Gum Valley Patchwork

Flutterby Snap Bag

This is the result of my 'little bit of shop sewing' that I mentioned in my last blog post. It is my Flutterby Snap Bag.

I just love the soft and pretty 'Wanderings' fabric collection by Poppie Cotton.

I decided to incorporate some pink lace which matched perfectly, and sew it with Colonial knots using some Cosmo stranded embroidery thread.

Why Colonial knots?......because I can't do French knots......lol!

As a finishing touch, I added a small silver Butterfly charm.

The kits are available now for $19 each, and of course as usual contain everything that you need to make one Flutterby Snap Bag......fabric, parlan, spring strip, lace, embroidery thread, charm and pattern.

I hope everyone enjoys the last day of Winter.......it's going to be a beautiful day here!

Linda     :)

Stitch in Spring

Apart from a little bit of shop sewing that I have been trying to sneak in, my whole life at the moment is revolving around the Stitch in Spring. I've been printing patterns, cutting fabric, kits are being packed, and goody bags are being stitched. Because it is all secret squirrel stuff, all I can show you is my current tally of completed bags. No fancy spreadsheet here......just a list on the flap of the cardboard box

I am almost half way to my total of 130 completed bags. Although with all of the bag outers done and most of the linings stitched, does that mean that I am over half way finished? My overall tally for all of the Stitch in Spring bags is sitting at 998 and by the time I finish the rest of them I will have made 1065 bags over the 9 years. Want to know something else? I haven't kept on single one for me.....lol!

If you are interested in attending the Stitch in Spring and thought that you had missed out......you are in luck!.....I have had a couple of last minute cancellations. I have just one place on the Saturday, and two on the Sunday.

Here are the details:

Gum Valley Patchwork

presents

‘Stitch in Spring’

with Leanne Knell (Petals & Patches) &

Amy Morgan (Amy Kallisa)

Saturday 21st September 2019, 10am – 4pm

and

Sunday 22nd September 2019, 10am - 4pm

at the

Santos Room, Surf Lifesaving Club

Cairns Street, Port Campbell

Cost : $130 per person

 

Includes: Patterns & kits for 4 different projects designed by Leanne & Amy; morning & afternoon teas; 2 course lunch; tea, coffee & drinks; special goody bag; lucky draws plus much more.

Leanne & Amy will have some of their beautiful creations on display, with patterns available for purchase.

I will also have my shop set up for a little retail therapy.

All of this while enjoying the view over the beautiful Port Campbell Bay.

  

Please contact me asap if you are keen to join in the fun. It's only a smidge over 3 weeks away.........eeek!

Linda    :)

presents

‘Stitch in Spring’

with Leanne Knell (Petals & Patches) &

Amy Morgan (Amy Kallisa)

Saturday 21st September 2019, 10am – 4pm

and

Sunday 22nd September 2019, 10am - 4pm

at the

Santos Room, Surf Lifesaving Club

Cairns Street, Port Campbell

Cost : $130 per person

 

Includes: Patterns & kits for 4 different projects designed by Leanne & Amy; morning & afternoon teas; 2 course lunch; tea, coffee & drinks; special goody bag; lucky draws plus much more.

Leanne & Amy will have some of their beautiful creations on display, with patterns available for purchase.

I will also have my shop set up for a little retail therapy.

All of this while enjoying the view over the beautiful Port Campbell Bay.

  

The Friendship Frolic

Lenora and I have been putting our heads together trying to work out a date for our Friendship Frolic event. As you are all aware, our 2019 Friendship Frolic was postponed due to Lenora's husband's accident and her decision to temporarily close her shop while she took on full time farming duties. Her shop is back open again, which is fantastic news, but try as we might we cannot seem to come up with a date in 2019 to hold our Frolic. I am working flat out preparing for the Stitch in Spring in September, then I'm off to Sydney for Quiltopia,  followed very shortly after with a trip to Sharjah to visit Emma, Ryan, Georgia and Madeline. Our trip will also include a small holiday which we are also excited about. It's back to get get organised for Janet Nesbitt's class, and by this time Lenora will be more than likely spending most of her spare time sitting in a tractor for harvest time. So with all of that in mind, we have decided to skip 2019......which I'm sure Lenora wishes that she could've done in April!......and look towards 2020 for our 5th Friendship Frolic celebration.

