What's Hot from The Cloth Shop 16 August 2010

Procrastination!! That is why it is a while since you have received a What's Hot letter from the Cloth Shop - we have a lot of emails asking if your name has dropped from our mailing list but don't worry it hasn't - it's me putting off what I shlould be doing today, until tomorrow!! Everytime new fabrics, books patterns or something else gorgeous arrives I think "Great! I will put this in What's Hot" - I will start that tomorow...........................

We are busy and still loving it!

Baby Blues

We all love making baby quilts! they make such perfect welcome gifts! They need to be easy to make and easy to wash - big enough to cover a cot but small enough to be carried around by a little todddler -we make them with love and we want them to be used every day, and treasured for ever.,. Baby Blues is all of these things - we have made it up in soft silky Cuddle and cosy flannels. It really is an easy quilt to make - all you need to do is sew the squares together and then sew on the borders. We used a wool batting because we wanted it to be puffy - our wool batting is prewashed and preshrunk - and then quilted it with a Madiera polyneon thread. "Gorgeous"

We also have packaged the pattern for this quilt in a different way to our Tall Poppies patterns and it is the first of a series we are calling "Easy Peasys" It is a series of easy quilts, table runners and bags - we will print the picture and all the instructions on a double sided A4 and then laminate it- so each pattern will be easy to make and the instructions will be easy to read and easy to store. Each pattern is $10.00. Baby Blues is #1.

If you want to order this or anything else from our web site you can leave your details on our secure page

Christmas in July stitching retreat

We had a marvellous weekend at Oreti with Leanne Beasley and Rosalie Quinlan at the beginning of July. The venue was perfect, the tutors were brilliant, the participants were great (thank you everyone, for your cards, phone calls and emails, telling us how much you enjoyed your weekend) even the weather was perfect. At the beginning of the first day Rosalie told everyone that this was their weekend - and she and Leanne, would do the best they could to make it a great experience for everyone - and they certainly did! We are looking forward to seeing all finshed projects............soon. On Saturday night we had a Christmas Dinner followed by a lovely Show and Tell - What Christmas dinner is complete without a Strawberry Pavlova and a Christmas Fairy!

Liz is making.....................

"I don't usually do hand stitching - it takes too long! however it seems the right thing to do on winter evenings. At the moment I am stitching some of Leanne Beasley's designs from "Living the Dream" and I am adding some of my own. I'm making a Queen Size quilt for our spare room so my bricks are longer (4 1/2" x 7 1/2") and am using some of the softer Phillip Jacobs and Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I am stitching with Madiera Wool Lana thread and really enjoying making this quilt".

Amiee is making..................

"Ever since I started work at the Cloth Shop, I have loved this quilt. - but I have had no one to make it for. Woolly Jumpers is a cute little cot quilt - great for a boy or a girl, and now my sister is six months pregnant i thought this would be a great quilt for her to hang in her nursery, or use as a cot quilt. It has a great mix of bright lime greens and purples which will suit my new nephew to be perfectly."

Dawn has been sewing for The Cloth Shop.......

This tree has been designed by Adrienne Walker and we made it for our Saturday Strippers last Saturday. It looks so good! We have made our version in Black and Silver and we have dressed the tree with beautiful black and silver braids. We have finished the top of the tree with a star made from crystals.

The pattern is $23.00 and we have kits ready to sew. - Kits that contain the pattern, background , black and silver fabric, all the silver and black braids for the tree and crystals for the star and the top points are $85.00

Kits that contain the pattern, background fabric, black and silver fabrics and the black and silver braids but no crystals are $77.00

Katherine is making...............

We love these fabrics - they have just arrived

We have a great new range of basics - all the colours of the rainbow and shades in between! . There are 28 colours and we have packs of the complete range for $58.00. This fabric is $16.00 per metre.

New Cats!!

Welcome Sylvia, Tamati and Mr Misstoffilees! They are our new cat cushions. There are two cats on each pattern - Syvia and Mr Mistoffillees are in one pattern $20.00 and Tamati and Cleo are in the other pattern $20.00

This is a photo of Mr Mistoffillees. The other new cats are on our Really New Page and the complete series is on our Pattern Page

Kits for Mr Mistoffillees, Sylvia, Tamati and Cleo are $45.00 Each. We have bordered Mr Mistoffillees with one of European Textured fabric.

New pattern in our "Pillowtalk" series.

Our Pillowtalk series:-Each Month we release a new textured block which we make up into cushions. There are two cushions on each pattern and each pattern is made up using different techniques for edgings and closures - this month the cushions are made up using the Puffy Pancake textured block and the Pintuck Grid with the soft button embellishment textured block.- the closure for these cushion are deep overlaps. This photo shows the Pintucked Grid with soft button embellishemnt textured block with fringed binding - whew! that's a mouthfull isn't it!!

