Finding Fifth: ZSSA

Showing posts with label ZSSA. Show all posts

Sunday, 13 May 2012

Mother's Day Sunday Stash #13

Mother's Day

To all the mothers out there I hope you spoiled just a little bit today. But more importantly I hope you get a word, card, drawing, gift or hug of appreciation.

For those of you out there that want to be a mum, but the biological journey has been cruel, hope that you are nurtured today.

For those of you who have lost a child, I hope that, despite lifelong grief, you will have a happy memory spring up and remind you of a time you had together.

And for those of you who have lost your mum, recently or many years ago, I hope that you can remember her with some joy through the tears.

It can be a very hard day of the year for some. I just wanted to acknowledge that.

http://www.stashbooksblog.com/products/sweetwaters-simple-home/

Something Sew Sweet

When I first stumbled upon Sweetwater Designs late last year, it was through their book 'Simple Home'. I had seen some of the 'Pure' range worded prints pop up on blogs but not realised that the mother and sisters team designed fabric as well.

My stash began simply with their 'Diary Kit', when I made this Daily Journal earlier this year.

Then I used one of the patterns from 'Simple Home' to make Fran's Preschool Quilt.

Then my lovely friend Marieka sent me a charm pack of the 'Reunion' fabrics for my birthday.

Photograph courtesy of Sweetwater blog

I had read Sweetwater's blog post about how their new range 'Mama Said Sew' came to be named.

So when Fabric Buzz had a pre-issue SALE on pre-cuts last week, I decided to invest. This range is not due for release until August or September so I was surprised. Store owner Anorina has very good prices for an Australian market. And these were discounted to $30 each! (Just quietly they are still on sale) Anorina is a published quilt designer and fellow Quilt Club Australia member and blogs at Samelia's Mum.

This is my favourite quilt in the Simple Home book and I am wondering if these precuts will work with it.

Stamping Relief

Also arriving this week was my first fabric stamp investment for the Zakka Style Sew-Along. These gorgeous boxes of stamps came from Etsy store Zakka Lover owned by Vanadis. Oh my! You could get so lost in the delicious items appearing on her page.

I have struggled in vain to source the fabric stamp necessary for the ZSSA here locally. I kept reading about the fact that you could set the stamp permanent with an iron but none of the staff in my local fabric retailers had a clue of what I meant. I mentioned this to Vanadis and she was kind enough to swap me THIS kind of stamp instead of the usual paper-only kind.

And she included a free roll of that cute washi tape...but what is it used for? Let me know if you know.

Sunday Stash @ Finding Fifth

I am so proud of myself for using my Facebook 'The Blogging Library' group, following a Pinterest link , using pic monkey to edit a photo, downloading Picasa as a server and writing my first ever HTML code to create my FIRST blog button today. I am definitely kicking some of the 2012 Challenge to Myself goals today. I am so excited because I have wanted to host a link up for Quilter's fabric stashes for a while now.

Anyway...here it is! Looking all shiny and resplendent hey?

And you can grab one for your sidebar, if you wish, so you can remember to join in the 'Sunday Stash' link up each Sunday starting today. Just copy the coded HTML text (I wrote this one using the link here) and then paste it into your sidebar/gadget bar using the Java/HTML option.

So what's new in your stash this week?

Link up your Sunday Stash below. You can include books and other sewing related equipment. I'll stop by and see what goodies you have. Maybe other folks will want to have a stickybeak too!

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Fairytales and Shadows

You've heard of 'Baster's back' or 'Baster's butt' (I needed yesterday off to recover from both). Today I want to introduce you to 'Quilter's neck.' It's an RSI ailment that mostly affects quilters with a short throat (not their own but their sewing machine's). It comes from having to roll up the quilt's right hand bulk and keep it away from the walking foot using hand and shoulder tension.

After completing 3 hours of straight line quilting SLQ 'Fussy Fairytales' today I am suffering from Quilter's neck tonight. Nothing that a good hotpack and some ibuprofen won't fix.