Festival

We have stocked Clarke and Clarke coated fabrics (oilcloth) since the shop opened. We love the ranges available from Clarke and Clarke, their shabby chic ranges have been very popular...to the point I am totally shabby chic'd out!
Festival has been around for just a few months - its my new favourite. It's inspired by the 1951 festival of Britain and the collection comprises of 4 printed home dec weight cottons, plain linen co-ordinates, and a beautiful embroidered linen.

 We jumped at the chance to dress our window for winter with fabrics from the new collection, and armed with 5 designs and about 24 hours we came up with this......

And when I say we...I mean I said yes great when Leanne and our latest Patch assistant Sheona came up with the ideas!!!


The Festival collection can be viewed here. We can order any of the designs from the Clarke and Clarke site for our customers. (minimum cut of 5m). Please email, or send a message via the website if you would like price information. Samples are available too via the Clarke and Clarke website.
We stock oilcloth from the Festival range in store and on the website available here

Giveaway Winner

Sorry for the delay - the days and weeks are running away with me again.
So without further ado - the winner has to be madscouser (Beth) who made me smile with the image of trying to get away from the sewing machine with sewing attached to her head.....
"I've sewn my hair into a seam & cut my trousers when cutting the sleeves off a t-shirt in my knee!"
beth, if you can email me please with your address, I'll pop the Indie bundle in the post for you.

Please share what you make - hair free I hope!!
Look out for the next giveaway next week......

Its all about Christmas prep here at Patch - we are arranging some more Christmas workshops and are frantically sewing up samples.
We have lots of great christmas gift ideas - we are having new shelves built in the shop especially!! Lots of kits and new books.
Gift Vouchers are available and in the next week we will have Christmas Wish Lists that you can leave for father christmas (or your husband) to find!!
Vouchers will also be available for the next Beginners Patchwork and Quilting Workshop to be held in January.
We are halfway through the second of these courses and they have been very popular aswell as lots of fun.
 And speaking of Christmas....the sample for next weeks Friendship Star Quilt Workshop was made up with festive fabric.......

 

This is Riley Blakes Alpine Wonderland available here

Indie

Back in June I blogged about my visit to Colchester for the UK Art Gallery Fabrics showcase.
I fell in love with Pat Bravo's fabrics and the companies ethos.

The quality of these fabrics is completely different to most of the other companies (it's the high thread count if you want to get technical I prefer the they just feel lovely description!) that makes them perfect for not only quilt and craft projects but garment making and home decorating too.

Indie - the latest range designed by Pat herself - is in Patch (and on the website) now.

For the first of what will be a monthly giveaway on the Patch blog, I am giving away a fat quarter bundle of all 10 of the indie prints we are stocking at Patch to one UK blog follower. (Overseas next time I promise!!)

 

To be included just become a follower of the blog and leave a comment telling me - and the rest of the blogging community - your biggest quilt (or crafting) disaster (happy accident if you like but let's face it sometimes things just have to go in the scrap bin!!)
I shall pick a winner on Monday 8th October.
Don't be shy!! I'm looking forward to hearing your tales of disaster!!

Liberty Lifestyle Fabrics

Liberty Art Fabrics - perhaps most famous for its, beautiful dressmaking fabrics, Tana Lawns - have launched a collection of craft cottons, a quilt weight fabric in unmistakingly 'liberty' designs.
The first one has been named Bloomsbury Gardens and has been designed by an in house designer at Liberty named Sholto Drumlanrig. 
Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey and Fat Quarterly enviably visited the Liberty design studios and you can read all about her visit here.

"Bloomsbury Gardens is a collection inspired by the historic district in London. This beautiful area is notable for its array of garden squares and historic architecture, and also has a rich cultural history. It is home to the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the University of London. The area also gave its name to the Bloomsbury Group of artists who met in private homes in the early 1900s.
The designs have been put together with this eclectic mix in mind and they are primarily inspired by the beautiful squares with their abundance of plants and flowers. Other design and colour inspiration has come from trips to the British Museum and also from looking at the beautiful interiors of Charleston, the home of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell and meeting places of the artists, writers and intellectuals of the Bloomsbury Group. "

(shamelessly borrowed from the Liberty website)

I first became aware of these following Spring Quilt Market when these prints were top of the must have coming soon list! I have been excited about it since I saw the QM news and even more so since I received a swatch pack from Liberty.

The range consists of 11 designs in 5 colours, in pale and deep shades. There are tiny flowers, a larger scale floral, geometric prints and a couple of paisleys too (of course). All with 'Bloomsbury' inspired names too...such as  Virginia and Woolf!!

