Quote of the Week:

Ask not what your fabric can do for you, but what you can do for your fabric . . .

My goodness, has it really been two weeks since our last posting? Where has the time gone? Now I do know that I sent one thousand apologies to you all last time I had a little lapse, so I am sending two thousand this time to make up for it . . .

But in all fairness . . . we have just recently returned from the Australasian Quilt Market which is held twice a year here in Australia, Sydney in June and Melbourne in Novmeber, which is the one that we were part of.

It was our very first time there as 'designers' under the banner "Pattern Press" which is our distributors name, who happens to be Helen Stubbings of Hugs n Kisses . She has encouraged and supported us over the last couple of months and we are most grateful to her for this support.

It was lots of fun at Market and a good chance to catch up with other shop owners who share the same love, and even better because they liked what we were doing with the felted wool!! We had a great response, given that we are trying to introduce something new to shop owners with the felted wool - hopefully their customers will like what we are doing & have a dabble in it themselves!

The photo at the top is a close up of part of one of the new designs that we took along called "From My Garden" and below is another of the whole piece.

Here's another design called "Love Apple" which is a penny rug table topper. Both designs would look equally as good in cotton, but we do loooove working with the felted wool . . . .

It was also really nice to meet Jhoanna for the first time from One Red Robin who also goes under the "Pattern Press" banner with her fantastic range of softies which proved to be extremely popular! She is a beautiful person with an enormous amount of talent and it was great to share the booth with her, listening to people oohing and aahing over her designs! Be sure to pop over to her blog and say hi - she was sensible and took a camera (something that we left behind!) so if you want to see some photos of the booth, this is the place to see them!

So here we are again, back at our gorgeous shop (well, we think it is !!) working on our next 'crisis' - making up all of our samples to take the Australasian Quilt Convention which is to be held from the 26th February to 1st March, 2009 at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. This is different to Quilt Market (which is a wholesalers market). Here we take our 'shop' and sell to the general public - they get to have a taste of what we do here at The Quilted Crow by seeing all of our goodies on the booth - Stand Number 180 by the way for all of those people wanting to visit us! So I guess you're thinking that we get to do lots of "schmoozing" - well yes - we do - but there is still lots of work to be done before the "schmoozing" starts!!

Having said that, I'd better be off & get to work on the 'said' samples. I've got Deirdre out back on Big Mal, as usual, quilting up a storm. . . .

Until next time.

Leonie & Deirdre

The Quilted Crow

Quote of the Week:

"Quilters make great comforters . . ."

"Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat"

It was all about Halloween last week and Deirdre being the Halloween Queen, had her house decorated out at Campania.

She lives in 'woop woop' and nobody goes trick or treating out there (much to her dismay!) so we have decided that next year she will bring it all to my place where there are loads of people dressed in fun costumes roaming the streets, knocking on doors and having lots of fun!

Here are some photos to share with you all of Deirdre's house . . .

We are still madly preparing for Quilt Market next week - there is still so much to do - and time is quickly passing us by - patterns still to write - a project still to finish - quilts to be quilted - any wonder we are going through the chocolate . . . one can never have enough . .

Until next time

Leonie & Deirdre - The Quilted Crow

Quote of the Week:

May your sorrows be patched and your joys quilted . . .

Ten thousand apologies to those who have diligently been checking our blog . . . the past two weeks have just sped by so fast . . . but anyway, here we are again.

We have been busily working on some new projects in our gorgeous felted wool which Helen from Pattern Press is going to launch for us at Quilt Market in November. It is a new venture for us both and we are hoping that they will be well received.

Helen has also been doing some new designing herself - be sure to pop over to her blog and have a peek - there are some really nice projects there for everyone to enjoy.

Helen has just returned from Jane's Gathering in the Hills where she spent a lovely day with a group of ladies teaching her trademark Colorque technique on a quilt that she designed especially for the day. We saw some photos that Helen took and Jane certainly went to a lot of trouble to make sure every need was catered to. My gosh, you should have seen the food!! Absolutely, beautifully presented - tea served in vintage china cups and cupcakes so beautifully decorated you wouldn't want to eat them! The luncheon was also pretty fabulous and the venue decorated nicely too. We're sure those who attended had a fantastic day.

Big Mal was unwell for a couple of days which meant that our quilting pile out the back has been slowed down - but thanks to our Irish mechanic named Andrew, he is back to quilting like a dream . . .

It's that time of the month again for us where we are madly preparing our Block of the Month and Woollen Pincushion Club mailouts - it really is a big job but we have lots of fun doing it - half the fun is gift wrapping each one which makes it nice for the person receiving on the other end - a bit like Christmas each month for them . .

Best get back to some 'real work'!!

Until next time,

Leonie & Deirdre

The Quilted Crow

Quote of the Week:

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could all just follow our heart's desires?"

OK, I know . . . it's Wednesday and I promised I would always do the blog first thing Monday before I opened the chocolate . . . but I didn't have any chocolate . . . so the blog thing just passed me by . . . but here we are with some new things to share with you all.

Some new fabrics arrived here on Friday. Pictured below is one of the latest reproduction lines by Judie Rothermel - Civil War Dressing Gowns II - a small range of only 12 prints and very pretty.

