Machine quilting

The other day I was fortunate enough to see this link that a friend (also a quilter) posted on her FB page.

I read it with interest, agreeing with some points, recognising that I could adjust my own view on others.

But one thing has struck me since reading this blog and that is if you piece a backing PLEASE piece it with the same care and attention to detail as you would the front.

Backing is important regardless of your view on it because it will be important to the overall finish of your quilt. Whether it gets professionally quilted on a long-arm or a DSM it doesn’t matter but how the backing sits is a key point in making sure your whole quilt looks its best.

I’ve often found there are several schools of thought on backing. I myself fall into the first category.

1. The ‘Match the backing’ club: This group wants the backing to match the front in some way. Using up the leftover fabrics from the front or matching it with another fabric altogether. This group often consists of Modern quilter’s with lovely pieced backings, those who like symmetry and those who like to use what they bought for that project.

2. The ‘it’s only backing’ club: This group seem to not worry about matching – theme, colour or style – they pick up cheap backings whenever they see it and whatever takes their fancy at the time a quilt is finished, it goes on as backing.

3. The ‘I’ll use something plain’ club: This group use primarily homespun, calico, quilter’s muslin or a very plain wide back. This group is rare. I hardly see any quilts like this anymore.

There is nothing wrong with any of the above ideas for backing. I’ve used all three types over the almost 300 things I’ve quilted over the last decade BUT the one thing that has been the same is that whenever I piece a backing it’s done with care.

Because a backing needs to be attached in a certain way to the ‘leaders’ (the fabric attached to the roll bars on a long-arm frame) it needs to be as accurate as you can make it. As a quilter I have seen many backings – some have come to me off the roll, some cut to size and some pieced – off the roll is best for less changes to the nature of the fabric as I can pin the straight selvedge to the top leader and adjust the bottom one as necessary. Cut to size is problematic as cutting it to size often results in too small, or it shifts during quilting and then one side has less, the bottom doesn’t make it all the way, corners are way off…. Pieced backings cause issue, because lets face it a seam creates a weak spot – seams undo themselves, seams might not be straight and seams may have been stitched incorrectly causing rippling.

So in order to solve these problems –

1. Off the roll: Where you can, leave a selvedge for the top edge of your backing. Talk to your quilter about it and if needed mark it as the top of your backing.

2. Cut to size: Backing for many long-arm quilters needs to be at the barest minimum 4in extra ALL the way around a quilt top size. This is mentioned in the link above. I would say 6in to be safer and 8in if you are getting dense quilting done. Please don’t cut backing ‘to size’ because it just won’t do. If you intend on machine quilting on your own domestic machine then cutting to size can be preferable as it reduces bulk BUT if you change your mind and want it quilted on a long-arm please piece some extra around your backing – an extra strip of homespun, or the like to help us get your quilt onto the machine – or rethink your backing altogether and start again.

3. Pieced backings: Lay your quilt top out flat and measure it. Use those measurements and then add your 4-8in all the way around. Draw up on graph paper your backing dimensions and then work out your piecing from the outside edge in. (Craftsy have a really good class on modern quilt backings with Elizabeth Hartman called Creative Quilt Backs, this may help with your backings if you have trouble). Piece your backing together as carefully as you would the front, taking the time to press as you go and run a row of stitching all the way around the edge of the backing to prevent seams unravelling. Use starch if you like and make sure all threads are trimmed away. Above all don’t rush, I know it’s exciting being nearly done or nearly ready to quilt but don’t rush your backing.

If you are sending your quilt away to be quilted make sure everything is pressed, trimmed and stitched securely so that it can handle any jostling while it travels to the along-arm quilter. Be clear with what you want for your quilt, discuss your options with the quilter and make sure you get anything you need in writing. I use an invoice book when I’m booking in a quilt, I write down the size, price, batting, backing, thread, design and due date (timeframe if the quilt is needed by a certain date: birthday etc). My customers pay a deposit and then the balance when the quilt is picked up. So the deposit amount and date is also included on the paperwork. Other things that we quilters look for when booking in your quilts are things like – do you want the quilt trimmed down ready for binding, do you want us to attach the binding, make the binding, are there labels that need to be quilted on as well?

