Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 11:39PM i'm doing some housekeeping around here. streamlining, changing things. making them neater, cleaner, softer. making the edges smoother but more distinct. pardon my dust as we undergo this slight metamorphosis.
and please update your rss feeds, as i'm sure my rummaging has disrupted the computer-sprites.
x
change, cleaning, new layout Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 10:59PM this post is mostly just to bookmark where i go to shop. note: i live in sydney's north so my shopping range will reflect that.
local quilt shops
the remnant warehouse
cottage quiltworks
the craft depot
australian online retailers (fabric)
polka dot tea fabrics
clair's fabrics
peppermint stitches
the craft depot
amitie textiles
the quilters' store
australian online retailers (notions)
ms midge (aurifil thread, flatter by soak)
ozquilts
punch with judy
sewing machines
bernina 440QE (bernina australia)
juki TL98P (capron carter) (sewing machine city)
online fabric retailers
hawthorne threads
fat quarter shop
knotted thread
pink castle fabric
fabric.com
local quilt groups
Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 10:23PM real life quilty friends
sel (diary of a mad quilter)
claire (pinkyingblog)
tash (onethousandlayers)
di (snippets n scraps)
amy (badskirt)
danielle (petitselefants)
jeannette (gone aussie quilting)
jenna (jenna appleton)
michelle (buttontree lane)
Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 10:12PM this is just a quick hello, for anyone who is curious.
hi. i'm jenn.
i blog here at penny poppleton. you can call me penny; i don't mind. (it's my nom de guerre.)
i write. mostly young adult, or coming of age stories. i write stories about families that are disguised as romance. i also used to read a lot; i can recommend a reading list for you any time you like. or you can check out my goodreads.
i sew. boy, do i sew. i'm mostly a quilter though i started out dressmaking. i can make bags and cushion covers and occasionally i work on commission. i love to play with fabric, to collect and cultivate a curation of textiles. a full fabric shelf is endless possibility, to me.
i live. i reside in the suburbs of sydney, australia, with my fantastic husband and his two clones our two children, piper and owen. i'm thirty-two.
i like hyperbole. i am passionate about good coffee and social justice. i am a mermaid. my favorite series is harry potter. my favorite film is the labyrinth. i have anxiety. i don't like being idle. i will not judge your messy house.
i hope you enjoy reading about my life. it's mine and i kinda love it.
xx penny
Friday, June 21, 2013 at 12:31AM I have been quite conspicuously absent from the blogosphere, haven't I?
Well, I have had a very good reason!
This is Owen. He was born early on the last Sunday in May. We had him at home, in a nice roomy pool in the dining room, and I got to reach down and pull him out of the water and place him on my chest. I looked at him and it was like I'd always known him.
Labor was short but very painful. Owen was posterior the whole time and I felt very lonely in the pool, though it helped with the pain. I labored for five hours. After my waters broke, I pushed for 13 minutes. Our birth support Lucie missed it by a day -- she was on a plane to Darwin, to start a new job, and boy did I miss her. We had our excellent midwife, of course, and Nanna came to sit and wait for Piper to wake up. (Piper slept through the entire thing.)
I've been saying it was an awful birth, and it was hard, but maybe awful is too strong a word. I had a (well-managed) post-partum bleed which really knocked me down for a good week, though, and with it came a bit of news: our midwife suggested the next baby would probably need to be born in hospital. Just in case.
But as soon as I held him, and maybe even a little before, in those last, awful, dragging weeks, I knew Owen would be my last baby. Just like I knew his name before was born, just like I knew he would be a boy, I knew we were done. I held him and my entire life clicked into focus.
So I am only a little sad. Pregnancies are things best shared. My first pregnancy I shared with a girl named Ellen who became a wonderful friend. We became new parents within eight weeks of each other and watchd our little girls grow up side by side. This time, I was pregnant not only alongside my best friend, but at the same time as several other friends and acquaintances. When I told Sarah I was done, but I was sad about it, she said, "At least our last pregnancies were together." And that made me feel better about it than pretty much anything else.
It's hard to explain if you don't have a new baby, but at the same time you love them desperately, you don't really know them yet. So you're learning this little person from the beginning, and if you already have a baby (or in our case, a suddenly-very-tall-and-strong-toddler), you can't help but compare. They are similar, but all I can see are the differences. My frame of reference is my daughter, my brilliant, quiet, introverted, artistic, determined daughter. And I have this son who is eyes-open, throwing his head back to gaze out at the world, and I want to know him already. I want to be able to cut a glance his way and know what he's not saying, like with Piper. (She not-says an awful lot. I am fluent in her not-speech.) I am impatient to know this creature. He is already so much of my heart.
