Flick Faves on a Friday - Quilts

With 139 crochet flowers finished (but not yet joined - but that's another story), my hands have been itching for another just-for-me project.  Something without a deadline, something that I can easily pick up for a few minutes and come back to when I'm ready...

So I think I'm going to.... wait for it mum.... attempt my first quilt.

Now, I have to be honest with you.  The thought of cutting out all those pieces to an exact size makes me break out in a sweat.  The idea of all that sewing in a straight line shortens my breath, and my biggest fear of all, is combining colours and patterns.  That notion just about brings on a panic attack.  And we won't even discuss the actual quilting involved after the quilt top is done.

So instead, this is my inspiration, I want to make a yoyo quilt.  I love to make yoyos, and I can get the benefit of texture without actual quilting.  I have a bolt of a gorgeous aqua fabric that I bought with another idea in mind that has since been cast aside.  So I'm thinking of working in a simple palette of aqua and red.

1. Dr. Suess Quilt, 2. DQS11 Extra..., 3. yoyo's, 4. still working..., 5. red + aqua, 6. finished project 1!, 7. Doll quilt, 8. a sprouting gnomie, 9. aqua red babyquilt

My mum's a quilter, so I think it was inevitable that I started quilting eventually.  I remember making patchwork hexagons with her at a young age.  This is the quilt she made for my little one (yes, I chose the colours) and one she made for the Leukaemia Foundation.

So how about you?  Do you quilt?  Any advice for a novice?

Sample Packs

Wow, it has been such a busy week!

For me, the week started off rather scary... I had someone get into my Paypal account. Thankfully, Paypal was on top of it and stopped all outgoing activity. It does mean though, that I'm still in the process of getting it unfrozen so I can access money myself.

I then had my parents arrive for a visit. My dad was teaching in Tokyo for a few days, so then he and my mum, came to where I live for a few days after that. While it's always great to see visitors, it does make life especially busy.

My mum is a quilter so she was in fabric heaven over here. She went crazy at my local craft shop, buying lots of gorgeous cotton fabrics for herself and her friends. She also had a hard time choosing from the large collection of quilting books that I showed her at the local bookshop. In the end, she found one that was exactly what she wanted, a creative use of the Japanese indigo-dyed fabrics, which while written in Japanese, had very clear instructions and templates.

I was a little concerned leaving her alone in my apartment with our collection of fabrics, but she was quite restrained. Knowing that she wanted to stock up on kimono fabrics, I prepared a number of sample packs for her arrival. She had a very hard time choosing and it was only my dad's reminders of luggage weight restrictions that stopped her from taking them all. So, after a long absence, our range of kimono fabric sample packs are back up in the store.

Mummy Mel is now fully back on board in the business which is great. She has become very talented at answering emails and sending out invoices with one hand, and the other holding little Ryder. She is now busy buying new stock which will include our first uchikake, the wedding kimono coat. Deciding on which one has been very difficult, but hope we can show you the final decision soon.