There’s many things that need to be thought about in the process of making a quilt but if you trust in your long-arm quilter, their experience and talent you will have a finished quilt to be very proud of.

If you would like to know more about long-arm quilting you can check out the machine quilting page, email me frankensteinsfabrics@hotmail.com, ring 0416 023 637 or comment on this post.

Watch this quick video to see the machine in action

 

 

 

 

Washing, Ironing and Cutting

After washing all of your fabrics, iron and starch them.

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This is how much fraying and threads that happened when we washed these homespuns, we lost just under 3/4in on this green fabric and the others lost about the same but none more than an inch. This is why I urge you to consider buying extra fabric to save you the grief and hassle of going back and buying more fabric.

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Watch this video for using starch.

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Fold your fabrics in half with wrong sides together, selvedges aligned. You may need to allow the fabric to dictate to you where the fold is, which may pull the selvedges out of line but they will be cut off so don’t worry too much. Your selvedges will not match up – in the photo below you can see the teal fabric selvedges are way off – this is due to two things, washing and grain line. When we washed our fabrics they have shrunk, we removed the sizing that was keeping them nice for the shelves in the shop and the grain line has been ‘relaxed’. By adjusting the position of the selvedge when folding your fabric in half for cutting you will get a much better and more natural grain line and it will be straighter.

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Trim off the frayed edge to straighten up the fabric. If you are left-handed you can continue cutting as the fabric is laid out in the right position for you. Right-handers turn the fabric’s newly straight edge to the left-hand side of your board and then continue cutting.

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From your five fabrics (50cm pieces of homespun in the materials list) cut three 2 1/2in strips.

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Note: the remaining fabric will be used to piece the backing for Mum’s quilt, you can choose to do the same if you wish.

Set up your sewing machine with the neutral thread for piecing, the 1/4in foot and a straight stitch that is the average for your machine – check your manual for tips on this. My Janome likes a stitch width of 5.5 and a length of 2.

Piece the strips together in the sequence of your choice. This is the sequence we have chosen for mum. There is reason behind it, it’s not just random. If you paint put your mind into that way of thinking, but I will explain.

1. Green is on this end because it has a yellow base colour and is essentially the odd one out in this range of colours.

2. Teal is next because it is made up of blue and green so it can sit nicely next to green to help tie it into the block.

3. The blue is in the middle as it is the darkest fabric and will draw the eye in, but it is also there because it is blue – the teal has blue in it so they can sit next to each other, and the blue also is used in making the colour for the next strip so it is tying the two sides of this block together.

4. Purple has a red base (mix red and blue together to make purple) and so this is why it’s next to the blue.

5. Brown is often classed as a red based colour so it belongs next to the purple for this reason. It is also technically an odd one out so it is also balancing the green’s oddness on the other side.

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Piecing

Start with the green strip and place it on top of the teal strip. Pin if you feel you need to hold the strips together.

Note: I like to sew my strips together so that as they are being joined so that they are off to the left side of the machine – this keeps them out of the way and doesn’t clutter up the throat of the machine. I am right-handed, as is mum. Left-handers may like to try both ways and see what suits you better. Like all my other notes these are just suggestions of things that I find easier and have discovered over many years of quilting, it’s not gospel and you don’t have to treat it as such. Find what is comfortable for you and your machine.

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Continuing adding your strips, keeping them in order and making sure that you are sewing so that the seams are all on the same side. Always start from the same edge.

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Once you have joined the 5 strips, press the seams in one direction.

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You may notice that the strips are not all the same length.

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This is fairly common and is a manufacturing issue and a washing issue. It’s not something that can be fixed. But if you always start from the same edge when joining strips you will reduce the waste of fabric.

Trim the selvedges off the edge that you started piecing on.

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Then cut your pieced unit into four 10 1/2in blocks.

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Repeat for your other sets of strips and you have made all of your blocks.

In the next blog post we will be cutting the focal piece, adding a small border, assembling the quilt top and preparing for quilting.

Totes mah Goats

Part of a blogger’s duty to her readers is to occasionally divulge a bit of information about her life. I’ve done that with things like what happened with Dad, birthdays and a few other bits and pieces but I feel like you should know ‘me’, know odd little things about Marni. I like to think that I am friends with my customers – whatever varying degree of friendship that may be, we are all different and that’s a good thing but we don’t have to be everybody’s BFFs and live in each others pockets.