We have set the dates............Wednesday 20th through to Sunday 24th May.

We are excited......and hope that you are too!

Linda   :)

The girls will love them

I have made a start on some samples from the beautiful 'Wanderings' fabric from Poppie Cotton. On Wednesday, I whizzed these cute shorts.

It's a tad hard to show them off nicely as my little model is on the other side of the world, but I think that you will agree that they are super cute......especially with pockets on each side!

They are called Sycamore Shorts and the free pattern is available HERE. I know that I will certainly be making more of these in the future.

I started a new version of Clare Horsman's (Clare's Place) Hi-Lo Pocket Tunic yesterday, and managed to get the last of it stitched up this afternoon.

I have just ordered more patterns, and they will be back in stock by the end of next week.

Off to work out what to sew next!

Linda    :)

Whatchya Got Wednesday

For this week's post, I thought that I would show you a couple of new panels which arrived in the shop late last week. As mentioned just a few times before, I love Stacy Iest Hsu's panels, and I have stocked and made many of them over the last few years. When the samples are no longer required for display in the shop, they end up in our toy basket for the girls to play with.

and in April I posted the Best Friends Forever dolls over to them in Sharjah.

Stacy's newest panels are part of her Safari Life fabric range. The animal panel makes up 4 'wild' animals.......Lion, Elephant, Zebra and Giraffe. I can't wait to make up the panel, and I'm sure that Georgia and Madeline will be wanting to add them to their collection. The panels are $22 each and are listed online HERE.

The second panel is for a lovely fabric book.

The pages have added features.....

such as flaps.....

and ears, finger puppets and much more.

These larger panels are $34 each and are listed online HERE.

So there you have it.......two new and fun panels that would suit boys and girls alike.....and ideal to make ready for Christmas.

Linda    :)

Wanderings by Poppie Cotton

I'm back at the start of a new week with a very pretty post. Late on Friday afternoon my order of 'Wanderings' was delivered......all I had time to do was to have a quick look, unpack the boxes and price the pre-cuts before I headed off to Melbourne with some of the shop packed in to the car. I had been invited to take the shop to the Victorian Quilters Inc. AGM in Ivanhoe on the Saturday, and after being unable to attend last August due to illness and back problems, I was thrilled to be able to make the trip this year.

It was a lovely day and Hannah even called in for a catch up......and she helped me to pack up quickly as well! I was home again on Saturday evening and spent Sunday putting the stock back in the shop. It wasn't until this morning that I was finally able to start cutting, folding and bundling the new Wanderings fabric, and after a little rearrange, get the display up in the shop.

There are 21 fabrics in the collection, plus 2 panels....one in blue and the other in pink.

There are three colourways within the collection........blue

Pink......

and white.

While at Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City in May, I was excited to be able to meet both Jina Barney and Lori Woods, the designers behind the Poppie Cotton label.

It was really nice to see their booth and all of their gorgeous samples up close. I am often not good at asking for photos with sewlebrities, but I plucked up the courage and asked Lori for a snap.

They are both super nice.....just like their fabrics!

I have already selected 4 of the fabrics to make a new High-Lo Pocket Tunic for Georgia, and I will be working on getting some other new samples made up in the coming weeks....in between Stitch in Spring preparation! All of the bolted fabric, pre-cuts (2.5" strips; 5" squares; 10" squares; and fat eighth bundles), and panels are listed on my website HERE.

