour! So yeah, the weather might have let us down, but man did we eat well!!

Still, I shouldn’t complain about the weather too much, I did have some time to make a start on my Perpetual Spring EPP project, one of my May is for Makers purchases.

I’m really enjoying the piecing, and curved seams aren’t as daunting as I first thought! Flossie Teacakes’ instructions are easy to follow, and once you get into the flow, you’ve made two flowers before you know it! By the way, if you are an EPP fan like me, you have got to check out Florence's latest design, The Peony - absolutely beautiful!

Meanwhile, at Sewmotion HQ

As promised, I have finally been able to take some pics of our two new kits and get them uploaded into the shop. The first is another Quick & Easy Beginner’s Quilt Kit, this one features Riley Blakes’ Keep On Groovin’ collection, plus a couple of matching Kona Solids.

These kits are great for someone new to quilting  - the co-ordinating squares are all pre-cut, so rather than worrying about choosing fabrics and the cutting, you can get right on with the sewing! If you need a little extra help you can follow my comprehensive free tutorial online as you go. 

Our second quilt kit is this cute Baby Quilt featuring Riley Blake’s Teddy Bear’s Picnic range, with an added white-on-white print and some blue Kona for the binding.

This kit is slightly more advanced in that you have to cut the white fabric yourself, and you also use a couple of quilting techniques – fussy cutting and creating a four-patch from charm squares. This quilt is also sewn on-point, which may be another new technique to some.

Both of these kits are obviously also great for more experienced quilters looking for a new project, the Quick & Easy kit would make a great weekend make, and the cot quilt would make a beautiful gift for a new arrival, be it a boy or a girl.

As an introductory offer, we are offering our Newsletter subscribers the chance to purchase the Teddy Bears’ Picnic Cot Quilt kit for £30 (normal price £35.00) To sign-up to our monthly Newsletter and take advantage of this limited offer, please click below.

Upcoming events

We will be at the Great British Food Festival on 11^th and 12^th June (10am-5pm). You will find us in the Arts & Crafts marquee where we’ll be selling our handmade gifts including purses, glasses cases, make-up pouches and novelty cushions, as well as our collection of pre-cut quilt and cushions kits. If you’re in the area why not pop along for a day of fine food, live music and a special shopping treat.

If you're looking for more quilt-inspired fun, visit these great Linky Parties;

Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts

Craft Fair Fun and a New Quilter’s Joy

This year I’ve decided to book myself into a few craft fairs, not only to hopefully sell some of the pouches, purses and cushions I can’t seem to stop making, but also to spread the word about my growing collection of pre-cut quilt and cushion kits.

Last Sunday we were at the Vintage & Craft Fair held at The Rainbow Plant Centre near Stokesley, North Yorkshire. This independent family-run nursery started as an empty field, and 30 years later is now a thriving business selling high-quality plants and offering invaluable help and advice to its regular customers.

Setting up in the warmth of the greenhouse, we managed to get both Ikea shelf units and our Justin-made quilt ladder up, as well as my banner… looks pretty good eh?! There’s a lovely tearoom on-site too, so we weren’t short of tea.. and I won’t mention the pie stall…. Needless to say…

A few customers braved the chilly wind and came to explore our wares, but sadly not as many as I had hoped. However, I’ve stopped thinking of these fairs as ‘must sell as much as possible’ days, but rather as a way to advertise my products and website. While I love making my handmade gifts and T-T-Teessider cushions, the true ethos behind Sewmotion is to help and encourage folk to learn how to quilt, to develop their skills and to find as much enjoyment as I do from this wonderful craft. And my way of doing this is to offer free online tutorials, pre-cut quilt kits and quilting patterns to new quilters as well as the more experienced.

Much to my joy, this plan came to fruition with my last customer of the day. Having popped in for some plant food (I think) she spotted my All Squared Up quilt kit and stopped in her tracks. Apparently her husband had bought her a sewing machine recently after she mentioned wanting to learn to quilt, but he was getting frustrated that even though he could hear the machine going in her sewing room, and YouTube videos in the background, nothing was being produced! Overjoyed that my kits contain all the co-ordinating pre-cut fabric, thread and instructions to make the top, she went home very happy that she had a project she could finally get stuck in to and hopefully finish!

This really did make my day, when I say to people that I plan to get everyone addicted to quilting one customer at a time, I’m not joking!!

Our next craft fair is at Stokesley Town Hall on Saturday, 7th May - if you're local why not pop along and explore what our community has to offer.

Meanwhile, back at Sewmotion HQ, what really scares me at the moment is time, or lack of it. Having ordered quite a bit of fabric at a trade show a few months ago, I’m now starting to take deliveries, and my ‘stash’, if you can still call it that, is starting to look more like a shop!

