Once the ice and the snow finally disappeared we made the most of being able to get and about again. The trouble with snow is of course, that it melts.... and this happens...
...Danger! Mud eating wellies!!
In the meantime though some new fabics have arrived in the shop. They arrived quite early too 7.30 ish ... in the morning.... on a non-school day. They're beautiful quilt weight cottons.
Fabrics from the Daisy Chain Collection
Some more fabrics from the Midwest Modern 2 range.
You can see what I mean about the green and blue bias.... well apart from the Ripple Stripe in rust which even has a hint of pink hidden in there. My excuse is that there are a lot of greens and blues in these collections and some of the browns haven't arrived yet, which should redress the balance a little.
It's always difficult to know how to show fabrics off at their absolute best when they're going to be viewed on a computer monitor and that touchy, feely aspect of choosing fabric isn't possible. This 'distance' from the actual fabric also makes it difficult to work out which fabrics work well together in terms of pattern, colour and scale. So, I quite like browsing the Amy Butler Fans flickr site as well as Amy's own site for ideas and inspiration.
I quite often put these ideas together into 'Fabric Bundles' in the shop and they seem quite popular, and I don't know whether it's because other people like the colour combinations too or whether it's just because the 'bundles' are useful if you're building up a fabric stash. Perhaps, it's both.
Amy has also started to publish the pattern repeats for each fabric so I'm also adding those to the shop fabric descriptions because it can only help. What helps you choose fabric online? Do you have any other ideas ?
Here's Amy Butler's Swing Bag as it appears on the pattern sleeve.
and in Daisy Chain fabrics ....
Pretty isn't it.
On the subject of Amy Butler patterns, one query I get quite a lot through the shop is about interlinings, and suitable substitutes and equivalents to the Pellon range of interlinings (available in the US) that Amy recommends on her pattern sleeves. So, it's good news because she has created an 'International/interfacings/Stabilizer Chart'.
This chart compares interlinings and stabilisers from the US, shows their European and Australian equivalents or suitable substitutes. It's probably a link worth keeping safe somewher for future reference, whether it's specifically Amy's sewing patterns you use or patterns by other US or Australian designers. Hope this link helps you, it certainly gives me more information that I can add to the shop...
.... I never knew that the 'Vliesofix' was Bondaweb.
As you know Julia I'm just learning about bags, and interlinings/stabilisers/interfacing is a HUGE part of that learning. I look forward to browsing your shop - it's always a treat. x
Posted by: Kitty | February 24, 2009 at 12:00 AM