Happy Birthday, Queen Victoria!

It is a long weekend here in Canada thanks to Queen Victoria having a birthday. The Monarchists among us like to refer to this weekend as May Two-Four (hehe). In other words, the number of beer bottles there are in a full case. It's a well-known camping/bush party/bonfire kinda weekend. Ahem. I have a feeling Vicky was more of a sherry kinda gal.

BUT, you can party in your jammies while enjoying some great sales this weekend!!  First up is Sew Sisters, offering 20% off on continuous yardage cuts with flat rate shipping in Canada and to the U.S. ON MONDAY ONLY.

There's a 15% off sale happening Saturday till Monday at Fabric Please! with code QUEENSBDAY

And a little bird told me that a perennial favourite, Drygoods Design will celebrate their 5 year online anniversary with a great (online only) sale TOMORROW, Friday May 20th!!

If you're looking to pick up some Cotton & Steel at 33% off, Mad About Patchwork has some Lucky Strike for you in their amazing sale section!

Have fun shopping!

Supplies Event at Craftsy this weekend!

Just popping in to let you know that there is a huge supplies even on at Craftsy this weekend...kits and fabrics up to 50% off!

I just downloaded Latifah's FREE GlamClam quilt pattern from the Craftsy pattern store for the (live, in person) class I'm doing with the VMQG when Latifah visits next month. I'm so looking forward to it because I've sewn curves many times, but never devoted an entire project to them. There are some great fabric bundles on sale that would make a gorgeous GlamClam quilt!

Rhoda Ruth by Elizabeth Hartman is 30% off

Wander by Joel Dewberry is 20% off

Boundless Solids are 35% off. A 42-charm pack is only $7.25

Check out all of the deals, including Aurifil thread, here.

********This is an affiliate post********

My "Monthly Sparks" bundle!

I will freely admit my excitement when Daryl invited me to select a bundle of 12 fat quarters for her February subscribers in the Monthly Sparks program. Each month, lucky customers (it's a sold out program, but there's a wait list) receive a sweet surprise in the mail; a beautifully curated bundle from quilt bloggers who love fabric just as much as they do!

I spent a very enjoyable afternoon perusing virtual shelves of Fabric Spark, cutting and pasting thumbnail photos into a Word document so that I could see all of the fabrics side by side.  This shop website has a very easy and unique catalogue system for fabrics that makes it so easy to find colours, themes, designers, collections or manufacturers you are looking for. It wasn't really my plan to create a completely coordinating bundle; instead I was trying to find special prints that would round out the corners of a stash, but still work in a project together.  I think it is super fun to receive fabric this way...unexpected prints that you might not otherwise choose and that don't all come from one designer's fabric line.  I even went out on a limb (for me) and included a bit of gold metallics!  This bundle was waiting for me when I arrived home from a 10 day trip last night and I just love it all - I don't have any of these prints in my stash already, so it was exciting to see them all in person for the first time.

There's a pillow or mini quilt project that I have in mind for these. I hope to be able to carve out some time this week to make a start before the arrival of a Super Quilting VIP from Down Under (more on that excitement later!).

As I mentioned above, this subscription club is sold out, however Daryl told me on the QT that there might just be an extra bundle or two listed in the coming days. There are still spots in Fabricspark's Rainbow bundle or Free Spirit Fabric monthly subscriptions that you may want to check out. Honestly, the fabric selection in this shop is second to none.

An example of the Free Spirit bundle

I was so lucky on a recent visit to Toronto to spend a very enjoyable morning with Daryl and other quilters at Berene's Quilting for Refugees event, which happily coincided with my last-minute trip. I love talking fabric with Daryl - you can read all about her love of it in her fantastic newsletter called Fabric News for Fabric Lovers (and she may have said some very kind things about me in the last on *blush*). Sign up at the bottom of the shop homepage so that you don't miss any of her stunning new arrivals of quilting cotton, apparel and home-dec weight prints and many hard-to-find imports. 

U.S. quilters - remember that you instantly save close to 30% on everything that you buy from Canadian retailers due to an extraordinarily generous exchange rate!   

Sales & Arrivals News from Poppyprint Partners

Today's the day! Sew Sister's fabulous one day sale on continuous yardage (including clearance and last chance fabric!) includes flat rate shipping within Canada. Feast your eyes on this 108" wide backing by Tula Pink. Oooooooo!

 

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Fabric Please! is having a sweet Valentines Day one-day promotion this coming Thank You Thursday (until midnight).