So what I’d like to do is open up the comments below this post to you – ask me something that you’d like to know (keep it reasonable, but I will reserve the right to not answer some things), I am pretty open about most topics.

So here is a little confession of one of my many, many quirks…

I love goats. I’ve always wanted a pet goat. They just appeal to me for some unexplainable reason that seems to baffle and bemuse my friends and just quietly I think it stresses out my mother…

I am a Capricorn which may explain the initial attraction as I dabbled with all of that astrology stuff throughout high school. I love the glorious drawings and artworks that people create, showing the mystery and fairytale nature of our birth signs. So I guess I was going to head towards a goat from the start.

I even have a pinterest board dedicated to them and their cuteness.

I love their cute faces, weird eyes and cheeky nature. If I had room (read farm) I’d have a whole bunch of them along with every other animal I’ve ever wanted to own (Clydesdales, ducks, a heap of cats and maybe an Alpaca or two). People think I’m nuts because it isn’t a normal pet to own, but I don’t care.

I’ve even started to collect a few goat knick knacks.

Below is Greycliffe. I used to work at Craft Depot at Pennant Hills and one day I was taking the mail orders over to the Post Office. While I was waiting in the queue I glanced over at the sale bin they kept near the front and it was full of toys. Reached out to see what the quality was like and as I lifted the top toy off the pile, there he was. His little beardy face staring up at me and I knew he’d be coming home with me. The poor lady at the counter thought I was a bit odd as there were much cuter more normal (there’s that word again) toys in the bin and why would I want a goat one?

He now lives in my bedroom along with Koala who is my childhood toy – one given to me by my brother when my sister was born so I didn’t feel left out. I think that was the start of my koala obsession. 🙂

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Then I have Gilly who lives on my craft room desk.

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Gilly is the tiniest ceramic goat I ever did lay eyes upon. She was purchased for me by my friend Ellie while we were away on our annual Stitch & Bitch Brigade’s Stitchmas in July holiday. We traveled to Blackheath for a weekend away. The group of us (9) rented a house for the weekend, ate, drank and crafted. We went into town and shopped, lunched at cafes and then stopped at the tea house where Gilly was to be discovered.

I love these weekends away with the girls – they are a mix of friends  – Susan is my oldest and dearest friend from kindergarden, Fi, Alison, Dimity, Nicola, Jocelyn and Camille are friends of Susan’s that I’ve appropriated and Ellie was my plus one. There are more of us in the S&B Brigade (53 in total) but we don’t all go away together. I am not a part of a guild or quilting group. I’ve always been a bit of a crafting loner, the lone wolf really… I don’t crave social interaction while I’m crafting like many quilters do, it’s just not in my nature.

Anyways, along with Gilly I also purchased a small grey and white cat because… well… cats…

The last piece in my goat collection is this stamp.

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I picked this up from the craft show last year at Darling Harbour. Cecile from Unique Stitching had these in a sale bin on her stall and there just was NO way I was walking past this goat. I was only buying felt from her (lovely luscious felt) as she stocks bamboo felt which is great for me because when I want to make felties I want to use good felt. I’m allergic to wool so can’t use the really good stuff and the acrylic sheets pill and fluff up too much for a good finish on a feltie. But now that I’ve tried the bamboo that’s all I will use. It’s perfect in every way except for 2 small things – it costs a little more, but so worth it and that it doesn’t come in the large selection of colours that the acrylics do. But time will fix both of those things and I will be using it regardless.

I’d like to collect more goat things but for now these are enough. My mission at the moment is de-cluttering my life. We are drowning in stuff on this planet and it’s just not practical.

 

So ask below, what you would like to know about me, as I am the person you trust for fabrics and other quilting paraphernalia and you have the right to know who I am and what I’m all about. 🙂

Marni x 

 

Mum’s First Quilt

So this quilt-along will be a little different to your usual type of quilting instructions. Mainly because I’m letting Mum take the lead on this one. It’s her quilt and her learning pace, so there’s no rushing and no set timeframe.

