Thursday 17 June 2010

Fabric Addiction

I love that I have a job that enables me to feed my fabric addiction. Buying fabric counts as work, and is therefore justified. I don't even mind that it isn't for me, as long as I get to play with it.

Now that I've moved to Shropshire, I'm about two miles away from the most wonderful quilting shop I've ever visited. Tucked away above a dentist's surgery in a small rural village, you'd never know it was there. Discovering it is like finding hidden treasure. Two rooms are dedicaded to floor-to-ceiling shelving packed with bolts of gorgeous designer quilting fabric. These are adjacent to an enormous studio with state of the art quilting and cutting equipment, where they host workshops and events. You can even hire the studio for personal use, if sewing at home is difficult.

After we got settled in, of course one of the first things we did was visit this place. This is what I came away with:


*swoon*

Some of these beautiful new prints have already been made up into pads, and I have more cut out, so look out for them in the shop! I seem to be all about the blossoms and birds at the moment; it must be summer.


In other news, the shop got pretty well cleared out earlier this month, so my partner stepped in to help me re-stock. We've discovered that we make quite a formidable team! She's taken most of the cutting off my hands, leaving me free to concentrate on the sewing. I hadn't realised how much time the fabric cutting eats up - a lot, it turns out. With her help I've reached a record 40 products in the shop, several of them having more than one in stock. More choice for you, and less stress for me!

We don't know how long she'll be able to help me before she gets too busy again, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts. I like having a minion.

Monday 14 June 2010

Sister Hope is no longer accepting pads

Just a quick FYI: Sister Hope is no longer accepting pad donations. Instead, they have partnered up with Afri-Pads, a female run initiative in Uganda, to distribute menstrual kits to school girls. For every bag purchased from Sister Hope, a menstrual kit will be given to a girl in need. The reusable cloth pads in the kits are sewn by local women who are employed by Afri-Pads, providing much needed income for local female artisans.  I wish Sister Hope much success with their new direction.

"Sponsor A Pad" will still be available from Luna Wolf, but pads will now be sent to Project Thrive for their Days for Girls programme.

Also, I have a potential venue for a charity pad making party! I'm hoping to organise this for either late summer or early autumn. Anyone who's interested can come along and help sew pads (or just cut fabric if you don't sew!) for women in need. It's still very much in the early planning stage, so expect to hear more about it as things progress. The only definite so far is that there must be cupcakes.