This Thursday 19th August we are having............

a THURSDAY NIGHT “EVENT”
This a chance for you to come to The Cloth Shop to see demo’s and What’ New! On the second Saturday of each month we have Saturday Strippers – if you have missed a Saturday or you just can’t make it so early in the morning this is your chance to catch up on what we have done over the last few months as we will give you all those demo’s again. You will be amazed at what you can make with strips! We will also have demos on how to make the textured cushions and also show you what’s new in the Quilting World!
There is no charge to come and you do not need to bring your machine but you do need to book as numbers will be limited.
Thursday 19th August 6.30 – 8.30
Look at our full class list

All Cooped Up - this month we posted

A new Block of the Month from McKenna Ryan. This month we have posted out Block 2 - Sunny Perch. We are using the batiks that Mckenna Ryan designed especially for this quilt - they are lovelyt. This Block of the Month runs over nine months and is $35.00 per month. . We are stretching each of our blocks on to an 8"canvas but if you would rather use the blocks to make a quilt, there is enough fabric in each pack to make a 14"" block Fun and easy to make.

A Journey to Light

This is a Christmas Quilt designed by McKenna Ryan - she had the original quilt when she came to The Cloth Shop last year and by popular request we are doing it as a Block of the Month. It runs over eight months and is $55 per month The style of the blocks is crisp and uncluttered - Mckenna designed it after a very difficult year in her life and each of the blocks features a red cardinal - the cardinal has been christened the Christmas bird because of its brilliant red colour and is a symbol of the beauty and warmth of the Christmas Season. We are making this quilt in Batiks

We have limited spaces left in this Block of the Month. One of the recent blocks we have posted is called "Tucked under his Wing" and features cardinals. In some of the Blocks the cardinals are quite tiny and are and cranniesd in all ti

Life is a Celebration!

We are enjoying making this quilt - each month we open up the Homespun magazine with great anticipation to see what the new block is going to be. Each block is designed by a different deisgner and they are all using different methods for making their blocks. Sometimes they are handstitched and sometimes they are stitched with the sewing machine.. We are using a mix of both and are thrilled with the way they are turning out.You can still join this programme - if you already receive the Homespun Magazine we will send you the fabrics only $28.00 per month or it will $39.90 for the magazine and the fabrics. We will be receiving a new order of Homespun Magazine starting at Block #1 in the next few days so it is a good time to join now.The block in the photo features :"Lovebirds" and is the next block to be posted out.

Sewline - The best marking pen!

Recently Dianne Fussell was teaching a class at The Cloth Shop and she was using the Sewline pencil. We loved it , orderded some and they have been selling like hot cakes ever since!. Sewline is a mechanical fabric pencil with CERAMIC leads and gives clear, clean lines that are easily removed with the attached eraser or a damp cloth. No more messy chalk or lines you can't remove! It is comfortable to use and refills of leads and erasers are readily available. There are 4 lead refill colours to choose from - green white, pink and black graphite.

Our Book of the Month!

Fabric Embellishing The basics and beyond click on this link and you can watch a video featuring the authors Ruth Chandler, Liz Kettle, Heather Thomas and Lauren Vlcek. In this video the authors talk about doing each page of this book as a Block of the Month - isn't that a great idea. We could do that - it would be different and fun. We would choose say twelve of the techniques and make one of them each month - we would make ours and send you the materials to make each block. As well we would send any tricks and tips we picked along up the way.When I work out to put video's on to the web page we would give you extra tips that way too. Each participant would need to purchase the book and there would be a charge each month for materials which would range between $10 - $15 per month.

Creativity, Techniques, Fun and Flair - 160 pages with hundreds of full colour photos, you'll find more than 50 embellishing techniques to learn, to combine, to try and to enjoy. You will have great fun trying out these technqiues! $60.00

We have a bag class on Saturday 21st

You can choose any bag that we have on display at the shop - we will help you from start to finish.. There are some bags that you will finish in one day some will take longer.

The bag in the photo is one that you can finish in one day - we have some super fabrics for bags in the shop at the moment and we have the grommets in stock as well.

We will be at Celebration of Quilts

We will be at The Craft Fair in Hamilton

We have tickets for the show for sale - they are $1 cheaper from us than the door price at the show - and you don't have to wait in the queue

News from China

Last Year Helan Chen came from China to The Cloth Shop for three months to learn to quilt. I met Helan when I went to China to teach a class three years ago. Her dream was to open a quilt shop in China - she didn't want a tiny little shop that does tiny little thing by hand - she wanted a bright, noisy, little bit messy shop with lots of quilts on the walls, and lots of things happening - just like the Cloth Shop! She wanted a shop that sold sewing machines and held classes and lots of people coming and going - well this month she realised her dream and opened her own shop in China! Good Luck Helan!!!

It's time to go!!!

Have a great week - we would love to see you her at The Cloth Shop or at one of the shows we will be attending!!