I am off "maternity leave" on Monday, so it'll be back to regularly scheduled posts. (I have to talk about the Guild, the show, our group quilt, and I promised Krissy I'd write a quick tutorial on a second quilt. So it should be a busy week.) If you left a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter message and I didn't respond personally - I am sorry. I am deeply grateful for all the love. I owe you all cookies and tea.
Mwa. See you soon.
Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 9:34PM A week or so ago, my husband and I were talking about sicknesses and wounds and childhood bumps and bruises, and he mentioned that we were the only people he knew who hadn't taken their kid to the emergency room yet. I countered that it was because I am American (and therefore still have an "insurance might not cover this" mentality) but also that we were fairly sensible. We watch our kid, I reasoned, and he agreed; and besides, it's not like she does much that's too dangerous, anyway.
Oh, the hubris of it. It only takes a second.
Yesterday morning, while eating her breakfast omelet, our little space cadet fell off her toddler chair with her (metal cake-sized) fork* in her mouth and she somehow landed on it hard enough to STICK IT IN HER NOSE. That's right, I had to pull a stuck fork out of my child's nostrils. It was in there good, too, and she bled everywhere. Of course, being nine months pregnant, my first reaction was "oh shit", my second reaction was CALL HUSBAND, and my third reaction was to cry for 45 minutes, completely out of character or rationality for me. (I also apologize to my husband for calling him a nasty name when he didn't pick his phone up immediately. That's hardly fair.)
I caught Mr Poppleton just as he was stepping onto the train platform, and he turned straight back around. I didn't even consider a GP; we live a one-minute drive from a public hospital with an emergency room, and that was where we were going. (Fork. In. Baby.) I grabbed Piper's pile of clothes (she was still in jim-jams, and bleeding everywhere on them) and we waited for Daddy in the car. I was shaking but I remembered to close the back door, leaving the dog outside. I had left my handbag in the car the night before, so we were all ready.
We got to the ER and I pulled myself together long enough to explain what happened, and then the triage nurse came out and assessed Piper. She didn't want the clip to test her pulse, and had to have the sticker, but (for whatever reason) I had my iPad mini in my handbag, so Peppa Pig kept her sufficiently occupied during the poky assessing parts. We were triaged at a 4, which is good, because it meant our child wasn't dying. (I was still a half-hour into my legendary weeping spree.) Piper was calm, not bleeding much, watching the iPad, and Daddy was calm. Even I was calm, except every time I looked at her little bloody jimjams...and remembered pulling the fork out of her. My tiny baby. Okay, the bloody clothes had to go.
I waddled out to the car, got her change of clothes, then came back, and we changed her in the waiting room. As we were changing her the attending doctor turned up. It was not very much fun trying to get the Tiny Blonde One to sit still while the doctor looked up her nose with the light, but we managed, and finally the doctor said she couldn't see any lasting damage, and judged it "just a bad scratch". Well, okay; I definitely pulled a fork out of some soft tissue, but I'll take quick healing over quibbles any day of the week. Piper was going to be fine, if swollen and sore. I could live with that.
After that I offered to drop Mr Poppleton off at a station nearer the city, and he bought me coffee (which was the only thing I had tp eat or drink all morning, I would later realize). He went on in to work, and Piper and I visited Nanna, who had been kept updated and was relieved to see Piper in the flesh looking a bit sore but not fatally wounded. We played at Nanna's house until midday, and she fell asleep in the car on the way home.
Her top lip is fairly bruised on the inside, as are her gums, which makes me think she hit with the tines straight in (as opposed to angled upward). She has a fat little lip but yesterday she was full of kisses, even though she would kiss us - wince - then kiss us again. But she is mostly the same, and went to school today cheerful and happy. We're still giving her baby Nurofen from time to time, just to make her more comfortable.
Now, I heard from several reliable sources that a traumatic experience can trigger labor, so I fully expected to be typing this one-handed. I'm a pretty calm and action-oriented person; even as I was sobbing into the phone to my husband, yelling for him to get back home right now, we have to go to the emergency room, I was mentally making lists of what needed to be done: back door shut, clothes for the baby, my phone, my keys, water for the dog. I ran to do everything, carrying a 13kg toddler, and managed to get herself and myself in the car in less than four minutes. (Impressed, right? Me too.)