Mum works from home for the most part of the week, working in our shared space, the craft room/office. As it’s on the top floor of the house it does get a bit warm but when the sun is around the back of the house first thing in the morning it is quite chilly. Mum decided she wanted to try and make a quilt for herself. Something small enough that she can give it a go without being too overwhelmed with its size, but big enough to drape over her legs while she works on the computer.

So the other night while we watched CSI (Saturday Crime Night) we pulled out every piece of fabric that Mum owns. Which was not a lot as she’s not really a sewer  to the extent I am (read craft hoarder), she used to dabble when my sister and I were little but she mainly painted ceramics and now does cake decorating and some knitting.

Having helped quilters choose fabrics for almost a decade I have created my own process when working with customers who struggle with fabric choice – getting them to tell me little things about the fabrics they’ve chosen so I can work my way through their selections and help nudge them in the right direction – whether that direction be a complete selection or a partial one with more things to find later – and then get the fabrics to speak its design to us.

So Mum’s fabrics were a bit random to say the least. She had a few themes which she’s picked up on but generally it wasn’t a cohesive group of fabrics. We started by dividing them into what groups we could see – blenders, black and whites, brights, small prints (mainly tone-on-tones) and miscellaneous. We also matched up fabrics that worked together, hoping that as we worked through the pile we would find something or enough little somethings that would spark an idea.

Once everything was sorted we stepped back and looked at what we’d done. Mum couldn’t quite see where I was going, she wasn’t really even clear with herself about what she wanted and was concerned that her random fabric purchases and mini raids on my stash had left her with a pile that couldn’t be used.

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Which is never the case. Because stash diving gives you the opportunity to see what you have (and how much of it), which means you can then either use what you have buying only a few bits to add in or you can see you have nothing that works and buy from scratch. Both are equally good but it all boils down to the timing, the project and your budget.

So I made her pick up the two fabrics that spoke to her the most and explain why they spoke to her.

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The first one she finds calming, the softer colour palette is peaceful and contains her favourite colours. It’s not too bold but it’s still an interesting print.

The second one reminds her of a storm – the turbulent nature of it, the depth of colours in it and the movement in the print. She loves the strength in the colours but was concerned about matching them.

So we went through the shop’s stock, our local Spotlight and my stash. After trying to match the storm print and coming up with very little that Mum felt matched the vibrancy of the fabric, we ended up with the batik fat quarter and a handful of soft homespuns in matching tones.

Storm FQ and stash matching  fabrics Floral FQ and matching homespuns

The design of the quilt also went through several permutations. Starting with the fact that Mum didn’t want to chop up the fat quarter too much and lose the impact of it. We sketched a few ideas, thinking that we were using the storm print. Mum thought about creating a window effect so that we’d be looking out the window at the storm – cutting it up into four squares to make the window panes – but then we were a tad trapped with that design, not having fabric to see how we could expand on the quilt into the border made it difficult. We thought about doing a colour wash – pulling the four main colours from the storm FQ and working with colour gradation, piecing blocks to surround the FQ, possibly edging it with a narrow border of black to frame it and contrast with it, but it all felt a little off so we changed plans. Again.

Because homespuns are a flat, solid colour you don’t want to use them as a large expanse (unless you plan on machine quilting it with detail, like many Modern quilters do), so for Mum’s quilt we decided on strip piecing blocks and as yet we have yet to decide on the width of the strips and in what direction they will go for each block.

Mum’s quilt is a simple layout. The FQ in the centre, trimmed to a square, with a narrow sashing, the 12 pieced blocks surrounding it, a second sashing and then a border.

Materials list for those who’d like to quilt along:

One feature fat quarter – a print that you can pull the other fabrics from

50cm each of 5 co-ordinating fabrics

2.5m of your border fabric (50cm of this will potentially go with the other five 50cm pieces)

60cm of your binding fabric (we have 4 FQs of this colour for Mum’s quilt)

Backing: will be pieced from remaining fabrics with anything extra needed purchased when we get to that stage

Wadding: this quilt’s estimated size will finish at 1.5m square so you can either purchase a 1.7m square of backing (enough for professional quilting needs) or make up a piece using any scraps of wadding you have in your stash.

