Stop Press.......

Earlier this week I had a visit from Nicole from The Strathallan Times who came to write a piece on me for the paper. The Times runs a regular feature entitled Shop Local which showcases independent local businesses in each issue. I picked up a copy (well 3 actually to show my family) tonight. I was a bit nervous about what it would be like but is was a really good full page colour spread with lots of photos. They even included a quote from one of my customers who was in the shop at the time which was really cool. It's not quite "As seen on TV" but I need to start somewhere!

Click the picture to zoom in and read the full article.

Scottish Quilt Championships

I paid a visit to the Scottish Quilt Championships at Ingleston in Edinburgh at the weekend. I saw lots of lovely fabrics and quilts including one by Brian from Beechwood Quilting which had some fabric from my shop in it. It was great to see my fabric being used this way. While I was there I also attended a demonstration entitled Creating hand look needle turn effect applique by machine given by Eileen Blood. Eileen was very nice and showed us how to create a notebook cover. At lunch I got chatting to ladies from the St Fillans Quilters Club who were there for the day. All in all a great day out with lovely fabrics, quilts and people all round.

Website Changes

Dave's been working on the website tonight adding a page for our fat quarter bundles. He's added photos of each bundle in a slide show. I can't decide if I like it but Dave seems to. You can check it out here and let us know what you think.

Christmas is coming!

OK, I know it's only September, but if you're planning any handmade Christmas presents you need a bit of time to make them. We now have some great Christmas fabrics in stock, Moda Flurry and Riley Blake Christmas Candy. Both are fantastic ranges, ideal for Christmas projects and presents. I think I might use some to make a Christmas Stocking. Why not come and visit and check them out, in the mean time here are a couple of photos to whet your appitite.

Riley Blake Christmas Candy

Moda Flurry

Still Open

Well, that's Open Studios over for another year. I've had lots of visitors this week which was really great. Thanks for all the nice comments about the fabrics, I'm glad so many of you like them.

Open Studios may be over but I've decided to open the workshop regularly. I'll be open 10 till 4 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday every week and the 1st Saturday of every month. See you soon.

Open Studios Day 2

We had another busy day today with lots of interesting visitors all with varying levels of quilting experience but all with that recognisable obsession with fabrics and everything crafty. It's always exciting to see who will walk through my workshop door.

A couple who really took me by surprise was Brian and Carole from Beechwood Quilting. They came for a look round and we had a good long chat about long arm quilting and my slight fear of it (not wanting to ruin a carefully pieced quilt top with a pitiful attempt of LAQ). I've had their website on my 'Favourites List' for a long while now and always promised myself to contact them to get some tuition. Having met them face-to-face I know their classes will be superb, They have lots of quilting experience and are really easy to talk to. Hop over to their website for the full run down of what they can offer. I'm already planning a visit to see their studio and get some tips. I also had two commissions today, one from one of the neighbours for a quilted teapot stand, the other for two fabric boxes. We only had one person try the Singer who did quite well due to his wool spinning experience and Dave ate more cakes than yesterday despite me using the till all day!

P.s. I forgot to mention yesterday I met Yvonne from Marshmallow Moon. Yvonne is a needle felter who lives about 7 miles away. I've a couple pieces of her work which I bought from a great gift shop, An Cnoc, in Crieff but had never met her until yesterday. Hopefully she will be doing the Perthshire Open Studios 2012.

Survived day 1

Well, that's the 1st day of Perthshire Open Studios over. Thanks to everyone who came to visit. It was good to have people in the workshop discussing things, thankfully no questions I couldn't answer. A couple of people did try the Singer sewing machine but no one's achieved the the expert standard of Dave's dad yet (including me). Biggest surprise of the the day was that Dave didn't eat all of the cakes, although he did get through quite a few Quality Street, he said he needed some reward for working the till. Off now for a relaxing night in to prepare me for tomorrow.

Perthshire Open Studios

Yippee!! We're open.

Perthshire Open Studios starts today and the workshop is just about ready. A few last minute touches this morning including putting up some bunting and setting out the all important cakes. I still have a few things on my to do list, hopefully nothing too urgent. All I need to make it perfect is some visitors, ideally before Dave has eaten all of the cakes, so come and have a browse and a chat, it would be great to see you.