Tuesday 30 September 2014

Yay...More New Fabric Today.

Everyone....just feast your eyes on this wonderful collection of fabrics...."Old Townhouse" by Paula Barnes arrived yesterday and we instantly fell in love with all 16 of these gorgeous prints....such great prints in a range of soft smokey colours.....we love them all, how can you possibly choose.  "Old Townhouse" is $23.50 mt. and the ever so tempting 1/8 packs are $48.00.


We are always saying what fun we have working here at Threadbear...we love a good chat with everyone that visits the shop and yesterday we were all thrilled to have a visit from Oscar.


Oscar is definitely a patchwork puppy, he checked out all the new fabrics and helped his human Kaye to choose a few goodies to take home.  I think we all agree that Oscar is very, very cute.


We would like to say a very big Thank You to Lorraine from Colac for sharing another one of her sensational quilts...Lorraine's quilts are always paper pieced...can you imagine all the hours of fun Lorraine has making her wonderful scrappy quilts...and we are so glad she brings them in to show us....thanks for the inspiration Lorraine.

Sammy wasn't in the shop when Oscar came to call...he was outside enjoying the beautiful spring weather and surveying his kingdom.

Friday 26 September 2014

Richmond Reds for Weekend Sewing.

It is always great to fill our shelves with new fabrics but so good when it is 34 gorgeous prints from Moda.....Barbara Brackman's fabric is always fantastic and her beautiful new range, "Richmond Reds" gives us lots of prints to drool over.

 This range is just full of wonderful rich Moda colours....of course if you can't decide and would like a little snip of all 34 then we have 1/8 packs for $102.00.

This great range is already on our web site so if you can't wait for some sensational Barbara Brackman goodness they are all there waiting for you.

The Threadbear quilts are very well travelled, some have already spent time in The Netherlands and The United States this year and today we are waving three favorite quilts off on a trip to China for an International Quilt Exhibition....Coliss's quilt "Pieces of the Past" and Megan's Arden Quilt and Miss Dashwood's Dowry are being packed up for the journey. 

So if you are planning a trip to china in the next few months, you may get the chance to see a little bit of Threadbear there.

It is Grand Final weekend here in Victoria and even though Sammy's team is not playing in the Grand Final this weekend he is still looking forward to a big game tomorrow...we caught him giving us a bit of a wink...maybe he knows who the winning team will be.

We wish you all a wonderful weekend, and as always we hope you get lots and lots of sewing time.

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Spring Sewing


We're all enjoying the beautiful sunshine here in Castlemaine this week and Annabelle is enjoying a much needed break with friends, as she creates her next small project for our Spring Fling on October 25th.  Here's a sneak peak at Corliss' very sweet small project she is making specially for the day. There are still a few places left, so if you'd like to join us for 12 hours of sewing with friends, great company, great food, and three gorgeous new small projects from Corliss, Virginia Enright, and Annabelle, phone us at the shop on 0354721881.  See our newsletter here for all the details.

 Meanwhile, we're excited to tell you that we have the lovely Katrina Hadjimichael coming to Threadbear to teach in August 2015.  We are taking expressions of interest  for her Longbourne Quilt class to be held Sunday 9th August 2015.

Longbourne by Katrina Hadjimichael
 If you have always wanted to take a class with Katrina phone or email us to reserve your place.  Places in our classes often fill quickly, and we know Katrina's class will be no exception.  This week Millefiori Quilts by Willyne Hammerstein is back on Threadbear's shelves.  This inspirational book is so popular at the moment and it's certainly no surprise when you look at Willyne's beautiful quilts. (To order your copy click here)



Sammy has had a few late nights this week helping Corliss with her project for the Spring Fling, so he will spending today in a sunny spot catching up on his beauty sleep.  And we hope you too can find some time and a sunny corner this week to enjoy some stitching, a cuppa, and maybe even a snooze.  


Friday 19 September 2014

Weekend Reading.

We always love a delivery from Quiltmania and now we have a couple of favorites back in stock.  "Mothers Dream Friends" by Reiko Kato sold out in a snap last time we had it in stock so we are glad to have it back again...it is full of gorgeous small projects, cushions, bags and beautiful little hangings with Reiko Katos amazing appliqué..fun, quirky and just plain gorgeous.


