Just a little heads up that I have new Liberty prints coming out of my ears right now. If you haven't been over to the shop for a while, swing by and see if there's something you like the look of.
Which reminds me, I must stock up on some old favourites. Let me know if there's something you love that isn't there!
Not only did I finally finish my favourite ever quilt recently, I also made my favourite ever Liberty print bias binding. Capel is one of the most pleasing Liberty prints, and this is one of the most pleasing colourways, I think.
Listed here.
Oh, you know, just starting my training to be a colour analyst and image consultant.
Squee! I am so excited to finally be doing this. It's the reason for our planned relocation (which I've mentioned a few times in recent months, and which will happen the second we find the perfect house) and will mean a huge change for our family - me working proper daytime hours, for one thing!
I'm training with House of Colour, a UK based personal stylist and image comsultancy, and I'll be working in East Devon. The full training completes in another 6 weeks or so, and I'll have more information to share once I'm a little further down the line. There's a bit more information on what colour analsysis entails here.
I have every intention of continuing to run my etsy shop for the forseeable future - I love playing with Liberty print far too much to give up my main excuse for buying it any time soon - and hopefully the two business will play nicely alongside each other well into the future.
Following the charm square craziness that fell upon my shop after Ashley posted this amazing quilt top a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd give the people what they wanted and have put together a 36-random-squares charm pack of Liberty prints - no duplicates, no strict colour scheme, just Liberty print loveliness.
Naturally, the first thing I did was steal a couple of the packs to see what I could do with them. I made this baby quilt top, which measures 32"x36" using just one charm pack and some plain organic cotton I had kicking around.
And if you're wondering why I was too lazy to turn this into an actual quilt, it's because I'm going to add to it with another few charm packs and bring it up to either single or double bed size. Would you believe I have never actually made myself a Liberty print quilt? And since making one appeared in my mental 'to make' list, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and make myself one while also doing important product testing (and I almost typed that with a straight face).
Making this quilt top with absolutely no idea how far the charm pack would go has made me think some more about ordering EQ7. I think I'd get a lot of use out of it, not least for putting together some quilt patterns or tutorials for the shop. I'm still a bit nervous about running it on a Mac, even though there's a Yahoo group to help, as in order to run it I'd need to use some kind of virtual Windows software - there are a handful of options about, none of which have impressed me desperately when Adam's had to use them for work. Decisions decisions. Has anyone used it? Has it made your Mac run v-e-e-e-r-r-r-y-y-y- s-l-l-l-o-o-o-o-w-l-l-l-y-y-y-y-y-y?
Just a quick note to say that the sale has been moving incredibly fast this week, and I'm relisting fabrics that I have more of as quickly as I can, but if you placed your order and were hoping for any fabrics that were sold out, it's worth checking back in case I've relisted any additional stock.
Thank you for your wonderful custom everyone! I'm pleased to say that there is now a lot of space for new fabrics, so you can expect new prints, new charm packs (just as soon as I work out making a collage of prints!) and some other little goodies in the next few weeks.
I haven't been able to face making bunting since I made approximately 43,000 miles of the stuff last year, but the Jubilee seemed an appropriate occasion to get triangle cutting again. Also I wasn't stupid enough to actually make the bias tape as well this time.
Patriotic bunting from a thoroughly British brand. What's not to like?
Surprisingly, fat eighths proved the perfect size for making the slightly-smaller-than-garden-party-sized bunting that I was after, so I'll pop a quick tutorial up at some point next week.
Incidentally, if you're wondering about the abundance of crappy iPhone photos at the minute, it's because we left our camera with my mother when we went camping a couple of weeks ago. Whoops. Hopefully I'll have it back next week.
I'm on a mission to clear a bit of space for another restock at the end of the week, so all my fabrics are a whopping big 30% off for one week only! To receive your discount simply visit my shop and enter the code RESTOCK30 at checkout.
Although the sale will be running all week, I'm down to my last handful of fat eighths of lots of the fabrics I stock, so if there's something you've got your eye on, snap it up before it's gone. I am sometimes able to restock fabrics, but not always, so there's no guarantee it will be coming back in stock.
This discount code applies to all items in my etsy shop, including Liberty print fat eighths, handmade buttons and vintage haberdashery. Happy shopping!
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!
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!
I've actually managed to find some time at my sewing machine, so I spent a few evenings cranking out a bunch of new Liberty print bias bindings. They're all listed in my etsy shop now, and I don't tend to make batches of more than two or three of each print, so if there's one you fancy, snap it up before it's gone!