Save 15% off all in stock pink fabric using coupon code SAVE15

Save 20% off all in stock white fabric using coupon code SAVE20

  

Save 25% off all in stock red fabric using coupon code SAVE25

  

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Carolyn Friedlander's architecturally inspired new line Carkai has arrived at Fabric Spark!

There's also the brand new Nani Iro - this time in brushed cotton. Luscious for sophisticated receiving blankets or the softest cottage quilt ever!

12 Days of Spark!

My lovely friend and blog partner Daryl of Fabric Spark is running a really fun holiday promotion to say thanks to all of her customers. For 12 days, there will be a new special announced in the morning that runs until midnight EST. Be sure to check back every day to see what might spark your imagination!  I'm sorry that I didn't have a chance to tell you in time about the weekend specials, but consider yourself fully informed to stuff your own stocking now!

Today, you've got several chances to win one of two Cotton and Steel canvas totes. Entry details are all on the Fabric Spark 12 Days of Christmas page here (comments here are NOT entries, kay?).  U.S. readers, remember that your strong dollar means an additional 25-30% off everything you buy from a Canadian shop! You may have to make yourself a bigger stocking.

Black Friday North of the Border

Shop Canadian this weekend and save exchange rates and huge shipping fees! Here are the specials currently running at my partner shops.

 

Thank You Thursday ONLY 26/11/15

Instead of the usual 20%, 30% and 40% savings,

today, you'll save 25%, 35% and 45% off these items...

25% off Maywood Studio Fabrics

coupon code: SAVE25

35% off in stock Knit Fabrics

coupon code: SAVE35

45% off Shaman Diamonds Quilt Kit

coupon code: SAVE45

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale!

Fabric Please! is having a huge sale

Friday, November 27th

through to

Monday, November 30th

35% off 

EVERYTHING

in the store!

Use coupon code: BLACK15 at the checkout.

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Daryl would like to spark your imagination with 20% off everything, including new collections, sale fabrics, patterns, kits and bundles, until Midnight November 30 (Cyber Monday) with promo code: woohoo

Check out Daryl's musings on NAVY (from L to R: Jennifer Sampou, Cotton & Steel, Alison Glass)

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At Sew Sisters, their basics promotion is still in full swing

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Mad About Patchwork would like to tempt you with a whopping 40% off selected items that you can find here.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends (and enjoy an additional 25% off any purchases you make in Canada thanks to the exchange rate with our weakling dollar)!

It's Basic!

Looking to stock up for your winter sewing projects? Sew Sisters has a great promotion running the entire month of November. I think I've used every one of these Kona colours and neutrals or backgrounds! Take your pick of Ash, Snow, White, Charcoal or Black and order a minimum of one meter (that's 40" off the bolt for you yardy-types) to get the discount!

Fabric Please! Discount Code!

I'm pleased to welcome a new partner here at Poppyprint - a Canadian online retailer called Fabric Please!  I asked Rita to share a little bit about herself and her shop, but you all get a whole lot more: a discount code good for the entire month of November! 

Rita tells me that she's sewn most of her life and like most of us, she's always loved fabric. It seemed a natural career choice for her to help others fulfill their fabric needs.   The online retail option was a perfect fit for her family, keeping her at home and allowing for flexibility with her work.

At Fabric Please! you'll find an eclectic selection, leaning toward fresh modern prints with a few pretty florals thrown in to balance it all out.  Rita tries to carry a selection from the leading designers (Tula Pink, Lotta Jansdotter, Jen Kingwell, Art Gallery and various Moda designers to name a few) in both yardage and bundles.  You'll also find Aurifil thread cone and spools (in multile weights), batting and an extensive SALE section. She buys what she likes and also listens to her customers, sourcing their favourites or helping them find what they need for the best price elsewhere if necessary.  She's got a great business motto: I'd rather have a customer go away happy instead of just going away. 

Rita enjoys passing savings along to her customers and offers them flat rate shipping ($8-CAN, $15-US, $30-INT) so they have more money to spend on the thing that matters most... pretty fabric!  Every order placed with Fabric Please! also receives a little “something for nothing”, which is Rita's way of saying "thank you!"  You'll find a free fat quarter, a mini-spool of Aurifil thread or a notion of some sort hidden in Rita's signature brown paper packages tied up with string. I love surprises, so this is right up my alley!

In addition to her shop, you can find Rita all over the web:

Newsletter:  http://fabricplease.com/blog/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/FabricPlease/

Instagram:  fabricplease

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ritaferber/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/FabricPlease

Personal Blog:  http://pinprickedfingers.com

To celebrate our new partnership, Poppyprint readers can enjoy 25% off their total orders from today until midnight on November 30, just use the coupon code POPPYPRINT (and feel free to use it multiple times). 

