Hi everyone,

 

October – while this year is flying by, it's also crawling! Hoping you are all well and staying safe.

 

I was going to say hasn't the weather turned quickly – it seemed to be cold for so long, then suddenly, it was warmer, almost hot. Now we have had some coolish days again! We could do with some rain but we have had several beautiful days.

 We're delighted to tell you that Misty Threads now has its Australian Owned rating and we'll be adding the logo to the website very shortly. We have a two star rating – this means that our business is at least 80% Australian owned (we are 100%) and at least 50% of products sold are Australian manufactured or produced. The nature of patchwork and quilting in Australia is that many input items are produced overseas: however, we actively seek out Australian made products and the number of these are increasing all the time. Of course, the completed items we sell online (see our Artisan – add link – section) are 100% manufactured in Australia!

It's always exciting to see the fresh and often highly patterned new fabrics by all our wonderful designers; however, don't overlook the more humble fabric staples, the neutrals in all shades, the simpler geometrics, the spots, the stripes, the prints. All of these add colour and depth to our quilts, highlighting the more standout prints or combining to make a pretty standout statement by themselves. The first time I saw applique laid on a beautiful dark teal background instead of the then conventional white/cream/offwhite background turned all my colour and piecing ideas upsidedown – yes, quite a few decades ago now! This doesn't mean that white isn't lovely in the right place but experimenting is fun and just seeing the way so many quiltmakers and sewers of other pieces use colour and pattern now always delights and inspires me. 

 

We are selling fabric bundles of staples, five by half metre pieces (2.5m in total) for $30 and five by one metre pieces (5m in total) for $60. Just give us a clue in the remarks – colour, spots, stripes, prints, even random, and we'd love to help you fill in a gap, add to your stash or give you some new ideas. Designer fabrics not included.

To order, go to Precuts here.

 Don't forget, we also have our sample packs to check out fabics before you buy serious amounts. They can be found under Precuts or at the end of each category of fabrics in our online shop.

Now, to take a deep breath. Many of you who know me will know I am an avid reader, completely besotted with books and reading may even just tip my love of sewing and knitting. I have some books to move on. I had to swallow and type that really fast – I don't usually move my books on as I tend to reread most of them. (Yes, dear reader, I do have a rather large collection of books.) Misty Threads is not morphing into a bookshop but I know many quilters who also love reading. So, if you're choosing some fabric, head over to Artisan - Other and you'll find a handful of recent books lurking for a modest price. I enjoyed them all but I don't need to keep these ones so if you are still in the library queue at number 57 waiting for a book, it might be here. By the by, though, libraries are wonderful places, aren't they! I do read as many of my books as I can from there first.

 

 

It's Sunday, so back to my current book (Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees – loving it, this one's a keeper) for a bit and a bit more.

 

Enjoy your Sunday afternoon and we have some fun new fabric to show you next time.

Cheers

Meg