..........let me count the ways. I love the goldfish, the ice cream van, the mushrooms, the little girl playing with ponies, I love the race cars, the sleeping beauty, the sausage dogs, the tadpoles. I love them all.
( Bunny came from here...much loved)
Heather Ross's fabric has always been a bit of an obsession for me. My Biggest Little People were babies when I first discovered her fabric. Traded on
Etsy (an online craft shopping portal), these little scraps of fabric were ( and still are!) traded like gold dust. Her early work appeared on a brand of US Pyjamas. You could buy an arm or a leg of an expertly ddissected pair of cotton jammies, but more often just a little square...almost as if the PJ's still existed somewhere with a patchwork patch applied!
I made dolly quilts, patches for little knee holes in baby trousers, a sleeping bag for a mouse, but I mostly hoarded most of the fabric for a good while before I could be persuaded to actually make a whole quilt. When my smallest baby was born I decided now was the time! This is the quilt I made. She still has it on her bed. Before she goes to sleep we play eye-spy of our favourite patches. I made the Eye-Spy pillow to go with it. It's just circles of our favourite prints hand appliqued in place then stuffed from behind to make them 3D, perfectly 'proddable' for baby hands.
Heather Ross is back, she didn't make quilting fabrics for a while, but her new line debuts this summer. It's called Briar Rose. It is adorable! Cute, clever, vibrant ( never schmalzy), vintage ...what is not to like. This quilt line will become one of the classic fabrics. They'll be trading it on etsy in tiny scraps in a few years time.
Imagine my heightened state of anxious anticipation as I saw it pop up in US shops on pre order...aghhhh, I want some, those strawberries are to die for!! Imagine my joy when it started to appear in UK stores JOY!!! ( clouds part, heavenly rays of sunshine fall upon my head as i sink to my knees etc!). Go, NOW, buy some quick before I buy it all!! xxx
Phew, its been a busy few weeks. My classes are back in full swing. I have a fantastic class of new to patchwork ladies on a Tuesday morning who have thrown themselves into this new area for them and are already making fantastic blocks for their first quilt! I just LOVE teaching Simple Sampler - whats better than sharing the love!? Then on a Friday morning I get to teach my Modern Applique Quilt for the first time which was both scary and exhilarating as it's a quilt I designed and it's very close to my heart and it's the first time I'm seeing it reinterpreted by others. I really held my breath and hoped that everyone would love it as much as me. This week was the second class and it was FAB! We had such a lovely morning, very relaxing, lots of laughs and some totally amazing blocks emerging. I hope that I can try and remember to take some pictures next week and share them with you.
