Oasis by Umbrella Prints

These lovelies have just arrived! Umbrella Prints are a little Australian textile house run by Amy Prior & Carly Schwerdt.

I've got just 2m of each print in stock so they are limited to first in, first served. For more info on Umbrella Prints, check out their website.

New Website!

I'm very excited to announce that Bella's Patchwork has a new website! After months of nothing but trouble with my previous website courtesy of the hosting company, I've moved hosts and put together my own site.

I'm really pleased with how it looks, and hopefully it will be a little more user friendly. The shopping cart is 100% secure and operates using Paypal as before.

If you notice anything that doesn't seem right, let me know and I'll fix her up.

First Day of Summer...

...And its pouring with rain! Admittedly, it's not cold; I'm wearing a sleeveless top. But it's not really the start to summer we've all been hoping for.

Not much sewing action happening here. I've finished up most things for the market, bar one cot quilt. I'm hoping to start something with Fandango shortly, but I'm not sure what pattern to go for, so suggestions welcome!

I did a final harvest of my silverbeet yesterday; the plants had bolted and were now taller than me! All the leaves have been washed, blanched, and packed into baggies in the freezer for use in quiches etc.

Just a note on Bella's Patchwork too; the shopping cart is currently malfunctioning, so if anyone is looking to place an order, please email me at kate@bellaspatchwork.com.au. I'm getting very frustrated with my provider and am looking into alternatives...not what I needed in the lead up to christmas!

Generational Differences

Afternoon tea with my mum and my grandma yesterday really highlighted the differing priorities of the generations. I was happily explaining my plans for next year: to finish uni, spend 5 weeks overseas then come home and apply for jobs for the following year. I figured I was unlikely to get a job mid way through term 3 or in term 4, and that it would be difficult to travel for that length of time (at that time of year), once I had a teaching position. While I don't feel I fit the media's portrayal of a Gen Y, I do feel that life if for living, and experiences such as travel make for a richer life.

My grandma was horrified. In her opinion, my priority should be to find a job, then a partner (I think she's quite disappointed I'm single and not providing great-grand children yet), then worry about travel.

Yet, she explains that she didn't get to travel until she was 51, having married very young and had three kids. Similarly, my mum (a Baby Boomer) married young, had me a bit later, and still hasn't been overseas.

Coincidentally, an article was published in a Sunday magazine yesterday regarding the exact topic. Many people of my generation still live at home and are still working out where we stand in terms of careers. Housing prices make buying your own place almost impossible, especially for a single girl like myself. The article even mentions a girl my age who had moved out of home, had the desired career and the long term relationship, but tossed it all in to travel.

Times have definitely changed, and us Gen Ys certainly have more opportunities than the previous generations. At this point in my life I choose travel, then job, then family. No regrets!

Proto-Owl

I've been toying with the idea of having a stall at a maker's market for a while; I just missed out on getting a stall at Mathilda's Christmas Market, but I'm now eyeing off the new Mulgrave Maker's Market.

You might remember awhile ago I was playing around with some small owls; these developed a little and turned out as cute little squeaky owls.

The latest (additional) incarnation is a larger, 'hugable' owl. She (pink for girls?) is a child-friendly 22cm tall and perfect for cuddling.

Just need to come up with a few more products (I've got bunnies and rattle cubes as well) and I might just have the guts to apply for a stall.

The Washing Debate

A few people have blogged about this in the past, but a little 'whoops' last night bought the issue back to mind. Quilt washing; do you do it? how do you do it?

You see, I've never washed one of my quilts. Besides the fact that they aren't used heavily enough to need washing, I find the whole idea a bit scary. Who would want to spend weeks/months on a quilt, only to have the colours run, ruining all that hard work?

Usually I would pre-wash all my fabrics, but with the invention of charm packs and jelly rolls, this isn't really possible anymore. I'm also told that the quality of dyes these days is good enough that dye-run should be minimal.