I have so many kit and pre-cut ideas running around my head, from foundation-pieced hexies to a possible quilt along or block-of-the-month project... I’m finding it hard to concentrate on just one thing! My current project is a second All Squared Up kit using my gorgeous strip set in Sevenberry’s Japanese prints - watch this space…

If you're looking for more quilty fun and inspiration, why not pop over to Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts, Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation, and say hello.

A New Binding Trick...

Well it’s new to me anyway! Having spent years snipping the ends off my binding, feeding them into each other and sewing them down, I’ve never bothered with any other method –it worked fine, so why fix it?!

However… on one of my many perusals through Pinterest I came across this method which made me stop and think. Whenever I have seen ways for sewing the binding ends together before sewing them down, they’ve always demanded leaving so many inches of spare binding, I’ve never seen the point, just call me tight! I even bought a ‘smart’ ruler thing at QuiltCon last year... I used it once! Anyway, Vicki over on Sew Inspired shared her method, which does not require acres of spare fabric, and works like a dream!

So share and share alike, I’ve added a quick tutorial using this method my to collection, I’m not poo-pooing my old way at all, this still features in my Beginner’s Quilt series, but I’ve added a link if you would rather try this method instead.

Talking of quilt kits, we have a new version of our pre-cut Beginner’s Quilt kit which features the gorgeous Fablewood collection from Dashwood Studios. This colour scheme is so fresh and summery, I think it would look so sweet on a little girl’s bed. I am aware that these kits seem to be very girly-orientated at the moment, I am working on that!

I’ve also been wondering whether calling these kits “Beginner’s Quilts” may be putting some quilters off… having just made yet another version for this new kit, I have to say I really enjoyed making such an quick and easy quilt, especially in such gorgeous fabrics!  So for more experienced quilters, these kits also make great weekend projects, or even emergency gifts for early arrivals!

If you are local to the North Yorkshire/Teesside area, we'll be at The Rainbow Plant Centre's Vintage & Craft Fair, Stokesley Road, Nunthorpe, this Sunday (24th April) 10-3pm - why not pop along and see what our local community has to offer!

Did you know we also have a Newsletter? Learn about our new products, events, pattern releases and subscriber-only offers - sign up below!

This week I'm linking up with Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's Bee Social and Needle & Thread Thursday over on My Quilt Infatuation, come over and say hello!

A new Hexy Kit on the block - and we have a winner!

Thank you to all you wonderful people who entered our Prize Giveaway to win a Mono Flowers strip set and charm pack bundle! I am very pleased to announce we have a winner… Penny H, who on Facebook said these fabrics and colours are very her, so I can’t wait to see what she makes! Congratulations Penny! I have messaged you on Facebook :) 

 

New gems from Sewmotion

As well as our Mono Flowers pre-cuts above, I’ve been busy cutting away and have just released this Japanese beauty.

This Japanese stripper set consists of 40 strips - four each of 10 designs, all from Sevenberry’s Japanese collection, and are priced at £35 each - and don't forget we offer free UK postage! I do love these rich colours with highlights of pink and cream, so Japanese! I have so many ideas of what to make with this, and if I can get away from the computer, I may just do that! 

The other pre-cut released this week is this cute 6-piece Fat Quarter Bundle made up of four prints from Dashwood Studio’s new Fablewood collection, plus two blenders from their Twist range. These bundles are £17.50 each (with free UK postage) - I can see another Beginner’s Quilt Kit coming on ready for the Craft Fair season. 

Talking of craft fairs, our first of the year will be on Sunday 24^th April, 10am-3pm, at The Rainbow Plant Centre’s Vintage/Craft Fair in Nunthorpe, near Stokesley – if you’re local it would be lovely to see you there.

This week, we also have a new Hexy Cushion Kit on the block – this version of our pre-cut hexagon kit features this gorgeous soft pink from Sevenberry’s Japanese range, together with Robert Kaufman’s Essex Linen and a Kona Graphite. 

Each kit includes 10 fabric strips, 80 hexy papers, a Sewline Glue Pen, Aurifil thread and full colour instructions to make a 16”sq. cushion – the perfect portable holiday project, or a great introduction to hand-sewn English paper-piecing.

It seems I've been staring at the computer screen all week, I’ve been updating sewmotion.com and have a new checkout, you can now pay with all major credit cards without having a Paypal account!  Having said that, one of the things I love about writing these blogs is that it makes me realise the amount I actually get done in a week and that I haven’t been stuck at the Mac afterall!

I would just like to leave you with pics of my latest quilt, Monochrome Sunset (soon to be released as a kit). I forget it was only last weekend that we had glorious sunshine, and we managed to take some beautiful shots at our local landmark, Teesside’s Transporter bridge. I hope you like them!

This week I'm linking up with Needle & Thread Thursday over at My Quilt Infatuation, and Sew Fresh Quilt's Let's Bee Social - come and say hello and be inspired!