A life in lists

Whoops, she did it again, or, The Liberty Scrap Challenge 2012 May Edition Guest Spot, mark II

Well, if that lovely Florence didn't go and make a second wonderful project for her spot as guest challenger in the Liberty Scrap Challenge 2012 (you can read an introduction to the Challenge here).

Are you guilty, as I am (and, according to her, as Florence is) of turning over the corner of the page when you put down a book? Never fear, for the answer is here!

Yup, gorgeous Liberty print bookmarks. Page corners will remain gorgeouly unsullied if you make a batch of these beautifully sweet Sun Shadow Bookmarks.

Once again, Florence has put together a detailed and well thought through tutorial for you to follow to make these lovely little bookmarks, with templates and full instructions.

And remember, if you make a bookmark using Florence's tute, don't forget to swing by our Flickr group and add a picture or two!

OMG you have to make these right now, or, The 2012 Liberty Scrap Challenge - May Edition Guest Spot

This is the first of a bit of a collection of amazing Liberty print projects I have to show you this week. I am so excited to introduce the Liberty Scrap Challenge 2012's first guest challenger - the talented and rather wonderful Florence of Flossie Teacakes. I'm not going to witter on about her crazy good sewing skills or the lovely things that she creates (quite often with Liberty print, as it happens), but rather let the pictures do the talking...

Liberty print cupcake topper pinwheels! Could there be a more perfect use for the amazing details in Liberty prints?

Since I'm guessing you want to make some of these all of your own (I am planning a party purely so I can make some. Is that wrong?), I'll interrupt this broadcast to give you a link to Florence's detailed tutorial to make some pinwheel goodness all of your own.

Florence has kindly included a handful of different sized pinwheels in her tutorial. Make one in every size!

Want another pinwheel to finish on?

If you make a Liberty print (or any scrap) pinwheel using Florence's tutorial, remember to come and upload your pictures to our little Flickr group!

Talk to me about how you manage your online 'presence' (if you have one)

OK, I know presence is hardly the best word for it, but I'm hoping you can solve my dilemma.

Incidentally, if you don't use Twitter, and are not remotely interested in the many and varied ways of accessing social networking, it's probbably worth closing this window right now. This is a really boring blog post. I have some gorgeous Liberty print projects coming up next week, come back for them. Please. Thank you.

Back to the dilemma.

I have a dilemma (have I mentioned that? Dilemma is such a great word, and I hardly ever have cause to use it, so I'm making the most of the opportunity), and I have spent far too much time (about 3,000,000 hours), money (£6.99 in total, which is too much in my world) and energy (well, the amount involved in sitting at a computer clicking a mouse) in trying to solve it.

I like Twitter. A lot. And I use it a lot for my business. If you follow me, you'll notice I tweet a reasonable amount most days. I think it's a great asset and I love all the interactions with people across the world who are interested in the same kinds of things as me. I intend to start up a second twitter account (despite having been very disparaging of multiple Twitter accounts in the past) for my new business venture, which I promise to get round to telling you all about in the not-too-distant future. I am so excited about it.

I also like Facebook. A little bit. I don't update it at all, but I like clicking on and seeing what my friends are up to every now and again.

I also like Google Reader. A lot. I follow something over 100 blogs, and I love keeping up with each and every one of them.

And so, we come to the dilemmas (well, dilemma really, but I've divided it into sub sections because we all know I like a good list, and one dilemma doesn't make for much of one):

1. I need a desktop application for Twitter that allows me to see my timeline and replies to me.
2. I need that application to be able to schedule tweets
3. I would also like the application to integrate with Facebook, but I'll live without that
4. I need the application to support multiple Twitter accounts for the aforementioned multiple account situation
5. I'd like to be able to see those twitter accounts in different columns at one time, not have to click between them.
6. I'd like to be able to post to either account without having to change loads of settings
7. I need a desktop Google Reader application (I'm lazy, I don't open the browser window and go there. I'm sorry). I can live with this not being the same application as the Twitter one (although in an ideal world it would be)

In my efforts to solve this I have tried:

1. TweetDeck - it's good, but does anyone else feel it's lost a lot of functionality in the last year? Saying that, I do keep coming back to it, as it's the only one that allows me to see multiple columns, pending tweets and replies all at one time. I haven't looked at the multiple account option, but I'm imagining it will work as just another column, and I think you can just select which account you want to tweet from. No Facebook or Google Reader access, as far as I'm aware
2. Hootsuite - I can't even download the damn thing. Apparently it's quite good, but three days of repeatedly staring at a loading screen have put me off for life. Apparently it's not an uncommon problem. Sort it out toot sweet, Hootsuite
3. Socialite - I imagine this would be a great way of using Twitter and Google Reader if I was exactly that, a socialite. Unfortunately it has no option to Schedule tweets or see multiple columns at once. Wasted £6,99 finding that out instead of reading all the product information. Whoops.
4. Echofon - too simplistic. Possibly good if you don't want your twitter dashboard cluttering up your desktop
5. Seesmic - such potential, but has a major bug in the Google Reader plugin thingie which means that your Google Reader column is wiped every time you close and re-open the application, so you have to go through signing in and loading the column again, slightly defeating the whole convenience aspect. If you don't want to see Google Reader, it's a good alternative to Tweetdeck though, I think

Solutions I haven't tried yet:

1. Twitterific - I get the feeling this is another single column one, requiring clicking between accounts. No good
2. Janetter - this looks similar to TweetDeck and very pleasing to look at (lots more display options), but I don't think it has a schedule tweet function
3. Sobees - still in Beta, and I'm not sure I can be bothered (does anyone remember Pinterest in early Beta stages? Horrible. Everyone should follow the example of Ravelry and have a Beta funciton that's so good that there's a month long waiting list for an invitiation). Also I don't think you can schedule tweets yet, and I get the feeling this is another Socialite-type app
4. Reeder - this is a Google Reader Desktop (and iPhone) app which I think I might try to alleviate the Google Reader part of my problem. I was hoping for one magic app to solve everything, but I don't think it exists.

Anyway, all of that was a very long winded way of asking you what you use to manage your social networking/online presence/Twitter existence. Help! Please? Any thoughts, opinions or application suggestions are very much welcomed by this computer-illiterate technophobe who wants to be able to perform social networking marvels.

Wonder when I'll get time to actually use these...

On the left, a beautiful cashmere mix knit, on the right an amazing off-white leopard print Roberto Cavalli fabric. I have been in possession of both of them for a couple of months and neither are any nearer turning into finished garments.

On the upside, the reason for the lack of garment sewing is an insanely busy Etsy shop (hurrah!) and big changes afoot for our family - think relocation, new career and general excitement all round! More details on that as soon as I get five minutes to stop planning it and start writing about it.

Postage prices...

If you're in the UK, you will no doubt have realised that postage prices increased yesterday. Twitter has been buzzing with chatter of it since it was announced earlier in the year, with some sellers announcing that they will be out of business within a week, and others dolefully commenting that they'll have to raise their product prices 300% or whatever.

It's really tough, especially, I think, for sellers in more competitive areas like jewellery (on Etsy, it is by far the largest and busiest category) where postage pricing can be the difference between selling and not selling.

For me, however, it's not such a big deal, mostly I've decided not to bother fretting about it just yet. I'm too busy! I know that I can afford to lose a bit of profit in the interests of keeping my postage prices halfway reasonable (heck, they're expensive enough, considering that the vast majority of my sales go to the States or Australia). I've committed myself to honouring the postage prices in my Etsy shop at least until July, and then I'll see how much difference it's really making to my income and take a decision about upping my prices a bit then.

Happy shopping!

According to Instagram: April

New tea

Crazy spring weather

'Finger' painting

The sock monster

Spring springing

Road trip

A quilt that is officially finished now it's been blogged.

Getting back into the vintage haberdashery  - lots of lovely patriotic buttons coming to the etsy shop soon.

The emboidery for the Fat Quarterly Retreat name tag swap is about to commence. Eek.

Liberty spotlight: Lizziemade

All photos in this blog post are copyright of LizzieMade

The first time I sold fabric to Lizzie, I didn't realise that she was insanely talented and in the business of creating beautiful Liberty print guestbooks. I think somewhere around the third time I dealt with her I actually went and looked at her shop and was speechless at the gorgeous books she makes.

Her fabric pairings are incredibly thoughtful, I think, with the solids really picking out the colours from the prints, and the finish on each book looks superb.

Oh, and she also (shhh) makes some super-cool non-Liberty print books, but pretend I didn't tell you that, because the more Liberty print books she sells, the more fabric she has to buy from me, right?

Anyway, if you're planning a wedding/christening/party or just want an amazing book to keep by the phone, LizzieMade's books are definitely a bit of a treat. It's faintly possible I'm saving for one of my own to go in our possible new house (more on that exciting bit of news next month!)

By the way, if you've bought Liberty fabric from me (heck, even if you've bought it from someone else - nobody's perfect, right?) and you've made something with it that you think I might like to take a look at and possibly feature, please drop me an email or comment on one of my posts - I love looking at and being inspired by all the gorgeous Liberty print projects out there, and I'm happy to share the love when I see something amazing!

