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.

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!

Spark Your Summer Creativity!

I'm very excited to share that Poppyprint has a new partner, another wonderful Canadian shop called Fabric Spark.  I met owner Daryl while at Quilt Market in Minneapolis. Based on the incredible prints she was perusing on the show floor, I know there are very exciting things coming to her shop over the summer. Daryl is a wonderful fabric curator - her shop is very unique and full of delightful finds.  Like brand new Andover Chambray in 5 gorgeous colours!

We'll soon have a giveaway and proper introduction to Fabric Spark, but for now I wanted to share their 2015 Summer of Fabric Love promotion to give you the opportunity to sign up for the newsletter. You don't want to miss out!  Just enter your email address in the box at the bottom of the shop's front page.

Eeeep! Cotton & Steel Snow Globes just in!

This weekend, free shipping to Canada and $5 flat rate to the U.S. (a great shopping deal for Americans as your dollar is worth so much more here; it's like getting an instant 20% discount on everything you buy!) using promo code FREESHIP.

Happy 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!

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.