We are also very glad to have Michell Yeo's sensational book, " Of Needle, Thimble and Thread" back in stock.  If you missed out last time, well here is your chance to enjoy this wonderful book full of the most amazing projects...there is page after page of beautiful quilts to tempt us in Michelle's book...with amazing piecing and great applique this book has it all.


Both Michell Yeo and Di Ford will soon be heading off  to Houston for the International Quilt Market and we all wish them a very safe and exciting trip.

Thank you Jenny from Bacchus Marsh for sharing your fantastic quilt top with us....Jenny was in the shop looking for a border for this wonderful clamshell quilt but as usual, we couldn't wait till Jenny finished her quilt to take a photo...it is such a lovely quilt, all made from Jenny's scraps and Jenny, your colours are just gorgeous.

 

We all know that Sammy likes to supervise all Threadbear activities and as you know we are all busy stitching hexagons for the small projects on offer at our Spring Fling, 12 hour of stitching fun on October 22nd.  Well here is Sammy, absolutely flat out supervising some hexagon sewing....always hard at work.
We wish you all a wonderful weekend full of sewing bliss...no dishes, no weeding...just sewing fun for all.

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Quiltmania Arrives for Spring


The latest edition of Quiltmania, No.103 arrived at the shop yesterday and as always we couldn't wait to have a look at all the lovely things on offer including the next instalment of Di Fords block of the month...Mountmellick.


It is exciting to see the Melbourne show featured as a cover story and even more exciting to see some of the Castlemaine Appliqué Group members being featured with their stunning quilts...including Wendy Blyth's absolutely beautiful Antique wedding Sampler...3 cheers Wendy, how exciting to have your quilt featured in Quiltmania.


There is also a great feature on the work of  Helen Hayes..Helen is quite rightly described as one of Australia's best long arm quilters and is also another member of our Castlemaine Appliqué Group. Helen quilts all of Di Fords quilts, and as the article says, if you want to see examples of her amazing quilting you only have to look in Di's book "Primarily Patckwork" as Helen has quilted most of the quilts in
Di's book.


And as always there are also lots of great projects in this edition of the magazine, including a great scrappy quilt from Edyta Sitar from laundry basket quilts...there is also a great hexagon project if you are looking for a bit of hexy fun.


With the arrival of the latest edition we now busy sending out all the subscriptions and BOMs but we also have extra copies of the magazine in the shop if you would like one...just call or email and we can send you a copy, they are $16.95.

On Friday afternoon we had a visit from Bonnie and her Human, who were on their way back to Tasmania. Bonnie was such a good girl and waited patiently in the courtyard while her Mum had some fabric fun before bording the boat back home.


And Sammy's message to us all today.....please pat me.

Friday 12 September 2014

Quilts Quilts Quilts.

Hoorah...not only do we have Megan's beautiful "Letters from Belton Grange" back from Holland and hanging in the shop but we now have patterns available for Megan's wonderful quilt.


And with excellent timing we also have these superb reproduction Dutch Chintz border prints from Petra Prins and Nel Kooiman back in stock..Megan recommends these as an excellent final border for her "Letters from Belton Grange" so what a great time to make a start on this wonderful quilt....available in four colours, these border prints are so beautiful it is very difficult to decide on  exactly which colour we love the most. The borders are 6" wide and come in 10mt  lengths for $40.00.


Just look at this wonderful version of Corliss's Caswell Quilt...Thank you so very much Marie Viney for sharing your wonderful work with us...Marie has just completed all the blocks in her Caswell quilt and came into the shop looking for her next border fabric...we could not wait to take photos and share this gorgeous work...We are sure you will agree with us that Marie has done the most beautiful job and has produced a stunning quilt....dosnt it just make you want to drop what you are doing and go straight home to the sewing room.

We have some Friday treats in the classroom today, a little bit of chocolate and cake to welcome the weekend. One of Kurt's very strict rules is no extra tidbits for Sammy....but seriously....just look at that face..who amongst us could refuse Sammy anything.

We wish you all a wonderful weekend and hope that wherever you are you get lots and lots of sewing time.