Hi all, well its been an eventful week around here that’s for sure. I’ve been putting out fires left, right and centre.
Aurifil thread sets for Big Woods that were supposed to arrive ten days ago have been stuck in customs - my FedEx rep has become a close friend due to the approximately one billion hours I’ve spent on the phone to him this week!! Thankfully overnight I got a message that the container has been released, and the boxes will be here late this afternoon. If you’re waiting on your Big Woods order that has threads in it, it will be in the post just as soon as I get my grabby little hands on them, Monday (Australian time) at the very very latest.
On top of that there’s been quite a few errors in the packing of the Free Spirit Big Woods kits…. there’s an email going out about those today, Free Spirit have been great in jumping on the issues to have them fixed up. I guess its good to remember that everyone is only human and packing errors in a factory, or customs problems with a shipping container are just as easy mistake as tipping over your coffee cup!
Anyway. These things will soon all be rectified and everyone can move on with their quilts, which are, after all, only quilts. As someone said to me on social media yesterday, it’s all relative - no one has died, no wars are being started over incorrect fabric or lost threads. We will all survive.
I’ve come across a lot of fun things in the last few weeks that I’ve been saving up to tell you about. Firstly, these completely awesome rulers. A student in my class at Sisters had them, and let me tell you I couldn’t wait for it to be lunchtime fast enough to order them :) I love a rainbow, and rainbow plus glitter means sparkly sewing. They’ve arrived in Sydney, they’re awesome, and you need some in your life. In fact, I might need more.
While we’re on the subject of rulers, my Colour Value Tools are in stock now - if you would like one, you can find them here:
I’ve been a fan of Anna Maria Horner fabrics for ages, in fact at Material Obsession we were the first people ever in Australia to stock her fabric! And Amy Butler and Tula, too. But Anna brought out Chocolate Lollipops not long after we opened the shop, and we wanted it very badly - but the distributor here wasn’t bring it in. “Too bright for the Australian market” we were told… and I guess at that time, it was. But not for us, so we made a special indent order and had to wait for months and months to have it in store, but it was worth it!
She has a new collection coming out, and while I’m a fab of her fabrics I’ll admit I’m not usually a fan of her quilts… although insider tip here, did you know I taught her to hand quilt? Yep, true story. Her new collection is called Anna Loves Hue, and its all about colour. The fabrics are great, but the quilt that goes with the collection is FANTASTIC. I love it, hard. I’m going to buy the kit for it, if I can find it in Australia - the shipping on something that heavy from overseas is just brutal at the moment. I haven’t bought a kit for a quilt in a VERY. LONG. TIME. but its so cool! Here it is an Anna’s website
Hmmm, other cool things I wanted to show you…..have you seen Tula’s new collection of hardware from Sallie Tomato? Peeps its NEON PINK.
So awesome. Plus its that beautiful, sturdy Sallie Tomato product I love. If you haven’t used the ST hardware for a bag before, you don’t know what you’re missing out on. It gives such an amazing, professional finish.
Tula made me a bag for my birthday using it - it’s completely beautiful, and it uses her as yet unreleased fabric collection, Untamed, new ribbons and strapping from Renaissance Ribbons, and the new hardware. Its truly gorgeous. I haven’t had a chance yet, but I’m going to do a video of me stocking it with all my favourite stuff for social media soon.
She even appliquéd little heart on the inside xx
The pattern is A Place for Everything from By Annie if you’re looking for it.
Here’s something else I went shopping for at Sisters. Tula and I often like to start quilts that we make “together” - at the same time that is, not making the same quilt. She always finishes before me because she lives alone with no husband or dog, and doesn’t run a shop or teach or any of that stuff, so her sewing time is pretty much her own. But thats ok, I wander along in her wake and we both always get there in the end.
This time we have decided to make an awesome quilt by our dear friends, Jenny and Helen from Sew Kind of Wonderful. We hang out with them when we’re in Sisters a lot, they are the most awesome, fun, beautiful and kind people you’re ever likely to meet and we love them to bits! The quilt we are making, along with our mate Sally Frey, is called Tripping Out.
Its such a cool design! Jenny and Helen are famous for their incredible rulers that make curved piecing a breeze, and while there aren’t any curves in this quilt there IS a ruler that goes with it. I was skeptical about needing it (I’m a pretty good patchworker) but when I realised what it does I got one right away. It takes all the precision piecing out of these triangles, its so so clever.
T, Sally and I all bought the same backgrounds fabrics to make our quilts but we’re all using different fabrics for the colours. We are using Fableism Wovens for out backgrounds. We all bought some at Stitchin’ Post in Sisters (they have them online https://stitchinpost.com/search?type=product&options[prefix]=last&q=fableism*) and then T and I both filled in some other colours to play with from Cottoneerfabrics.com, just because we’re both fabric addicts and why have one option when you can have 5.
And on that note, I bought the Northern Lights pattern too, because they go really well together and I thought they would be fun in my TV den. And they use the same ruler. Bonus! https://sewkindofwonderful.com/products/northern-lights-1?pr_prod_strat=jac&pr_rec_id=0b136822a&pr_rec_pid=8769186169075&pr_ref_pid=8769691877619&pr_seq=uniform
My fabrics are arriving in today's post.
Do you want to sew along with us?? I think it would be really fun if you did! I won’t put the sew along on social media, it will be just for you Smites… you can see my quilt and Sal and Tula’s too as we go along, and make sure and show me yours if you’re making it and I’ll post it too. I won’t be able to start for a few weeks because I have to:
Finish my Aurifil Thread Labs project - which was due a month ago but the threads have been stuck in customs with everything else!!!! Aaaargh!!
Finish up the Big Woods instructions so that I have heaps of time in 2025 to work on something else super secret thats going to be for after Big Woods…. OMG so exciting
Finish cutting kits for my retreat and packing the goodie bags!
Actually theres two super secret exciting projects… can’t tell you about that one yet either
And then I can start. So you have plenty of time to order your pattern and ruler from Helen and Jen and gather your fabrics up. Who’s in? Smites stitching together…. Maybe we should have a progress Zoom too? Let me know what you think.
Have a great week Smites!
Sarah
I ordered the Anna Maria quilt as well . The delivery date is November. I couldn’t resist, it’s exquisite. I know it cost an arm and a leg but it will be worth it.
I see all the questions about big woods this week. You have the patience of a saint