Thank you Rita!

Sunday Sept. 20th Sale at Sew-Sisters!

It's the alliteration sale of the year!

Looking for something to do on Sunday? Brew a cuppa and shop in your jammies. 

Stock up on quilt backs, apparel yardage and anything else you might need. 

ONE DAY ONLY!! 

I kinda love the flat rate shipping included in the deal, too. 

Check it out right here.

Good Neighbors Pin Cushion Party plus a mini tutorial & giveaway!

It is a party! A pin cushion party! We're celebrating the release of Amanda Jean's sweet new fabric line from Connecting Threads called Good Neighbors. We've all made pin cushions to showcase the prints and there will be blogposts all month long.  You'll see at the end of this post an extensive list of bloggers supporting Amanda Jean - everyone is so excited for her and her first fabric line.  Although it was a really busy time, Amanda Jean and I did manage to meet each other at Spring Market and exchange a couple of hugs. I hope we will get to meet again one day and have more time to hang out and talk quilting!  I think that her contemplative, sincere style (and devotion to scraps) really come through in her fabric design.  Just look at these great colours and uncomplicated patterns:

I especially love Leaves Array (bottom left) and cross stitch (fourth row, the red/blue/grey lattice prints on the right side).  The stripes on the bottom row are ideal binding fabrics!

Good Neighbors is the perfect line of blending fabrics with all of the great colours and sweet little prints. I wanted to use as many of them as possible, so I added some tiny pinwheels to the Big Mouthed Threadcatcher pattern out of my book. I've been making these threadcatchers for so many years, in fact I know I've made well over 200. It's fun to change things up by adding some special piecing the thread bag.

I remembered to use quick piecing and cutting technique that I'd learned somewhere along the way of my quilting career...I just can't remember where! Perhaps a magazine, or a long-ago workshop?  Here's how it works:  you start with two squares and end up with eight 1/2 square triangles! For my thread bag,  start with two 5" charm squares RST, draw both diagonal lines, corner to corner. Sew 1/4" on either side of the lines. Make 4 cuts: cut on the drawn lines and the horizontal and vertical middle. Presto: eight 1/2 squares!!  I trimmed mine to 2" before piecing them into pinwheels/broken dishes blocks.

 

Connecting Threads would like to send a Canadian or US resident a charm pack of the Good Neighbors collection.  Just leave one comment here (your email must be linked OR written into your comment in order to win) and I will choose a random winner in a week's time. Good luck! {ETA: Comments are now closed, thank you for stopping by!}

9/1/2015 Amanda Jean – Crazy Mom Quilts
9/2/2015 Anna – Noodlehead 
9/3/2015 Mary – Mary on Lake Pulaski
9/4/2015 Svetlana – Sotak Handmade
9/5/2015 Debbie – Esch House Quilts
9/6/2015 Holly – Bijou Lovely
9/7/2015 Carla – Grace and Favour
9/8/2015 Faith – Fresh Lemons Quilts
9/9/2015 Vanessa –  V and Co.
9/10/2015 Anna –  Thimbleanna
9/11/2015 Krista –  Poppy Print Creates (you're here!)
9/12/2015 Erin –  Why Not Sew
9/13/2015 Lee –  May Chappell
9/14/2015 Alex –  Tea Ginny Designs
9/15/2015 Cheryl –  Nap Time Quilter
9/16/2015 Penny –  Sew Take a Hike
9/17/2015 Amy –  During Quilt Time
9/18/2015 Debbie –  A Quilter’s Table
9/19/2015 Anne –  Spring Leaf Studios
9/20/2015 Melissa Corry –  Happy Quilting
9/21/2015 Amber –  One Shabby Chick
9/22/2015 Nettie –  A Quilt is Nice
9/23/2015 Adrianne – Little Bluebell
9/24/2015 Cindy –  Live a Colorful Life
9/25/2015 Amy –  Diary of a Quilter
9/26/2015 Chase –  Quarter Inch Mark
9/27/2015 Rene –  Rene Creates
9/28/2015 Erin –  House on Hill Road
9/29/2015 Nicole –  Modern Handcraft
9/30/2015 Teri –  Connecting Threads

Looking for that special SPARK? or maybe a giveaway?

Then you're in the right place!! I'm really proud and happy to have a new partner here on Poppyprint: Canadian online shop Fabric Spark.  I met Daryl at Spring Quilt Market and was immediately drawn to her kind demeanour and mutual love of unique fabric substrates and prints.  We recently enjoyed an unexpected visit right here in Vancouver!  I wanted you all to know more about Daryl and her lovely shop, so asked her to share her philosophy and vision.