I have, though, been doing this for years. My dad worked out of town, which meant I, as the much-older kid, was the one who had to help my mom when my sisters wounded themselves. For perspective, my mother has five rambunctious girls, and twice I had cuts that nearly required stitches (including the first one, triggered by a slippery bathtub fall, where my mom went searching for my dad and he wasn't fishing where he said he would be and she kept muttering "I will kill him" over and over and here I am holding a towel and an ice pack to my bleeding body and finally I blurt out, "Please don't kill Daddy"). My sister Jillian actually had stitches twice in six weeks - once falling off a lawn chair and catching a BBQ to the face, the second time leaping off a stack of catalogues into a coffee table. She also shut her finger in the car door and lost a thumbnail. Janaka had a cut finger so bad it took a splint and four bandages to fix up, and then she broke her arm at soccer. Whitney fell and knocked her front baby tooth out and sobbed all day because she was convinced the Tooth Fairy wouldn't give her money for a missing tooth. So naturally, I text my mother, expecting sympathy and understanding, and she texts me back, "Welcome to the ER years."
Sigh. :)
I knew I got my relentless pragmatism from someone!
I am very glad for my husband, who didn't even hesitate to cancel his morning meetings and turn on his heel and head back home. I am glad he held the baby (she wanted Daddy!) and didn't care if he got blood on his shirt. I am glad he didn't hassle me too much for the irrational crying, even though it is frankly terrifying for him when I do cry, because it's not that common. (Pregnancy, so much fun for everyone!) And I'm glad that he is always fishing where he says he'll be fishing. Thank you, other half. You are wonderful.
Anyway, Piper is okay, and I am increasingly miserable (so very pregnant, a head cold from the shock, and so over being sick and pregnant). But tomorrow is Friday, which means another appointment. And Saturday means a meeting of the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild! (Come say HI! I should be there unless I am in labor or too sick to leave the house. I'll probably be there. At least for a bit.)
I am hoping things calm down...and I am hoping that we have this baby soon. I would very much like to have my husband home and my new little baby in my arms and Piper learning how to be a big sister! (Also I would like to be able to vacuum again. And bend over. And tie my own shoes and put underwear on without having to do the maneuver where I hold them in front of me with one hand and randomly stab my feet where I think the leg holes are. Dignity: not optional if you want your butt covered.)
I will leave you with this picture of the Little Miss at the hospital yesterday. Since my family is all in the US, this was all over my social media. It is nice to think that everyone was praying for her as it was happening though. Thanks to everyone who tweeted, facebooked, and texted well wishes for us. We appreciate it.
And yesterday afternoon, feeling a bit better.
And this afternoon, still a bit puffy but feeling much better.
Hopefully we don't have to do that again...fingers crossed!!
*We have always given Piper natural materials where possible - so tiny teaspoons and cake forks for cutlery, dull brie knives for cutting up bananas (we just started those, with supervision, last week), real crockery. She's only broken one dish and one glass in her life. It's a big part of Montessori, having natural materials and using them in practical life, and besides the connection to things that come from the earth, it helps her to know she has child-size implements that are the same as Mama and Daddy use. The actual issue wasn't her using a fork at all--it was the fact that she frequently gets up during meals and dinks around. We will be working on that from here on out!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 9:59PM I have been contemplating the next step in my quilty learning lately, and we've been discussing how to make it work. My overall goal would be to invest in a longarm and quilt not just for myself, but for a select group of customers, too. I'd love to do FMQ on a larger scale than I can now, and in discussing what I love and don't love about my sewing machine, the main constraint comes down to space and power.
Don't get my wrong; I think the Bernina 440QE is a fabulous little machine. It's an absolute workhorse, and for piecing/assembling/smaller FMQ projects, it's a dream come true. But I'll be honest. I'm kind of outgrowing it. I make lots of BIG quilts (the last two tops I assembled were 112" square and 96" square) and trying to roll a BIG quilt up into the tiny throat of my Bernina is a struggle. My quilting suffers as the weight of the quilt drags it down, distorting the stitches. I also suffer from tendonitis in my right elbow and every time I quilt, it flares up from the stress of holding a huge pile of fabric steady while I wrench the other half of a quilt around.
If I could go back in time, I'd probably do a bit more research before buying, simply because these are such important investments, and I really went on recommendations without realizing my own needs. I should have asked myself what size quilts was I likely to make? I love making big quilts -- I love the scale and size of massive, useful things that vast people like us can snuggle under -- for me and my husband, that means no less than 85" square.
