Monday 27 August 2007

Quote of the Week:
Blankets wrap you in warmth, quilts wrap you in love . . .
How nice it was this morning to see the reaction of a husband whose wife had commissioned us to make them a quilt in reproduction fabrics . . . "It's so beautiful, it makes me want to cry" . . . It made the hours and hours of work worthwhile to hear such a statement. Once it is quilted on our dear 'Big Mal', we'll post a photo.
We have a gorgeous new range of fabric just arrived into the shop titled "Emperor's Garden" by A Day in the Country. It is a great crossover for those of you who enjoy working with 30's thru to 70's. This is an Australian company and we are glad to be supporting them.
We are madly getting ready for our Christmas Gathering which is only five weeks away now (Sat 6th October). The projects should all be ready within three to four weeks and you'll be able to come into the shop to have a peek. There is a lot of variety to choose from with each one able to be started by hand on the day
We are starting to fill all of the goody bags for the occasion - it's exciting making them all up and seeing what's going into them - we hope all the ladies will love them as much as we do!
We have a few quilts here ready to go on 'Big Mal', our longarm quilting machine. Customers have been very happy with our work thus far which is very satisfying and we are enjoying it immensely.
Don't forget to look out for Deirdre's project in Homespun - a gorgeous Halloween quilt done using machine piecing and invisible machine applique - a must to make!!
That just about ties it up for today . . . a quilt is beckoning on the machine.
Until next time,
Leonie & Deirdre
The Quilted Crow

Monday 13 August 2007

Quote of the Week

I only think about quilts on days that end in "Y".

We thought today that we would post a couple of photos of Belinda Merrit's work, one of our tutors who will be present at our "Christmas Gathering". The items that are photographed are some of her 'older projects' she says, but all the same, we think they are gorgeous. Belinda will be designing two projects for our Gathering, one a Christmas project and the other a general 'gift' item for those of you who aren't into the Christmas decorating thing.
We have taken quite a few bookings (lots last week) and are two thirds full so if you are thinking about coming along, you'd better be quick! It sure is a good day and everybody enjoys themselves immensely. Give us a call at the shop if you wish to know more (03) 62 348 338.

Well I finally got around to tidying up my sewing cupboard yesterday and I'm nearly embarassed at the amount of fabric that I have stashed away - if only I had more time to put it to use - mind you, it does look pretty all stacked up in their little bundles (or should that be big bundles??). That kept me busy for a few hours then I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my project for our Christmas Gathering which is coming along nicely.

Deirdre had the whole weekend off and spent time sewing and cooking and I was the lucky recipient of one of her "pear cake" specialities for morning tea this morning, topped off with a dob or two of cream ... yum.
Big Mal (our longarm quilting machine) has been chuffing along nicely. We're pretty happy with what we have been able to manage thus far and will be accepting quilts within the fortnight which is really exciting!!

Speaking of which, I need to go and load one of my own quilts on now and get to quilting it - this is a top that I pieced over 10 years ago and it has finally made it to the quilting stage !! Woo hoo!!

Until next time,

Leonie & Deirdre