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!

Need Some Quilt Backings? How About Bindings?

If you're like me, you've got a stack of quilt tops just waiting for a good sale so that you can stock up on yardage to use for backings. So, here is some sponsor news for you: Sew Sisters has just added a bunch of new fabrics to their end of season sale rack at a shocking $4.99/m!!!  That means a queen-sized quilt back could be had for less than 40 bucks.   Everything is in limited quantities, so no dilly-dallying!

Like this Love Grows print from Paintbrush Studio.

This Kaffe Fassett Folk Art print would do for the back of a Christmas table runner or tree skirt!

There are also several prints that I think would make really fun binding, like this navy/white Riley Black Fly Aweigh Waves (also available in yellow and red).

Or this Riley Blake Unicorns & Rainbows bias stripe (available in 2 additional colourways). I love a bias stripe that I can cut on the straight of grain!

This Pepe in Paris bias stripe is a sure winner, too.

While you're there, if you don't already own a package of Clover Wonder Clips, then pick up the August featured product and be amazed at how useful they are in your sewing room: secure your binding for tacking, hold outer and lining of bags together, clip stacks of blocks in row order. Know any more uses? Leave your suggestions in the comments!

Happy Shopping!

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.

A Mom's Gotta Do What a Mom's Gotta Do

For those of us Mothers in North America, this Sunday is our BIG DAY. It is when our significant others and children wake at the crack of dawn to sneak to the kitchen, creating a masterful gourmet breakfast which will arrive on our laps in bed accompanied by lovely hand drawn cards filled with messages of gratitude and love. There will be delicious coffee or tea, French pastries, chocolate, gold and diamonds....offers of pedicures, massages, and someone else to fold the laundry.

*******************REALITY CHECK**********************

Just in case the above scenario fails to play out in your bedroom Sunday morning, here's a back up plan for you:

I was never a fan of breakfast in bed anyway.  Just bring me my laptop & a latte, kids.  The sale includes yardage on clearance, too. I might check out the Botanics on sale or Lizzy House jewels (great blenders!). There are some super sweet 30's repros and plenty of Free Spirit Designer Essential solids to choose from!

Thank you Sew Sisters.

Yeehaw! It's a Bundle Bonanza!

I'm just home from Texas, so my Yeehaw's are well-practiced. I was super excited to see a real life cowboy one afternoon on the street in Austin. He was hailing a cab. It was all I could do to restrain myself from taking his photo, but I'll give you a little description: two days stubble on a wind-burnt face, tight, faded jeans (nicely filled with tight buns), black cowboy boots with real manure on the heels (I swear), jean jacket, black cowboy hat curled up around the side brims. That was a treat.

Okay, back to the quilting blog: Just in time to stock up for Spring Break sewing, the wonderful gals at Sew Sisters are having a Bundle Bonanza this weekend. Time to stock up on your favourite fabric lines at great prices and with flat rate shipping. Have fun shopping!

Canadian Quilting Sisters, take note!

(and Brothers, if there are any of you out there that I haven't met yet!). Sew Sisters has a great promotion to get your 2015 off to a super stash-building-start. Order as much fabric as you like and it'll ship free to your Canadian address for absolutely NOTHING!! 

If you are fan of vintage, low volume and/or ephemera, check out Tim Holtz  new collection Eclectic Elements which has recently arrived at Sew Sisters. I love the red newsprint and butterflies!!

If you held off on Carolyn Friedlander's Botanics and Architextures collections (or have used up your stash), they are on sale for $11.99/m at the moment. These are some of my favourites from the collections:

 

 

If sweet florals are your thing, Riley Blake Country Girls are all on sale for only $7.99/m and they are super cute!

 

 

And finally, my last recommendation would be this sublime print by Frances Newcombe from her Cherie collection with Art Gallery Fabrics. What a gorgeous quilt back this would make!!

Happy shopping!

Handmade for the Holidays

Just popping in to let you know that my lovely partners at Mad About Patchwork are having a fun sale until December 7th. They've created some fabulous kits for gift makes! You'll find kits for flannel + lawn Infinity scarves, table runners, quilts, aprons, pillows adorable drawstring bags and more.  The great thing about kits is that you just buy the fabric you need for the project, so they're an economical way to go. All kits are 15% off with the coupon code HANDMADE until this Sunday, Dec. 7.

 

In addition, all notions (rulers, thread, interfacing), pre-cut charms and rolls, flannel and fleece are on sale.  If you spend $60, you'll receive a handmade Mad About Patchwork pin cushion!

 

That's not all the good news. In keep with the spirit of the season, the shop donated a portion of their total sales last weekend to Ottawa's Snowsuit Fund . That's my kind of holiday spirit!

Stuff Your Stocking

There's a really fun promotion coming up at Sew Sisters! If any of you like to give Santa (or, say, your husband, partner, parents or kids) a helping hand, you are going to want to check this out.

Pre-registration is required to unlock the deals, but if at the end of the event you've not made any purchases of the daily deals your $10 will be refunded. The best part (well, there are five best parts as far as I can tell):

1. FREE SHIPPING IN CANADA for all of your accumulated Stuff Your Stocking purchases!
2. There's a fun surprise every day (I am one of those people who LOVE surprises).
3. You are guaranteed to have pretty and useful items that you LOVE in your stocking! 
4. The daily deals are emailed direct to you - no need to search the web every day.
5. Santa gets a break.

To register, visit the nice people at Sew Sisters here.

To further support your Christmas list, Sew Sisters has started an "All I Want for Christmas" wish list Pinterest board here where you just might find some Doe (yes, they have yardage AND packs - I think they might be the first shop in Canada to have it!).

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.