Now, I don't have room for a longarm (YET), so my dream of buying the most basic Gammill is a far-away dream. But there was a middle-ground solution. I have been intending to replace my backup machine for some time. (Note: Janome 319s for sale, with 1/4" foot and walking foot, in perfect condition, for sale, $200!) I wanted a machine that had more power. Inspired by a few people in the blogosphere (Rita and Elizabeth, namely) I began to do my research. Quietly. About eight months ago, to be exact. And I concluded that I use maybe 10% of my Bernina. Ouch.
What I wanted was a machine that had a lot of power, could zap through complicated piecing/layers, and didn't have any unneccesary frills. I wanted something I could drive, and a straight-stitch semi-industrial machine was my vague ideal. I kept hearing about the Juki TL98P, and research kept pointing me in that direction. As soon as I figured out that you could attach it to a longarm frame, however, I was sold.
It's also less than half the price of a basic Gammill, for frame, freight, and new Juki. Consider me doubly sold.
+
Now, my husband and I really like each other. (I may have mentioned this a few times.) We don't really do flowers and romantic dates, but we save up for big events. Anniversaries are big deals for us - we go a little bit fancy. (Last year we got each other nice leather bags.) Last week my husband came home describing a camera he wanted. Then he turned around and asked me if I still wanted a Juki. As I picked my jaw up off the floor, he suggested we do that for anniversary presents. A camera and a sewing machine. Um, how fast can I say yes? I had my email open and was composing an enquiry to Bob at Capron Carter before he'd even finished the sentence. :)
So today Bob delivered the machine (just specially for me, since I'm so pregnant!), helped me set it up, and got me started.
Immediately I was thrilled by how beefy it sounds. This machine doesn't mess around - it's semi-industrial, so while there are nice touches like the flywheel locking while you load a bobbin (domestic machine regular feature, not common on industrial machines) there are typical industrial touches, too (side-loading bobbin and thread, that amazingly powereful 1500 stitch/minute motor). Another big difference is that it's not much bigger than my Bernina - smaller in footprint, in fact, and skinnier, but certainly taller. Here is a spool of Aurifil in the throat of the Juki...
And in the throat of the Bernina.
It's the difference between a lap quilt and a king sized quilt.
The body of the Juki is also metal, and when you take the top off, it's a few wires and a heap of mechanical parts, as opposed to a computer in a plastic-clad body. I feel like this would be a great machine to take to meetings, on retreats, and out and about generally, because while it's big and heavy, it's not a dominator, and if it tips over in the car, you're not going to be sweating bullets to see if it's okay!
I also really like the thread-cutting feature. Oh man. Yes please. This will make chain piecing an absolute dream. I am forever losing pairs of scissors down the back of my machine, which is beyond frustrating.
One thing I was concerned with about the Juki was whether or not they make a 1/4" piecing foot. I can more or less eye off a scant 1/4" seam, but better safe than sorry, right? Now, they do sell guides though it seems rather fussy, so I investigated further, and it turns out that apparently the compensating foot gives you a perfect scant 1/4" seam allowance. I haven't tried it yet (naturally I went straight into quilting) but I'll keep you posted.
So far, I love it. Of course it's a weird week in terms of Piper care, so I can't get in my sewing room much, and I have to finish the quilt I'm working on with my Bernina (since I already pre-wound all the bobbins, nerrr) but luckily it's only 60" square and straight line stitching anyway. I've got two more quilts to quilt and I can practice on the Juki, and then once I feel confident, I'll send my Bernina in for a service. (It is definitely due!)
I am really excited to get to know this machine better, to learn how to get the most out of it, and eventually, to start quilting on a frame!
And I think, it might be time to make this guy a quilt of his own. He deserves it. xx
Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 9:45PM We are one step closer to being finished with our Sydney Modern Quilt Guild group quilt. It is called The Rainbow Connection and it is from Tacha Bruecher's excellent pattern Over the Rainbow in her 2011 book Hexa-Go-Go. The pattern was used with permission and there is even a block from Tacha herself in our quilt! (It's the one with Mendocino mermaids.)
I love this quilt. It will be on display in the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair in June, and afterward, we are hoping to sell the quilt, and donate the proceeds to charity. If you love this quilt, spread the word. (That said, if it wins any awards, it will have to travel, so it might not be up for sale for a while!)
Sel spent a good six hours quilting it today, which means we are so much closer to the finish line. We only have four things left to do (and I only have to do two of them)!