Tools:

Sewing machine with 1/4in and walking feet

Rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat

Neutral thread for piecing

General sewing supplies: pins, scissors, marking pens etc

Note: Mum and I have over estimated on fabrics as I roughly calculated she needed about 30cm of each. As we were buying homespun which is generally anywhere from $5 – $10 per metre it was a more economical way to purchase for this particular quilt. If you would like more accurate quantities please hold off on your purchasing until the next post.

So now that we have all the fabrics and the design set what’s next?

Wash all your fabrics. I’ve discussed this before in this post and this is the only part of this whole process where it is up to you.

Then iron and if you like starch them to return them to pre-washed condition which makes for easier cutting. Purchase starch here.

Note: When you wash fabrics there will be fraying. You will lose some off your edges and be required to straighten them cutting into the amount of fabric needed for your quilt. BUY extra if you feel you will lose too much – 5cm extra purchased can save a whole heap of grief when cutting after washing. This is also spoken about in the washing blog post.

Once you have everything washed and ironed and ready to go meet back here for the second instalment of Quilting Along with Mum.

If you have any questions – such as fabrics choice issues – please feel free to post a photo or video of your dilemma and I’ll help you with that part of the process. You can also email me frankensteinsfabrics@hotmail.com.

Marni x

 

 

 

 

Creative musings…

I am not a morning person and will probably never be one. Ever.

Sure I can get into the routine of getting up and going to work, and maintain such a routine but I don’t like it and it has repercussions on my mind and body. When I’m up early (early for me anyway) I actually feel ill. Eating before 10am is a problem because my stomach hasn’t caught up with the rest of my body being awake and just can’t process anything. I’m no good mentally until midday without coffee or a can of some sticky stimulant drink (and that has its own issues). So I crave a life that lets me be free to wander nocturnally and still pay the bills.

I am at my most creative in the dark. In the middle of the night when the world is asleep, the cars have stopped rushing past my bedroom window and silence descends upon everything the darkness touches, I am awake and ready to design, create and make. I’ve never really understood why this is the way my brain works but have just accepted it and moved on. I have read a few things about creative types being more likely to be up all hours so there must be something scientific and chemical behind it.

I like being awake when no-one else is. It’s soothing to me for some reason, I get more done and there are no distractions. The down side for me is that I can’t run my machine at all hours of the night because it is noisy. So I spend the time drawing new designs, writing patterns and cutting up the next quilt. I love to do all the little ‘process’ jobs that come before the actually assembly of a quilt at night. These smaller steps are the ones that many struggle with – first concept through to execution – because getting started is hard. So for me its easier to do at the best time for me, at night, opening my mind to the quiet of the world and just let the inspiration pour through me.

Daylight hours are for work. The hard stuff, the physical, the things that need to be seen clearly and with lots of light shining on every detail. Night is for freedom of thought, dreaming and wondering what if.

The past couple of nights have been late ones for me going to bed well after 2am. I spend some time in my office, sketching and colouring in, dreaming up all sorts of things. Then I head to bed and read for a little while and then when the burn starts in my eyes I sleep.

I’m in the middle of lots of magazine commissions – quilts, wall hangings, table runners, softies and a bit of jewellery. So sketching is a great way for me to get the designs out of my head and tweak them as needed. Nothing works better than graph paper and a pencil, with a really good eraser and a ruler. I keep my set of colouring pencils handy for when I design things with lots of fabrics that way I can mark out each fabric with a colour and get a better view of what I’m thinking. Drawing these things helps me to clarify my design. Even though I have already visualised the finished project in my mind I work backwards deconstructing the piece into its components and then I can work out how to rebuild it and write notes for it so you can make your own versions.

My world is full of colour. I love it, dream it, mix it and match it. My bedroom and craft room are full of colourful clutter because that is what inspires me. I could never design in an office that was all white, with clean lines and everything in its place and so very neat. My design method is entropic. Chaos and colour all rolled into one brain. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Many people ask me how I come up with so many things all the time. My answer is because my brain never stops. I walk around like a normal person all the while my brain is chugging along at the back designing, calculating and dreaming up new things. I can be having a conversation with someone and can literally feel my brain working in the background. If I stopped I think my world would stop, my life would stop and I wouldn’t be me.