My whoops? I was getting ready for bed last night when some water sloshed out of my glass and onto my Verna/Wild Thing quilt. I quickly yanked the quilt off the bed to shake off the excess water, but I wasn't quick enough. Immediately, there were a few small patches of pink clearly visible on the white fabric. In the light of day, the water has dried and it's not so bad; a few tiny pink spots that you wouldn't notice unless you put your face right up to it.

The culprit is the whirly-gig second from the bottom on the left side.

If I get dye run from the tiniest amount of cold water, am I right in not wanting to wash any of my quilts? I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Grand Opening

After months of planning, a lot of organising and just a little bit of stress, I am really excited to announce that Bella's Patchwork is open for business! We have just a small inventory to start off with, but will be adding a few extra ranges as new lines are released.

I'll be co-hosting a giveaway with Stefanie in the coming month to celebrate our new business ventures, so keep an eye out for that. Until then, take a stroll around my store and let me know what you think.

Getting There...

I've made it to the bottom edge of Summer Wind, and I'm estimating I have about five rows of the pattern to quilt at the top end to finish it. At this point I'm looking forward to it being done, as I've been quilting the same pattern over and over for the last 2 1/2 weeks! It will still take me about another week and a half to finish, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm also getting close to having a website for Bella's Patchwork; after being stuffed around for months, I ditched the web developer and found a new one. I was clear from the beginning that I wanted to launch at the start of May, and here we are in the middle of June! Fortunately this new one has a policy of 28 days or less, so fingers crossed I have it by the end of the month. I'm hanging out to have a launch giveaway! Meanwhile stock is available in my eBay store (link to the right); there has been a slow trickle of sales which I'm hoping will pick up with a proper website.

And after two years (two!) I decided that Phoebe might like her ears and blanket attached; I had trouble with the ears last time so I'd been putting it off. The "bits" had been sitting in my sewing tub for quite a while, and somehow one ear has ended up with a small bloodstain on it...mystery! She still needs eyes, but what's a few more days...

I'm off to Beechworth for the long weekend, so I'll see you all next week.

BOM 12!

Finally, here we are at the last block. Has it been 12 months already?!

Now to assemble the quilt; I've got all the 'bits' ready to go, but I've found one minor problem....some of my blocks are a tad smaller than they should be. Most are only a fraction but block 2 is about 3/4" too small. It means a fair bit of 'easing' but hopefully any little wobbles in the sashing eases out by the time its quilted. You can see the puckered sashing in the top row, near the legs of the coffee table...

(not enough room on my lounge room floor, so all the blocks are a bit squashed up)

Which won't be for a little while as I still need to quilt Summer Wind, and finish Port-de-France. So much for my old method of only ever having one project on the go at a time! The main reason I keep putting off the quilting is that I hate spending money on batting...silly, I know.

I made my first fabric sale yesterday. It's safe to admit there was a bit of squealing and jumping going on in my house. I expect business to start slowly, but each little bit of progress is so exciting.

Squeeeeee!

What seemed like a very dull day turned into a very exciting afternoon; my first delivery of Moda fabric arrived!

I've started with just a small assortment of some existing lines (Whimsy, Hunky Dory and Martinique), but am looking forward to stocking full lines as new ranges are released. Bella and I had a good time examining the boxes, and she has given them her paw of approval.

Until my website is up and running, I've opened an eBay store which I'll be progressively listing things in, so if you'd like to check it out, you can find it here.

Scrap Busting

Most people are into stash busting, but I don't really have much of a stash...I do however tend to have lots of bits leftover from quilts I've made. Sometimes whole fat quarters from a bundle, other times just excess bits and pieces. And usually I put them away and hope that at some point all my scraps will come together, but given my quilts vary from traditional fabrics to the more bright and funky sort, I don't really see this happening any time soon.

When I made Red Velvet recently, I carefully put aside all of the offcut triangles, then later stitched them into HSTs then into little pinwheels. And they've been sitting by my machine ever since. With a little motivation (and perhaps procrastination from my current project?), I did a bit of scribbling and came up with this cute table runner.