Anyway, I made Sel pose with the quilt top. She worked so hard for us today.
And then we took photos of the top...
And the pieced back!
And now it is safely ensconsed in the boot of my car awaiting the hanging sleeve, after which, it will be given to Marilyn, who has offered to bind it for us. WHEW, and thank you Marilyn!
I have to admit, finishing the top was a huge relief for me. After last month's meeting, we had a box of sashed blocks, but I ended up just figuring it would be easier if I spent an afternoon assembling the top (rather than doling out rows and then trying to collect them). Logistically, yes it was easier...but it was more like four afternoons (including making borders) in the end. I am always glad to finish a quilt but I was really glad to see the back of this one! :)
Thank you to everyone who contributed a block, kept up with us on Instagram, or were just a part of the guild and offered moral support. It has really come together so beautifully. I (we) are so thankful to be part of such a lovely community of creative, caring, generous individuals. THANK YOU!!
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 3:21PM Howdy everyone! It's Wednesday.Which means it's time to link up with Lee and check out other WIPs!
Now, I love Wednedays. Wednesdays are swimming lessons for Piper, which Nanna does, so I get a few hours to myself on Wednesday mornings. I usually go to the cafe and hang out. Sometimes I take hand-sewing, but today it was just me and my red notebook. I wrote a to-do-list for the week my husband was away and even though I had the best of intentions, I got very little done! So this is a pretty accurate list of my WIPs, in photo form.
But before we get started...look what I found walking outside today. Autumn leaves. WINTER IS COMING. (Miiiight be watching Game of Thrones during naptime...)
FINISHES
This is the Liberty quilt I made for new baby Matilda. The solids are Michael Miller Cotton Couture and I kept the layout deliberately casual.
I kept the quilting simple (on the diagonal) to keep it soft but nicely quilted.
The back is two large pieces of Liberty that was given to me by a family friend. I bound it in Liberty too, machine-stitching, so it would stay nice and secure for baby.
My wee label!
This is not the completed top, but this is the layout for the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild group quilt. I finished the top and handed it off to lovely Sel who will be quilting it this weekend! I am so excited for this one to be out of my sewing room. It is massive (112" square) and it was taking up all my mental and emotional space. So it is a good thing it is on to the next step. :)
You can see Sel and Ruby doing the organization of the blocks as we on the stairs hollered down instructions. Sounded like Battleship: "A1 to E4!"
I made a trivet for my husband to take to work to put his coffee cup on.
And he got one for his desk at home, too.
And - remember this quilt? My show quilt? I finally put the top together a while ago (two weeks? Three weeks?) and have had it folded on my shelf for ages.
Yesterday I added a skinny white border to make the blocks float and today I pressed it and pin basted it. Phew. Getting hard to pin-baste.
And here is the beginning of the quilting. The colors all have corresponding Aurifil colors coming! I swear!
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Me. 34 weeks. I'm so excited for this baby!
And all the other WIPs in my photo at the top of the page. :)
And now for some obligatory Piper photos. This was hanging out on the porch with my iPad...
And this was watching it like a pro. We love Peppa Pig!
That's it for my week. How about you? What are your WIPs? Link up with Lee and be sure to let us know! xx
Saturday, April 13, 2013 at 7:15PM The truth is, I really like my husband. He's just the greatest. I mean, he has flaws (as do I) but when it comes to two people who like each other (who really like each other), and who are pretty perfectly suited, well, that's us. So when work takes him Very Far Away for seven days, I get a little blue. That happened on Easter Monday: he got on a plane and went all the way to Austin, TX.
I did not get very much sleep all that week.
Aside from all the (imaginary) robbers trying their best to break into my house (that did not happen), my husband is a professional snorer. I am very used to the sawing of logs starting from about thirty seconds after his head hits the pillow, and I have found that trying to go to sleep without it is more or less futile. He's my white noise machine.
Anyway, Piper was distraught and clingy and I was flat-out mopier than a teenage Rilke fan.
But! It ended! He arrived safely at stupid o'clock in the morning (we were in the car at 545am to pick him up, if that's any indication of his earliness), and even brought his little cowpoke something from Tejas:
And life is back to normal, more or less. We ladies are both grateful to have Daddy back!
This weekend I got some proper time to do Fun and Exciting things - namely, visit Calico & Ivy for a last trip before they close on 4th May. (Please, quilters and fabric people, go forth, the sales are amazing: half off almost all fabric, except Liberty, which is discounted to $45/m.) I am mostly devastated I haven't been stockpiling Liberty for the past year and a half, because now they are going and I won't be able to just drive down and go to Calico & Ivy whenever I want some. So even though today was my "last visit"...well, we'll see. (There are weeks yet.)
