Making time for some sewing

It has been a busy few Months for me. Staystitching is only 4 months old and expanding rapidly and I have also now set up Hewett Heating, my very own Plumbing and Heating company. I have a van and been busy filling it with all the tools I need to service and repair heating systems. I can't wait until Tuesday when my sign writing will be added to my van, with a smiley flame logo of course.

Asside from the Busyness I managed to make a bit of time for sewing. I am being taught to Quilt by my friend and accomplished quilter Manderley Primrose, who is such a great teacher, very patient with perfect attention to detail. Thankfully we are starting simple, I have hand sewn these pieces into pairs now and just about to start joining the pairs to look like the one on the left! Apparently I am hand sewing due to already knowing how to use a machine, I am actually really enjoying it, which I never thought possible as I previously did everything with my machine.




Whilst patiently waiting for my next quilting lesson, I made some mini scallop bunting, using left overs from cutting out my quilt pieces. It is 2 metres long and so simple to make, a small tin of paint was my template to get the shape right, they are now hanging happily in the shop. 



There was a fairly big piece left over of this Tula Pink Neptune fabric, so I made a simple wrist bag pattern and turned it into a roomy little bag.



Desperate for somewhere to store my cutting tools and tape measure I made myself a craft apron, using cotton/linen blend Echino Bond and a few metres of bias binding. The pocket spans the apron and has divided up sections so everything has its place.


I am loving Iron on Vinyl, it comes in 2 yard packs, so you can just cut a bit off and iron it onto any smooth fabric to create a laminated cotton, the results are a useful wipe clean fabric, which is really easy to sew with and incredibly practical. I can finally turn any fabric into a laminate, which is amazing to me as there are so many fabrics which I previously wished were made as laminates.

JBM My Amazing Mum

My Mum aka JBM never fails to amaze me with her ability to do everything. I have always been hugely inspired by my mum and get so much support and love for everything I do. Working full time in London JBM also loves to quilt, applique and has recently re-discovered a love of dressmaking. I am unsure which one of us is more pleased about the creation of Staystitching, we finally have access to great fabrics and we are not afraid to use them. 

Beautiful blouse made using Amy Butler Voile 

Parrot Perch fabric and the A+ Skirt pattern

Echino A+ skirt, photo taken in a lift it canary wharf, JBM is a very busy lady!

I know my mum loves to sew and she has a sewing room and fabric shed to contain her huge stash but having moved out of my Mum’s home over 10 years ago had not realised quite how special the stash was. I am fast realising where my obsession with fine fabrics comes from. Since I showed her the Tula Pink Hushabye and Plume fabrics from Devon I have been getting daily updates as she finds more and more FQ's of Tula Pink fabrics in the stash.

JBM came into the shop to see me at the weekend and was carrying a big bag containing some quilt tops she is working on, one of them was a lap quilt made using tiny pieces of Tula Pink Plume fabric, soo special. You can read more about what JBM is sewing over at her blog -  Quilt therapy

Tula Pink Squirrel Sunset and Simplicity 6022

I made myself a new top for the Staystitching opening party using Tula Pink Squirrel print from the birds and the bees collection in Sunset from and simplicity pattern 6022. I am soo pleased with it, perfect fit and I managed to get the pattern lined up just right, so the Squirrels face each other in the centre of the front and have their backs to each other on the centre of the back, also a squirrel on each sleeve. I cut the back as one piece to make the most of the print so it was very each to sew taking about 3 hours in total and used just1 metre of fabric.

The fabric moved to its new home in one of the other rooms in Pride & Joy's old bakery today, making room to have an even bigger range of fabrics in the shop.

I didn't do to well with getting a picture of the back of my top, I had a busy day organising fabrics into their respective designers, Tula Pink fabrics rightfully take up two full shelves.

Staystitching Grand Opening

Our home sewn flag, took its place proudly next to the Pride & Joy sign yesterday for the first time. We had a brilliant opening celebration with so much support from local quilters, friends and family. It was great to meet so many new like minded fabric fans and get more ideas on what we should source to join our shelves.

It was great to see my new friend Rachel too, Rachel makes the most fantastic quilts and has very similar taste in fabrics to me. We made a list of future fabrics to order and I got some amazing tips too. Rachel was lucky enough to attend a master class with Tula Pink a few weeks ago, I was a little jealous but also very lucky to have someone to pass on gems of knowledge from one of my design idols.

I will be adding some more patterns,  pom pom trim, lace & ribbons to www.staystitching.com later too.

Staystitching featured in the Guardian on Saturday

It was a busy weekend at Staystitching, we were featured in the guardian magazine 'things I like' column. This resulted in a massive boost in website visitors over the weekend and lots of orders too. I spent most of the weekend cutting and packing and have just posted a huge stack of blue parcels.

I also attended a workshop on machine Applique at Pride & Joy, run by Daisy Cook. A talented young quilter and designer. I love freehand machine applique and can't wait to do more, the results look stunning, I used small scraps of Tula Pink for the letters and a little piece of Kokka - Echino in the wind for my Squirrel. I love the way it uses up the smallest scraps, I hate wasting any bits of fabric.. so I will now be appliqueing everywhere :)

Tula Pink is in the UK!!

Tula Pink is visiting the UK, attending the festival of quilts 2012 in Birmingham, the largest Quilt show in Europe. Welcome Tula we hope you have a lovely time and enjoy all the brilliant quilts the UK has on offer. To celebrate this I have picked some of the best makes I could find using Tula's Prince charming collection.  

The owner of a quilt shop in America made this amazing apron top.

Amber made this gorgeous tote bag using frog prince Indigo, I love it.

This quilt, by Angela, I can't imagine how many hours work went into this, incredible quilting.

See more in this gallery.

A couple made by me too

Reversible Japanese knot bag

Laminated cotton compact camera bag.

Tula Pink - the birds & the bees - now in the UK

 Look what arrived yesterday, Tula Pink has another incredible new collection and it is uutterly irresistible. The birds & the bees, is equally as clever and mesmerising as the prince charming collection. With geometric bees hidden in flowers and trees surrounded by birds & bees, not to forgot the cutest squirrels. Here they are... and available to buy online at www.staystitching.com