I can't say I *love* all the fabrics, every design is beautiful but they don't do it for me in all colourways. I also personally think that bringing out 55 designs in a collection is way too many. But at least it gives shop owners and crafters a choice! The fabrics feel slightly softer than some regular quilting cottons, which makes me wish I had a little girl to make cute Liberty dresses for!

Patch is stocking the Red colourway in both the shop and online. 
I have my favourites.....
This one

And this one particularly...

All 11 designs in the red colour way are available in the shop and online, including fat 1/8 and fat 1/4 bundles.

I used a fat 1/8 pack to make this round cushion.....

 .......and table runner (excluding the backing and binding) for my window display - i am looking forward to changing it already so the cushion can make it home! Or I could just make another!!

There is free delivery on all orders of liberty bundles during September if you quote libertysept during checkout.

Inside Patch

I have had to have yet another move about in the shop - brought about after looking at my pile of forward orders and the realisation that it won't be very long before the Christmas fabric will need a place to live!
I am really pleased with how the shop is looking right now - we brought a painted dresser down from the studio space upstairs and made a (very organised for now) office/work area in its place.
The counter has been moved about a metre further into the shop which has given us tons more space. Enough space that we could do an aerobics work out if we wanted too (we won't).
Now all I need to do is sit and wait for the new fabric!
This was my first post using my phone, all great and very easy - apart from all the pictures being at the bottom - will need to work out how to insert them between paragraphs and perhaps I might blog more!

Art Gallery Fabrics

On Friday I hopped on a train to Colchester to attend an event organised by Hantex, promoting Art Gallery Fabrics. Hantex are the UK distributor for AGF and organised the day in order for shop owners, bloggers and the craft industry press could view all the ranges, existing and upcoming, of Art Gallerys fabrics and also to meet Pat and Walter Bravo, creative and marketing directors of the company.
Pat Bravo is as passionate about her company and her designs in real life as she is in her bio on her website. When Pat talks about her collections, the inspiration behind them, it is obvious that her heart and soul has gone into the designs.

 

Colour and vibrancy is very important to Pat, there are no beige and brown dreary civil war prints in AGF's collections! She spoke candidly about the need to encourage a new, younger community of quilters and crafters, which is something I feel strongly about too. But I'll save that rant for another post!

I have been aware of AGF for some time, but if I'm honest I wasn't sure I needed another range of fabrics in the shop, space is becoming an issue at Patch, not to mention the financial outlay required to keep introducing new collections! 

Fridays jaunt to Colchester showed me that Art Gallery Fabrics do set themselves apart from many other fabric companies. The quality is amazing, the cottons are not only perfect for quilting and craft projects but the high thread count make them ideal for dressmaking too.

The companys website is also a cut above the others. There are lots of tutorials and free projects available, each collection has a free quilt project. Each fabric collection also has a mood board, to help inspire. These are not just illustrations but photographs of real projects.

A huge bonus of the day was that I was able catch up with Katy again, and meet 2 lovely bloggers Rachel and Florence. Both of them have lovely blogs (I have followed Florence's sewing adventures for several years, it almost felt like meeting a celeb!!!!) The www (especially blogland and twitter) has an amazing community for likeminded quilty and crafty people and it never ceases to amaze me that you can meet 'in real life' and feel like you have known each other for ever!

I would like to thank Jackie, Paul and Josh from Hantex, who worked really hard to give Pat and Walter the perfect platform to share their companies philosophy with us. They are equally as passionate about AGF as its owners. The displays that were set up for fabric collections were beautifully arranged and very inspiring.

The dresses were stunning. But for me it was all about the quilts, some in very simple designs allowing the fabrics to speak for themselves.... (my kind of quilting!!) proving that you don't need overly complicated designs to make something amazing and even an absolute beginner can produce a beautiful quilt.

Predictably, I ordered some fabric......3 collections.

Indie by Pat Bravo shipping in August

Rock 'n' Romance (also Pat Bravo) shipping September

 

Bari J Splendor 1920 shipping in November

Fat Quarterly Retreat 2012

Next weekend I shall be getting on a train (all by myself - no small people needing a wee or a drink or a piece of Lego fixing/dismantling or whatever) and going to London to attend the first ever Fat Quarterly Retreat.
 I am stupidly excited, and equally nervous. I spend so much time playing shops and looking after my 4 boys that my online presence is a bit erratic , (you can see how brilliant I am at blogging from all the recent update) but I am really looking forward to meeting lots of people who I have met online over the past few years.
 I still need to make myself a name badge....I may or may not find the time this week to make myself one, but if not I'll be the person wearing a sticker that says Claire (cos thats my name) who looks like this....