I wouldn’t have my creativity any other way. I enjoy what I do, it makes me who I am and it makes me happy. I am so grateful to have found my life’s passion at such an early stage in my life.

How do you create? Design? Are you a morning or night person

 

Not sleeping…

Before Christmas and at the moment I’m going through times where I just cannot sleep.

I’m not stressed or restless, occasionally I’m awake from the heat but most of the time its just an inability to fall asleep.

It takes a lot out of a person when you can’t sleep – as sleep deprivation is akin to being drunk – but in saying that I seem to have more motivation in the early hours of the morning more so than I do during the day.

Sleep normally comes naturally to me and I am a good sleeper – head hits the pillow and I’m out and nothing will wake me for 8-9 hours. I like sleep, I like my bed and my pillow and I enjoy the haven I’ve created in my room yet I have these batches of time where sleep eludes me. I’ve tried all sorts of remedies and short of taking heavy duty sleeping pills which I am not comfortable doing I really have no answer.

But when I do have these periods of non-sleep I get stuff done.

I built the 55 Fox Fiasco site one night, was up till 3am tweaking widgets and adjusting the colour scheme, building pages and creating the bios for the team, writing text for all the info pages. I’ve added things since but the bones of the site was easy for the girls and I almost straight away. It felt good to achieve something so tangible in one go.

The biggest problem with not sleeping is that the next day I feel terrible and it does take some time for my sewing mojo to get back into the swing of things. But once I’m moving things happen. I also get more headaches and generally feel pretty crazy.

When I do sleep in these sorts of times I have very vivid dreams and this is where I get a lot of my inspiration from. The almost hallucinatory state I’m in creates a world of colour and pattern that runs through my mind and allows me to draw upon in in my waking hours for matching and designing.

So in a way I’m thankful that I can’t sleep right now. That I know that I will be awake for another 2 hours at least before I drift off… because I get something useful out of it that makes the struggle to nod off worthwhile.

I know that I am not a true insomniac and I would never claim to be one (I’ve lived with one, I know how awful it can be) but I do believe that we all suffer it to some degree. Everyone will have an off night every now and then, maybe a few nights in a row. I have around 5-6 weeks. I think its a cycle of some kind that my body goes through – like a snake sheds its skin. I don’t know why it happens, it doesn’t change anything for me other than I’m tired (more than normal) and I get more stuff done. So I grin and bear it and know there is an end to it.

Do you suffer from something similar? Does it affect your creative skills in any way?

Leave a comment below 🙂

 

Marni x 

 

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2014!

I cannot wait to reveal all the amazing things that I have in store for FF HQ this year.

It’s been 16 months since Dad became ill and the trauma threw our lives into disarray, but we coped, learned and are all the stronger for it. Yes things had to change in order for our lives to work on a daily basis, this included shutting the store front, but it has made life much more flexible and easier to manage all round for us all.

So to the new year and new things!

This year will be Year of the UFO –  I have a tub full of quilt tops that need to be finished. I will be keeping a list and I’d like to invite you all  to join me in this.

All you need to do is listed here.

And we’ll be keeping an eye on each other with this –

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Let me know if you are ready to sew!

Marni x

 

Festive Sale and end of year happenings…

So it’s all over for another year…

Food and presents were great, a nice quiet day with family.

It’s Boxing Day now. Mum’s reading, Dad’s watching the cricket and I’m about to do some sewing.

Working on a few quilts that will be up for sale in the new year along with a few magazine pieces. I’m also getting a head start with the 55 Fox Fiasco projects. The girls and I are very excited about the launch.

If you head over to the STORE tab and do some shopping, when you get to the checkout make sure you enter FESTIVE2013 into the coupon code box to receive 25% off your purchases (excluding kits, patterns, sewing baskets and quilting hoops).

Make sure you don’t miss out on these bargains as I love to encourage you to create while you are on holidays – relaxation aids inspiration. 🙂

Any orders placed will be posted as soon as possible, as with all of the public holiday days dotted in amongst this time of year makes getting to the post office a little more tricky. So allow a few extra days delivery.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, are enjoying their Boxing Day and looking forward to the New Year.

Marni x

Hurtling…

And so here we stand a mere week out from Christmas 2013.