Also just in is 'Recess' by American Jane, a retro range that appeals to the younger sewers and is great for patchwork, bags, clothing - anything really!! Bonnie Blues, Sturbridge Village Calicoes and Vicksburg have also arrived and are just breathtakingly beautiful. Check them out on our website.

Now, if anyone from South Australia is reading our blog today, (or anyone heading over in the next fortnight!) be sure to check out Jane at The Patchwork Apple. She is hosting a "Gathering in the Hills" on Sunday 19th October with Helen Stubbings from Hugs n Kisses as her guest tutor. Here is a photo of the gorgeous quilt that Helen has designed especially for the day using her trademark Colourque technique.

A delicious morning and afternoon tea, scrummy lunch, gift bag and lots of inspiration - who wouldn't want to be part of that . . . go ahead and book and be part of the fun!

Deirdre is out the back quilting her life away on Big Mal - the quilts are piling up which is a good sign that people are happy with our work. I'm off to pick up the kiddlywinks from school - such little treasures . .

Until next time,

Leonie & Deirdre - The Quilted Crow

Quote of the Week:

Those who sleep under a quilt, sleep under a blanket of love . . .

Well what a week it was last week - "full on" to say the least. Pictured left are our ladies from New South Wales who spent the week with us here in the shop.

They arrived about 10.30am on Monday morning, all very excited and ready for a week of sewing.

They spent time looking about the shop to work out what they wanted to work on and then they were in to it. There was no stopping them! They all achieved quite alot the first two days so they decided that they had earnt themselves some time off and went to do some sight seeing! Thursday saw them back here ready to get back into it and by Friday afternoon they had each achieved a great deal. They were a great bunch and we look forward to this becoming a regular event every two years.

This week sees us madly getting our Block of the Month, Pincushion Club and Fabric Club organised and into the post. No rest for the wicked!!

For those reproduction fabric lovers, there are three gorgeous ranges due next week. They are Dressing Gowns II, Sturbridge Village Calicoes and Vicksburg. Our web guy is currently loading them onto our website so you should be able to view them later this week. They are all very scrummy.

Also just arrived is a retro range called RECESS by American Jane. This too can be viewed on our website later in the week. Be sure to check it out.

That just about does it for today - lots to do.

Until next time,

Cheers,

Leonie & Deirdre - The Quilted Crow

Quote of the Week:

Every quilter has a masterpiece within . . .

For all of you who have been eagerly awaiting news of how our Christmas Gathering went on the weekend - I've finally made it to the keyboard!!

What a fantastic day!! Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely and couldn't say enough about Natalie Bird and Anni Downs -

both girls do the most amazing work and their projects that they made especially for the day were a hit with everyone.

Here are some photos to share with you all . .

Remember all of the little pressies we told you we were making for everyone (80 in total!!)but we had to keep it a surprise - well this is what they were - little messenger birds (a gorgeous pattern by Rosalie Quinlan) with an old fashioned charm tied around their neck of a traditional Christmas image. Each person received one of these beautiful little birdies sitting in their own little nest . . . .

The table display . . .

Part of the shop display on the stage area . . .

. . . And for those of you who are wondering what "Nellie's Sewing Box" looked like when it was finished, here it is . . .

Now that we have shared some of the photos of our Gathering with you, we can also share some other exciting news that we mentioned briefly a few posts back.

Helen Stubbings from Hugs n Kisses has taken on both Deirdre and myself as new designers under her pattern distribution name 'Pattern Press'. This hopefully will open up many doors for us and we can't begin to tell you how excited we both are.

All of the projects that we designed for our Christmas Gathering will be available by the end of September in our shop or if you have your own shop and would like to buy wholesale, you can contact Helen on (03) 6278 7507.

We are madly working on typing up our patterns for other projects we have designed also, so it is keeping us rather busy. Now if I was clever enough, I would be able to 'link' you to Helen's new website, but I'm not . . . so here is the website address !! www.patternpress.com.au . You will also find on this website all of Helen's patterns that she has available too.

Well, this isn't getting all the work done that needs doing, so I must be off. Thank you to everyone who came to our Gathering and supported us. Hope to see you at our next one in April/May.

Until next time,

Leonie & Deirdre

The Quilted Crow

Quote of the Week:


A quilt is a treasure that follows its owner everywhere . . .

Oops, we didn't get time yesterday to post - busy busy busy . . .

The photo to the left here are of some of the projects that will be on offer to make at our Christmas Gathering on Saturday 20th September.


We have made up for our tardiness yesterdayand here are the gorgeous projects that Anni Downs and Natalie Bird have both designed for our Gathering . .

"Petunia's Garden Bag" by Anni

"Christmas Berry Baubles" by Anni

"Sunflower Wool Bag & Pincushion" by Natalie

"Christmas Trio Wallhanging" by Natalie

I have one other project that I decided to make at the last minute . . . you know how it is!! It is called "Nellie's Sewing Box" and it is a rectangle box covered with felted wool with an applique on the lid and on the sides. Inside is a punchneedle scissor keep, a pincushion and if I have time . . . an appliqued measuring tape cover thingy !

For those of you who aren't attending the Gathering and would like patterns for the projects, all patterns will be available for sale at the end of September!

That just about ties it up for today . . . must go and get some more chores done !!

Have a great week

Until next time,

Leonie & Deirdre