First attempts never look good

Behold.....

This is my very very first attempt at free motion quilting.

Tell me I'll get better?

This is the last of it...

... I promise.

Last week I went to visit my sister and family who live in Lancaster. I haven't been in nearly 2 years and it's beautiful where she says.

When she first moved there she told me about this fabric place called Standfast and Barracks. It is a fabric printing company but attached into their building they have a warehouse shop where they sell off fabric (mostly seconds at ridiculous prices).

So whenever I visit my sister I have to visit this shop. First off I got bump interlining for £3 a metre and they have told me if I need more I can just call them (01524 598222) and they will courier it. They offer this service for £7.50 for 25kg of material.

I definitely wanted to pick up some silk scraps. They do a bundle of 3 pieces of silk, which last time I got them made 9 jewelery rolls for the paltry sun of £1.50. I also picked up 2 metres of silk at £5 per metre.

I need fabric for the kitchen to make a new window blind and to cover a new cabinet we put in there. I found a fabric I liked at £5 per metre but then I found it in a 2 metre pack for £7! Bargain! I also picked up some other 2 metre packs, mainly to use as linings in bags and things. My stash is low on coordinating fabrics for that kind of thing.

And finally... I kept the best til last...they also do liberty. I picked up 2 metres for just £4! I also got a scrap pack for £1.50 and another piece for not so much.

I would genuinely say if you are in Lancaster or closeby and you like bargains in fabric you need to visit this place.

Right. Thats it. I am officially on a fabric diet and on stash-busting duty. My OH tells me I'm getting locked in my sewing room until it's all used up.

Want to know what £120 of fabric looks like?

.... And the best part of it? it only cost me £48.

Mandors is a fabric shop in Glasgow and a few months ago they ran an offer with Itison whereby you could buy £40 of fabric for £16 pounds. I snapped up 3 of those vouchers and the picture above is what I bought.

This is what I picked up on my first visit. I just love the new way they are displaying the fat quarter bundles. All of these are quilting cottons.

This is what I picked up on my second visit. My favorite is the blue, white and red dress fabric. They had some of this fabric made up into a dress on a display and it was hugely inspiring so a dress it shall be. The white with love hearts on it is a jersey/ knit so I am going to get that made up into a top/t-shirt. I also plan to maker a nice little jacket using the black cotton drill that is hiding in there. And finally the black with sequin flowers is to be made up into jewellery rolls and possibly some make up pouches.

I can't wait to get started!

Love!

I think that finally the time has come that I will actually become a more active blogger.

What has brought about this massive change you ask?

My new phone. I recently got a Samsung Galaxy s 2 on my upgrade and seriously the amount of things I can do on it is incredible.

I figured out this morning that not only can I post blog posts direct from my handset but I can put pictures directly into the post from the camera gallery on the handset. That was always the part I hated the most; getting my camera, photographing, trying to find a.camera cable, putting the pics into computer, then uploading them into Blogger. Now its just one fluid process and it is done.

Wa-hey! Are you glad to have me back?