It uses left over outer border for the sashing, and inner border for the border. I'll use the same backing and binding as the quilt too. I'm heading to Queensland next week for a holiday, so I thought I'd tuck this into my bag for a bit of handstitching in the evening. It might also keep me busy when I get back as I'm finally sending my machine for a service; I figure if I send it off while I'm away, I minimise my "machine-less" time.

In case you haven't noticed the new addition to my sidebar, there is a link up for a facebook group for Bella's Patchwork, as a means of keeping everyone up to date with news, so if you'd like to be in the loop, become a fan. I'd love to have you!

Pumpkins!

After a few months TLC, and a few false starts, I finally harvested these beauties over the long weekend. The big gal is almost 4.5kg, while the smaller one is a cute 1.5kg.

In shop news, my first stock arrived today! Just patterns at this point; I'm not getting fabric in until the website is almost ready to go, so I've started with a few smaller items.

Pretty in Pink

I'm going a little off-topic today; I don't have a quilt picture yet, so I'm hoping to distract you with something else. As part of setting up my business, I decided that I needed a filing cabinet to keep myself organised. But do you think I could find anything that fitted under my desk, didn't cost a fortune, and wasn't grey!

I compromised, and bought one that was cheap, small and grey...and took to it with a can of pink spray paint! It's been a week in the making, with a couple of coats of white primer, then a couple of cans of spray paint. It's not perfect, but it sure beats having a grey cabinet in my bedroom (which is also my "office")!

It used to look like this:

And now it looks like this:

And I've got cute blue files just for a bit of contrast:

Mini Jelly Filled is coming soon, I promise, I just need to hand-stitch the binding down...

It's Back!

My quilting mojo, that is. It's been a little absent lately, so I've been piecing quilts then adding them to a pile to quilt "later". It doesn't help that my sewing machine is being a little uncooperative; when I stipple it gets "stuck" and I have to cut the threads and start again. And it's developed a bit of a rattle. Due for a service I'd say!

Anyway, I've set aside this morning to quilt Mini Jelly Filled before I head in to work. Just a sneak-peak for now. The weather is terrible too, so the photo is darker than usual.

I'm also in the process of "doing up" a filing cabinet; grey really doesn't suit me so I'm painting it pink. I've only done the drawers so far, but I promise there will be photos soon; when I say pink, I mean pink!

Everything is moving along well with Bella's Patchwork. The plan is to launch at the start of May, which I'm sure will be here before I know it. I'm in the process of setting up accounts with distributors and ordering patterns from my favourite designers which is very exciting. I'm planning a little giveaway for when I launch, to thank all of you for your support, advice and suggestions, so keep an eye out!

Red Velvet

Sunday night while watching Bones, I finally finished the binding on this quilt. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, and I've caught my mum giving it a few longing glances...

Thank you for all the super-positive comments on my last post; I'm so excited that you love the name!

A Little Reveal

Because I know you are all dying to know the name of my quilt shop, I can finally reveal the name! After a minor hiccup requiring a second preference, we are going to be called....

Bella's Patchwork!

Logo is being fixed up to incorporate the slight change; we were going to be Bella's Quilt Cottage, but there is already a store in Melbourne called Bella's Quilts and Things (they sell doonas....). Finally making progress anyway. Have an appointment tomorrow to organise a web page, then I just need to get it running and get my stock in!

In the meantime, I'm being a quilting procrastinator. I'm piecing quilts, then adding them to a to-do pile, and moving on to piecing the next quilt. This is not how I normally work, and it's not going to be pretty when I have to start quilting the pile. The only reason I'm putting it off is because I can't be bothered to go and buy batting. Pathetic, isn't it?