Linda    :)

Cold wintery snap

As I sit here it is raining outside and very chilly indeed. The weather forecast for the next four days is horrid, which means no gardening but lots of stitching! I was so glad that I grabbed the chance yesterday afternoon to mow the lawns, although I couldn't do some areas because it's just a little too soft underneath. I also got out the push mower and took to the strawberry garden area, and then attacked the plants, chopping them back ready for Spring, warmer weather and fingers crossed more yummy strawberries! With only 2/3rds of the plants trimmed, I am thinking that it might be some time before I'm out to do the last row!

 

It has been another busy week, but not making new projects, instead I am in full preparation mode for the upcoming Stitch in Spring event. I cannot believe that it is only just over 6 weeks away.......eeek! The bag making process has commenced and I spend my evenings pinning, cutting and turning out bags, ready for machine sewing the during daylight hours. My aim is to have them all done by the end of August.

For those of you who have booked in to the Stitch in Spring, the balance of the fee for the day is now due. I will be messaging those, who need to pay, over the next few days. If you are unsure, just send me a message and I can let you know. Once all the payments are in, I will then let you all know if I have any vacancies for the day.

Linda    :)

A productive week

I really do have a lot of stitching and kitting to get done in the next couple of months, what with the Stitch in Spring and the trip to Sydney for Quiltopia coming around very quickly. Sometimes the sample sewing is the easy part, it's the pattern writing, cutting and kitting that takes more time than I like. This last week has seen me add 5 new projects to the shop, and I have another couple in the drafting stage.

In no particular order, the new projects are:

'Bee my Sunshine' Zippered Pouch made from the lovely Bee Joyful fabric range by Deb Strain. This has to be the most popular fabric that I have ever had in the shop. I have used paper piecing shapes for the centre 'flower' design, and one of those lace zips that I love using in my projects because they are so easy to sew on. The pouch measures 23.5cm x 28.5cm and the kits are $20 each.

While on the subject of zippers, I also used one on this 'Picnic Point Carry Case'. This handy case is made using some of the great 'Picnic Point' Tea Toweling by Janelle Kent from Pieces to Treasure. Although my sample is made using the red tea toweling, I do have a few kits made up in the blue colourway. The case measures 14cm x 7cm x 24cm (excluding handle), and kits are $15 each.

You can see the blue colourway of the tea toweling fabric in my next new project....the 'Off we go' Bag. I have used some Boro webbing for the handles in this bag, and of course some fusible foam to give it extra body. It measures 30cm high (excluding handles) x 26cm wide x 13cm deep. Kits are in blue only, and are $38 each (includes all fabric, webbing, foam and pattern)

Earlier in the week I decided to make a new baby quilt from the cute 'Daisy Daisy' fabric collection from Anita Jeram. I added some of the pretty fabric from her 'Guess how much I love you' collection and came up with this pretty quilt. It measures 85cm x 110cm and the kits are $48 (includes borders and binding but not the backing fabric).

And last but not least.....my new 'Hexagon Kisses Needle Purse'. My other needle purses have been very popular, so here is a new one using 1/4" hexagons for the design. It looks huge in this photo, but it only measures 8.5cm x 7.5cm. The kit comes with everything that you need to make the needle purse, and are only $10 each. 

So there you have it......what I have been making this week. I'm off to finish folding patterns and packing the last of the kits ready the start of a new stitching week!

Linda    :)

Winter roses

I have had a couple of great days in the garden this week. I find that it's good for me to get out and spend time outside in the fresh air......even if it is under a beanie and a pair of overalls. While poking around last week I noticed that my new Hellebore that I bought and planted last Winter had survived Summer and had rewarded me with a gorgeous flower spike.

The others, which I had relocated to same part of the garden last year, have also flourished and are flowering really well. I think that I have finally found the perfect spot for them. Fast forward to yesterday when my visit to Warrnambool....and of course Bunnings and Pearson's Nursery.......saw me come home with five new Hellebore to add to my collection.

I now have 8 different varieties, along with three 'yet to flower' seedlings that popped up in my garden last year. Fingers crossed that this time next year I will be showing you all photos of my flowering Winter Roses.

Linda    :)