Fabric Spark started as Daryl Aitken’s passion project. She had nurtured a love of design and creative endeavors in her spare time as a sewist/knitter/crafter and in her career spanning over 30 years in advertising and marketing. For most of that time, making took a distant back seat to work, but finally last year after selling her small business, Daryl got to turn her attention back to her first love.

Nani Iro double gauze!

Fabric Spark was launched last January and reflects Daryl’s belief that good fabric design should spark your imagination and start the ideas flowing. “I like to look at a piece of fabric the way a sculptor looks at a hunk of marble… if it’s really great, I start thinking immediately about all of the things I’d like to make with it” That’s her buying filter for the shop – the fabric needs to inspire her, and in turn, hopefully inspire her customers....

Lotta Jansdotter's Follie collection

..and it does! Daryl provides a personally inspired write-up for just about all of the collections in her shop and even makes a few suggestions about what she’d do with it: what’s the “spark” from the fabric?  

I love Daryl's May bundle - still available!

Fabric Spark also has a great selection of patterns and Wool and theGang yarn from the UK, and there are monthly subscriptions that deliver a specially-curated bundle of coordinating fat quarters to subscribers every month.  She is also kindly selling autographed copies of my book from her shop at a great price (yay!). 

Often Daryl find unique limited run prints (I love her Japanese and double gauze finds!). Be sure to sign up for her newsletter at the bottom of her shop homepage so you don't miss out on these special fabrics. You can also keep up with shop happenings and specials on the blog, Facebook or Instagram. Fabric Spark is one of the few Canadian retailers with stock of Anna Graham's sublime Rainwalk (in organic quilting cottons and cotton canvas - pictured above). I may have just placed an order....

****GIVEAWAY BUNDLE****

Thanks for reading all about my newest partner. I hope you'll check out her shop and support a fellow fabric junkie. Daryl would like to share one of her custom bundles featuring some gorgeous classics (below) with one of my readers (that's YOU). All you have to do is leave one comment below for a chance. A random winner will be chosen Monday evening (Aug.3) after what I hope is a lovely long weekend. Please be sure your email is linked to your comment, or written into your comment - if I can't contact you, I'm afraid the random number robot will get to choose another winner.

This is my last birthday month giveaway. Good luck friends!

ETA:Comments are now closed, thanks for stopping by. Congratulations to Kristy of Hopefulthreads who is commenter #84. The RNG chose YOU!

Just (mass)Dropping In With Some Incredible Deals!

It is a bumper week on Massdrop. I'm going to share a few of the drops of notions I use and love myself and fabric I wish I had!  First up is a Clover pin set. You can choose two packages from three options: flower head (I use these for heavier construction like pouches, bags, hemming and for pinning rows of blocks together for transfer from design wall to machine), Patchwork glass head pins (my all time best pins for piecing) or Quilting glass head pins (also fine and excellent, but extra long). I've never met a Clover notion I didn't like and these pins are the best. Whenever I teach, I encourage people to use the fine glass head patchwork pins for accuracy when matching points or locking seams.

The drop is 1/2 way to the lowest price of $12.99 US for two packages. That's a smokin' deal even with our exchange rate (thankfully, our Canadian dollar is on the rise!).

The next awesome drop is for two pair of Karen K. Buckley scissors. If you are like me, you likely have more than enough pairs of scissors, but honestly, the large purple-handled scissors have been a game changer for me since I bought a pair last spring. They have micro-serrations that grip your fabric as they cut and cushy handles perfect if you have arthritic thumbs like me. AMAZING for cutting through multiple layers of batting as well as lightweight slippery fabric like lawn or the pre-washed chambray I just cut out.  All of my current embroidery scissors have dulled at the tip, so I'm going to join this drop for the two small pairs now that the cheapest price has been unlocked and they are 40% off MSRP (this drop is open for 6 more days). Check out the video of Karen introducing her scissors on the drop page.

There are two fabric drops on as well; Lizzy House Butterflies and Denyse Schmidt Franklin + coordinating solids. Both are gorgeous lines that work out to about $2/FQ before shipping.

40 FQ of Denyse Schmidt Franklin + coordinating solids

Massdrop is really working hard to source great deals for our community - they really do listen. Since this giveaway I hosted, they've already offered many of the items that you suggested in the comments! Click through to their site and you'll see many other active drops including thread, a cordless iron, rulers and more.

Disclosure - if you click through from this post, Massdrop will know that I sent you. I am an affiliate and from time to time they send me products to review and host giveaways. I have not received any of the products in this post - I truly do love them and use them myself.  I'm sharing here so you don't miss out.