Anyway, I've started on Summerwind, a Miss Rosie pattern that seems to be quite popular lately. Both Camille and Nicole have done Wuthering Heights versions, and they look great! I'm doing mine in the divine Aster Manor. I found the cutting instructions a bit of a nightmare, but I've now pieced the centre medallion, so I'm on my way!

And because no post that mentions Bella would be complete without a cute photo...we got a "cat cube" the other day, and she has taken to it like a duck to water. This cat does not like being cold!

BOM 9

It's been a quiet one this week. I spent the weekend suffering sugar withdrawal symptoms like shakey legs and a headache, which is not so conducive to crafting. I've put together block 9 of the FQS Mystery BOM. Only 3 blocks to go!

Have you seen the 2010 Mystery BOM? It looks good, but I won't be doing it this year. There is just something wrong with a christmas quilt when christmas in Australia is so HOT!

I've also finished quilting the blocks of Red Velvet; just got the borders to go, then I'll pop up a picture. My only other news is that I've had a gorgeous logo designed for my quilt shop. Not long until I'll be able to reveal a few details.

A Little Progress

In the midst of another heatwave, its been a bit difficult to get much done the last few days; we were over 40 degrees yesterday, and our overnight minimum was 31!

So between sprawling on the couch and sitting in front of a desk fan, I've managed to get only a bit of sewing done; I've been working on the gorgeous Red Velvet.

The main blocks are done, as are the X blocks. All I need to do is the border blocks, then it'll be ready to assemble!

A couple of weeks ago (yup, things are a bit behind...), I had a bit of a scribble and fiddle, and managed to sew up a handbag hanger. The pic isn't great, but the idea it to hand it up, and there are tabs so that you can hang your gorgeous handbags/evening bags up in an orderly fashion (rather than piling them all onto two coat hooks on the back of your door like I do!)

Some garden progress; I harvested my first onion! The rest are also ready, but due to the heat I've been eating salads; nothing I need onions for so I've left them in the ground for now.

In other news, making progress with the shop idea; got tax advice and started to get prices, and looks like this could work...I'm very excited!!

Growth

It seems the last few months of hot weather followed by pouring rain is doing the garden good. I'm in harvest mode!

My zucchini plant, the one I planted as a back-up in case my "main" plants didn't do well, has got huge! So much so that I have to be careful not to run over it when I back out of the driveway. There are about 4 zucchini on there waiting to be picked.

My corn has its first ears.

The pumpkin plants have baby pumpkins.

And the broad beans that I chopped off at the ground have taken on a second life, and even have a few pods happening...

My onions are almost ready for harvest, just waiting for the tops to die off.

And last but not least, my tomato plants are so tall they've reached the top of my neighbours garage! One plant seems to be dying off for some unknown reason, but the rest are doing ok.

I've been picking the tomatoes early to beat the birds, and have a lovely row of them ripening on the kitchen windowsill.

Thanks for the comments so far on my last post, much appreciated! Still looking for feedback from anyone who has an opinion :-) Still putting ideas together, but hopefully I can get this off the ground. Will keep you posted!

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Having recently become unemployed, and finding that jobs in my field are few and far between, I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about what I want to do with my life. I love science, but you spend so much time wondering where the next bit of funding is going to come from; as a result, there is little job security.

My other big passion is obviously quilting. I'm always spotting new fabrics that I'd like, or new patterns that I want to sew. But like a lot of Aussies, it isn't always easy to get your hands on particular items. Often the cost is prohibitive too. So what I've been thinking about a lot lately is starting up my own business; an online store to sell the fabrics that I like to use. Often for me, that's Moda fabric and the fantastic range of pre-cuts they produce.

So what I'm interested in is some feedback, particularly from the Aussies. What fabrics would you like to see stocked? Would you like full ranges of fabric, or a selection from each of a number of ranges? Fat quarter bundles, jelly rolls, or charm square? Some of everything? Whose patterns would you like stocked? And anything else you'd like to see? Please share with me all of your thoughts, I'd love to hear them, as I know what I'd like to be able to purchase, but I'm curious about everybody else.