Fabric News

Alexander Henry - Around the World

I've added a couple of new sellers to the Great Big List of UK-based Online Fabric Shops.  First up is Fancy Moon.  Fancy Moon used to be an Ebay seller (I think called Fancy Nancy) and I was really disappointed when the Ebay shop closed because I'd be a huge fan of their selection - especially of very funky Christmas fabrics.  They've  now launched as a stand alone shop and I'm just as impressed.  Having a look round at the moment the main strengths are Alexander Henry and Etsuko Furuya for Kokka (including a brilliant selection of Kokka interior weight fabrics). You can browse the fabrics in stock by designer, manufacturer or by theme (and there's a great choice of themes!) which makes finding just what you need very easy.To celebrate the launch of the new shop there is a 10% discount available on all fabrics until 31 July - just use 'launch' (without the inverted commas) as the coupon code.  


Another fantastic new shop is The Cloth Seller, which specialises in organic and fair trade fabric, and as such, is offering something rather different and new to the UK - ethical fabrics where colour and style are the priority.  The Cloth Seller states that all their fabrics ' have been grown and harvested using sustainable, organic farming practices' and that 'they are woven and dyed without the aid  of dangerous chemicals'.  Good news and definitely to be applauded and supported (an excellent excuse for buying!).  

Geo Grand by Daisy Jainie

They are the UK distributor for a new organic fabric supplier called Daisy Janie Fabrics - the brain child of designer Jan DiCinto, who has produced a lovely graphic collection in very strong colours called Geo Grand.  The Cloth Seller also stocks the lovely, and very practical Westfalenstoffe medium weight cottons and gorgeous heavyweight interior fabrics by Mod Green Pod.


Finally some news about one of my favourite sellers - Julia of Gone to Earth.  The Gone to Earth blog has moved house and you can now find it just here!  So don't forget to pop round there and make sure that you are up to date with all the news.  To celebrate (not sure if that is the right word!) the move, Julia is having a brilliant giveaway of a fab book called Small Stash Sewing... really, what more reason do you need to go and take a peek? 

Lots of Progress

It really is about time that I reported on my patchwork progress. I now have 8 12" square completed (please excused crumpled appearance - it's been rolled up in my bag over Christmas!). It's been brilliant fun so far - working with the other women in my class has been very inspirational and it's been great to see the colours and patterns that other people have come up with. It is fascinating that the same block can be made to look so different by the use of colour and arrangement. We are about to start our new term and I'm very enthusiastic - just hoping that enough people join up again to keep the class going. It seems a shame that there aren't more people out there who want to learn this amazing craft. This week I've also been working on a needle/crochet hook roll to store some of my crafting clutter. By complete coincidence, a couple of my crafting friends both approached me with a request to make one for them, so I thought I'd do one for myself first to work out a pattern - it's going well - just need to finish sewing up the binding and then I'm all done with that. I also have a commission to make a card wallet and a bag, so I've been buying gorgeous fabric and boring stuff like interfacing from the brillant Gone to Earth (ordered yesterday morning, received today!) and Cotton Patch. What a busy few days it has been - I've got lots of new followers on Facebook and great comments on my blog so it looks as if there's going to be quite a competition for the bag on Monday. That's all hugely exciting and it's certainly helped me to feel very enthusiastic about moving on with lots of new crafting projects. I've signed up for a crochet challenge - A Granny A Day over at Meet Me at Mike's. The aim is to commit to crocheting one granny square a day in 2010 - well there's no way I am going to achieve that, but I might manage 1 every other day. That would certainly be good for my yarn stash and also I'm hoping to end up with a groovy throw that would brighten up our newly decorated front room. Then there's also a very cool White Elephant swap at Juanita Tortilla. This is a great idea because it doesn't actually involve any crafting at all... go check it out and sign up if you have some crafty bits and bobs that you can't think what to do with! And in amongst all of this activity I've also managed to list a few things for sale on MISI and Etsy (phew!) - here they are, for your delectation.