This is the Liberty I picked up.
And this is the other fabric I chose. I can't seem to go past those deep blue/greens, and I love that honeycomb orange/white dot. I was also chuffed to grab some of the Sherbert Pips scarf fabric - perfect for a binding or a wee little skirt!
It occurs to me my camera is...well, it's somewhere, so I can't post a professional picture of the finished quilt I made for Aaron & Floss's lovely new baby Matilda, but it was all done in Liberty lawn and Michael Miller Cotton Couture. Piper and I dropped it off last Sunday and I got to hold a teeny little three-week-old. I am so ready to have my own baby. Hurry up, kid! (In 3-7 weeks, that is, once you are cooked.) Baby Matilda is so sweet and so tiny and it always melts me when people have tiny baby girls - having had one myself, I am a sucker for wee lasses, for sure.
I also made a mug rug for my husband's work desk...
And before that, one for his home office.
I was thinking yesterday (looking out over my shamefully neglected garden) about how on my birthday last year I was outside, doing serious gardening, for three hours. I doubt I could do it for three minutes now. It's useful to remember that this pregnancy will end and I will be back to my peppy, energetic self soon enough! This is good, because I'm quite miserable at how LITTLE I can get done in any one sitting.
I miss being productive. I know it seems a little antithetical to say I'd be more productive once the baby comes, but I am hazarding a guess that babywearing is a lot easier than being swollen, pregnant and exhausted. :)
We have been talking about schools for Piper, this one, and the possible third one, and we've settled on what we want to do. Now I just have to decide what grown up occupation I'd like to do that can actually pay school fees. I'm already doing what I want to be doing (writing, and crafting), but it's a decision to pursue monetizing those activities. I need to sell my book. I've had people read it, and honestly critique it, and I believe it's good enough to be sold. Now: to do that. I do have two sequels planned (one sequel's character sorted, and a glimmer of an idea for a third), and the option for an earlier "prequel" set in Scotland, that fully develops the ideas introduced in the current book. In the meantime, we've enrolled Piper in the local Montessori and hoped for the best. The inside baby will be booked in as well. It's something we believe in, can get behind, and appreciate. In fact, when we toured the school, both Mr Poppleton and I were consumed with jealousy over how relaxed, inspiring, and creative the classrooms were. How I wish that had been my education!
I have a pin-basted quilt all ready to go. (The baby quilt for Miss Matilda is the one on the left; the one I have yet to quilt is on the right.)
I have a couple dolly quilts of some orphan blocks to make for Piper's little friends Ava and Ruby (they are dolls). I also have three other quilts to pin-baste and quilt before the end of April. In May, it's time for the Craft Depot sale. If you're in or near Sydney, be sure to stop in. There's heaps there and it's all on sale. I'll be camped out for that roll of batting. No dithering this time - I'm buying two!
Ooh - I almost forgot. One of my favorite all time novelty fabrics is this sweet little sailor print by Minny Muu for Lecian.
Isn't it cute? It has been impossible to get hold of yardage, until I tried something new - I did a Google Image Search and followed a few of the image links backward. Some were dead Etsy links, some were personal blogs, but one was a link to an Australian fabric shop that had YARDAGE. Suffice to say I was buying a meter before I could blink. That was Apatchy Quilting from somewhere in Brisbane. There was a bit of a kerfuffle getting the order through (of course I ordered when their Internet was down) but she express-posted it to me for no extra cost so I got it straight away once things were up and running. Great customer service and a nice quick turnaround!
I have also discovered The Stitcher's Cupboard, which is Camden based (so near Sydney) and I have gotten all my parcels within two days of placing an order. They are pretty reasonable for Australian fabric prices too, and the sale section is divine.
I have been a lot more judicious in my purchases since I began my big destash on Etsy, but let me tell you, it is worth it to add a bit of the right things back into my recently culled stash. Though considering how much of my stash is low-volume (one whole shelf of yardage and an entire container of FQs or large scraps) I think it's time to start a low-volume quilt. Someone mentioned a spiderweb quilt on Twitter. And a Farmer's Wife quilt. And I am off and running, with a million new projects...where I should be finishing the ones on my list!
(Still haven't made it through the list...am working on it though!)
Anyway hope you all are having a fabulous weekend. Catch you again soon!
xx Penny