So, you've been waiting for this for a year

I don't even want to talk about how long I've been putting off photographing this quilt.

I think I actually finished it before Christmas.

I say 'finished'. You may notice the odd patch of no quilting. I got bored, I'm afraid, and eventually decided that no one was ging to punish me for stitching odd bits here and there over time, so I just bound it and called it done.

I even abandoned quite a lot of basting thread, which I pull out from time to time when I'm under the quilt. It doesn't irritate Adam at all when I do this and leave random threads on the sofa or our bed.

The back is very very plain, just lots of randomly sized blue rectangles. It makes me happy (and can you see Teddy's quilt under there too? We need more quilts, they are all getting rather a lot of use).

The point is, however, that it is impossible to photograph. I don't know if it's my camera or me (actually, I know it's me. The camera's fine), but for some reason this giant yellow piece of sunshine keeps coming out positively green in all photos). It has been primped, pressed and photographed (well, photographed. I have never pressed a quilt in my life and I'm not about to start now. What do you mean you could tell?) about four times, and every time I have had to delete every single photograph.

And so, I decided that the time had come to accept my appalling photography and just blog the darn thing, so you can all see that it is actually finished (for a given value of 'finished') and in regular use. I am rather in love with it, for several reasons:

1. It is yellow. Properly, bright, cheerful yellow. With a bit of blue, admittedly, but basically it's a bit cheerful dose of yelllow goodness. I like yellow.
2. I kept the prints limited, so basically all you really see if a sea of yellow. I  know that's not clever, or 'scrappy' or anyting that hexagon quilts are meant to be, but I didn't want this to be a smart display of three hundred yellow prints, I just wanted it to be yellow. With a bit of blue. I think it's safe to say I succeeded.
3. It's massive. It's something in the region of 108" square, but I haven't actually laid it flat and measured it since I bound it. It's definitely a decent kingsize, anyway.
4. I learned absolutely tons while sewing it: how to make every day better with hexagons, how to make sitting in the garden with a toddler more enjoyable, how big a kingsize quilt top really is and how, just sometimes, hand sewing is not the answer.

And you know what I want to do now this quilt is 'officially' finished (by which I mean, I've put the evidence up on here)? I want to make another english paper pieced quilt. I know. I'm sorry.

I have a couple of ideas (notably, a non-heaxgon English paper pieced quilt featuring white, off white, black and white and white on white prints), but I have decided to finally finish off a very long term project first. This quilt started with a hexagon quilt along way back in 2010, and somehow fell by the wayside, despite being picked up here and there. Naturally, having picked it up, I've decided I hate my original plan, so I'm going to be spending the next couple of evenings unpicking half the hand sewing I've done so far and putting my hexie flowers together in a whole new way. Watch this space! (well, maybe watch this space in about 2014 if you want to see the actual finished quilt).

Liberty Scrap Challenge - April Edition

It won't even come as the smallest surprise to you to learn that Nova has once again surpassed all my hopes and produced yet another fantastic project for the 2012 Scrap Challenge.

Lovely Nova has invoked the timeless amazingness of Liberty and linen to make a pair of sweet reverse applique napkins complete with, as always, an awesome tutorial (I have not the least idea how to do reverse applique, so will be reading the tute with interest just as soon as I've finished writing this post!), which includes details on a great neat machine finish for the bias binding.

I can just imagine a set of napkins like this coming in handy for a family picnic, although I'm not sure I'd be able to actually trust the boys with theirs. Maybe I could just give them some linen rags and keep the nice ones for myself...

ps: I've almost finished the scarf I'm making using last month's Scrap Challenge tutorial, so I'll actually be able to show off something of my own made from Liberty fabric!

Squeee!!!!

That there was the very first block I got back for my month in the Brit Bee! How amazing is it? It's massive (I asked for one big or two little blocks from my lovely bees), set into a fat quarter of neutral Essex linen. It was sewn (in ridiculously quick time - I think the photo of the block appeared in our Flickr pool about 24 hours after the fabric arrived, before we were even officially in April, and the block followed by post shortly afterwards) by the enormously talented and scarily efficient Judith.

I've actually received a couple more blocks since this one arrived, but I'm saving them for one big reveal when I've got them all and planned a bit of a layout. And possibly even sewn a block or two of my own from this selection of fabric, which I'm really rather pleased with - quite often I regret one or two fabrics when I put a stack together like this, but I can honestly say there's not a sore thumb sticking out anywhere in this lot.