I’m not quite sure I believe we got here as fast as we did – it really does seem like a blur. Especially since we had so many big things happen in the last 12 months –

– The shop front closing and the restructuring of the business

– Dad being home for more than a year!

– New directions with the 55 Fox Fiasco

– And all the other random good stuff that happened.

Also in that time I started a new job… I’m doing some freelance work for the College of Law which is the complete opposite of the work I do in the shop. I’m working on word documents, behind a computer all day, not behind a sewing machine. My brain is finding the balance a little hard to come to terms with but the work is important as it is legal information for up and coming law students.

Nothing will take me away from the shop permanently, I’m just doing this job to help them through their busy time as I have the necessary skills and the flexibility with my time.  🙂

So to catch you all up with what’s happened since I last posted a blog entry (eep! the 21st of October) here’s a quick montage of pics –

I think that about covers the majority of what happened.

I’m not closing over the holidays – so if you need anything please feel free to ring, email or place your order through the shopping cart. I’ll only be going to the post office on non-public holiday days so please allow a couple of extra days for your deliveries.

 

Packing and an emotional tangent…

Out of all the things in life packing and moving has to be one of the most hated. Top 5 at least – after public speaking….

I don’t like moving – it’s time consuming and I usually end up lifting everything and moving the things myself to the point of exhaustion. Packing is good though because you can sort and discard, condense your belongings and ensure that when you unpack you are starting afresh.

This move has been one of mixed feelings.

Changing the shop to online and machine quilting only was a big decision but it was one made at a time when all the pieces fell into place (space to move into, lease ending, mum needing more help with dad, 2 years at the shopfront) so it was an easy decision to make because it was simplified. The time was right, so we took the chance.

I love change so this is good for me and my outlook on the business. It gives me flexibility and time to hone my machine quilting skills more, in turn providing a better service for you, less overheads means more savings – so more stock and time to hunt down new and exciting things and best of all I’m around for dad.

Many of you know dad – he was in the shop from the start – he built all the cupboards and the kitchen area, the benches and the classroom tables. He was there every day with me, working on some of his own things, or helping me with shop things. He was there at all those shows and markets, lugging and carting things around for me. The last twelve months (from the 19th of August when it all happened) has been hard for my family. Watching the trauma that he suffered, listening to doctors tell us he wasn’t going to wake up and hearing the horror stories and fatality percentages made us close ranks and shut out the world. Being in the shop and continuing to quilt saved my sanity and held me together. I was able to be strong for my family – we had to keep going, knowing that’s exactly what dad would have expected of us.

What happened to dad few survive. Most die within the first few hours. Dad was incredibly lucky. We don’t know why or even how because according to all of the medical team who looked after him during those 3 months said he ticked all the wrong boxes. He was, in their eyes, a write off.

I personally think dad was lucky for three reasons – 1. He is a stubborn man and a survivor. This isn’t the first traumatic thing he’s lived trough. 2. He had reserves to loose. The excess weight he had been carrying kept him alive while others wasted away to nothing in the bed beside him dad still had colour and looked reasonably healthy. 3. He had us. Even though we were prepared for the worst because that’s what we were led to believe was happening we still hoped.

I won’t go into all the details but after three months in hospital we got him home. The first few weeks were tough for mum and I – especially through the nights when dad was restless –  we were lifting him in and out of bed. But he got better. The physical stuff coming back quickly, his balance is still a little random but he’s doing well. The mental and emotional stuff – well that takes far longer to heal.

Dad and I are not the same. We’ve lost whatever bond we had. I lost my drinking buddy, my companion in mischief… but it’s weird because he’s still there.

And this is why the shop had to change.

My family comes first. The shop as much as I love it and all of my customers is second. You all know that and you all have expressed to me the same sentiment.

So from now on, we are all to live much happier streamlined lives. Mail orders are easy as pie to place. I love seeing orders come in and wonder what you are all up to.

I will be updating new stock and information as I unpack. There are some new products arriving at the end of the month. To stay in touch with all the details please sign up for our newsletter or find us on Facebook.

 

I will be around all over the place over the last few days of this move so if you need me please send through an email (frankensteinsfabrics@hotmail.com), ring/text 0416 023 637 or message me via Facebook. You can also leave comments on blog posts.

Have a great week!

Marni x