I bought fabric at Festival of Quilts and the Stitch Gathering - supporting those artists and shops I love - but there's not been much fabric shopping going on and that's mostly down to the fact that I want to be using what I have. There are plenty of times I do 'fake shopping', adding beautiful fabric to online baskets but I don't hit 'checkout' because I know that it will ultimately end up in the piles and piles of fabric I already have. The decision to buy fabric now has to be because I need it for a project I am actually working on. For my Manx log cabin blocks I am using woven fabric for the back of each block. I thought I had quite a selection but turns out no where near enough, so I picked up this gorgeous selection of fabrics from Patchfinders. It's a mix of shot cottons, Robert Kaufman Fabrics - yarn dyed, herringbone and gingham.


As the blocks are similar to quilt as you go, it's going to be so cool seeing a patchwork back of the woven fabrics. I've realised (thanks to comments on instagram) that this will be a coverlet rather than a quilt because there's no wadding in it. We have so many quilts in our house I am excited to create something slightly less structured and more blanket like. My Manx coverlet started with a peachy/pink and navy combo but I decided to add some mint to the mix too. I pulled all the mints from my stash but it was still lacking so I added these three from Patchfinders.


left to right: Triangle Tokens, Arizona by April Rhodes; Terrain, Tule by Leah Duncan and On Your Mark by Simone Gautier Bradford for Paintbrush Studio Fabrics.

So far so good... except then I saw that Rose Garden Patchwork had this adorable Hello Kitty print from Yuwa and I could not resist. All those cute stamp sized fussy cuts will no doubt get used in many projects! I also picked up some black and white prints - these are being stashed for a black and white quilt I have planned (and honestly right now I've forgotten exactly what that is so there will be a flick through my notebooks to try and remember!!). 


clockwise from bottom left: Hello Kitty in blue and red by Yuwa; Charcoal Basic Stripe by Yuwa; Fashion News by Suzuko Koseki (a gorgeous white on off white text print) and Greeting Stripes by Suzuko Koseki.

I had happy mail in the form of these beautiful threads from Aurifil, which will be used for my Aurifil Artisan challenge in December. I looking forward to doing some embroidery embellishment and creating a nice Christmas project for our house... stay tuned!


This weekend I've been working on a new project with some simple patchwork squares cut from these beautiful prints (see, I can shop my stash!), all Cotton and Steel - basics and Snap to Grid. I'm doing applique using the Sprinkles black dot and so far it's looking good. More on that very soon!


I hope you've all found some time for creativity over the weekend. For me it's very revitalising and I always feel good working on my projects, whether they are new or old. Fitting crafting in between family time and housework is vital for my sense of self and to fill my creative cup!