Only my hair will probably be curly, and I won't be holding a birthday cake.....so I'll be the person who looks a bit like this!
I am only at the retreat for the Saturday, I need to get back for a family holiday on Sunday but will be in London from the Friday night, at the Strathmore Grange.....where I shall latch on to the first person who is nice to me! (not joking).
I'll be in Lu's portholes workshop on Saturday morning and John's wonky log cabin workshop on Saturday afternoon, my fabric is all ready, I shall try and sew my bestest, but as Katy will tell you, nobody is allowed to look at the back!!
See you all in 4 sleeps x

Charmed

I've been quite productive on the quilt front lately, well, productive by my standards in any case!
Last weekend I taught the first of our Charm Square workshops, we covered chain piecing and half square triangles and 8 ladies went home with either a small lap quilt or a jumbo floor cushion.
These are the ones I made for the shop - I was so wrapped up in the class that I totally forgot to pick up my camera!

Lap Quilt has pinwheels made with 1 Pezzy Print charm pack and approx 60cm and 50cm of Klona cottons in lime and crimson. It measures 40" square and would make a perfect baby play mat or picnic blanket.

The cushion was made with 1 Urban Cowgirl  charm pack and 30cm of Klona cotton in tan The binding is a Kaffe Fassett dot in Olive. It measures 24".

My next charm square attempt was probably the speediest start to hand-over project I've ever made..
On Good Friday I took 1 pack of Aneela Hoey's Walk in the Woods charm squares and some Walk in the Woods yardage for the sashing and border.
I pieced the charms simply as squares in blocks of 4, sashed with little red bows (about half a metre), the border is circle stripe in red and its bound with teeny mushrooms. I backed it with Klona in Ash and handed it over to my niece on Easter Sunday with only minor damage to my finger ends, and the loss of 2 and a half hours unpicking some really dodgy quilting. (matching the dodgy photography and the dodgy lighting, it was a dull bank holiday weekend here in Lowestoft!!)

Obviously you can make much bigger projects from the charms (Moda Bakeshop have lots of recipes for quilting projects) but I wanted to show that you can get a decent sized baby and toddler quilt for not many ££.
Our next Charm Square workshop is on Saturday 19th May, there are just 2 spaces left on the full day workshop, further info and bookings can be made by phoning the shop (01502 588778) or by emailing me (claire@patchfabrics.co.uk).

Inside....

 Inside Patch changes often. I am NEVER satisfied with how things look. But after almost a year there are parts I can honestly say, yes! this is why I wanted a shop....this is how it was supposed to look.......

Now in colour order...I glare at Leanne and Georgia to make sure they put them back in the correct place ;)

The growing collection of oilcloth is now stored on very nifty stands

buttons..I really didn't want one of those cage like stands to display them - in fact didn't want these tubes either but they work!!

plain cottons (Klona) - obviously there are more than this pic shows, I am adding to the plains with some non Klona plains in the search for the perfect Orange!!

lampshade (30cm size) in the 'workshop' window

other window

Lampshade Workshops

This week at Patch its been all about planning - planning changes to one of our rooms upstairs (more news on that later), planning the new website (ditto) and planning a new programme of workshops for April to June. This is a job that, although I love doing it, usually leave til the the last minute...not this time. I'm ahead of my game!!!

There has been a change to the March programme, the pyjama bottom workshop on 24th March has been cancelled, and in its place we will be running our 1st custom lampshade workshop.

It will run from 1 - 3.30pm and will cost £30 to make a 20cm diameter shade and £35 to make a 30cm diameter shade. All you need to bring is 30cm of fabric (light to medium weight works best)
Spaces are limited so early booking is advisable....we will also have April and June dates for this workshop too.
We are very excited about these sessions - it really is the most fun me and Leanne have ever had making these (perhaps we need to get out more!), and this no-sew workshop is suitable for absolutely anyone!
We are taking bookings now - either by email (claire@patchfabrics.co.uk) or by phoning or calling in the shop.

Kids Club

Yesterday saw the first of our monthly kids club...we say club but really each month is a stand alone session with a themed project, there is no membership so basically you just book a place. There is a £5 charge and that includes all materials.

This month we made felt hearts - much fun was had and new Barbie pillows were created. Not having pink flavoured children the whole barbies needing pillows thing was a very welcome blast from the past (although I was a Sindy girl - mum thought Barbie was a bit of a trollop and highly unsuitable!!), it was lovely to see that 30 years on the desire to provide home comforts for your favourite dolls hasn't changed (now feeling slightly sick to realise that i am old enough to say I did something 30 years ago *crys* )
Anyways, we all had a lovely time - even though neither myself or Leanne don't especially want to see a needle that needs to be threaded for a little while ;)

The next kids club sessions are on Saturday 25th February and Saturday 24th March, from 10am til 11.30.(we are taking bookings now you can email or phone or come in and see us!)