ZigZags

Hermes is looking resplendent today in a bandana from the new (and much anticipated) Blooming Lovely from Janet Clare.

Hopefully he looks as handsome as Muffin!

These fabrics are so exquisite they are already flying out 😍

What is a Jelly Roll? A Jelly Roll is a precut produced by Moda consisting of approximately 40 pre-cut strips of coordinating fabric designs with a standard width and length (2 ½ x 44 in).

Every year, Moda do a 'Jelly Roll' Day to promote this little wheels of gorgeousness and year on year our Jelly Roll celebrations grow more fabulous! Last year was lovely as my two Aunties and my mum all got together (from Cornwall, Herefordshire and Staffordshire) to do the workshops.

National Sew a Jelly Roll Day is on Saturday 21st September this year and we will have three days of special workshops on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with more details to follow soon....BUT.....more excitingly the lovely Steve from Moda has generously offered to sponsor a Jelly Roll Quilt competition with the prize being no less than a Moda Fat Quarter Bundle (usual RRP ~£100). How fantastic is that?

All you need to do to enter is pop in with your quilt for us to take a photo or send us a photo of your quilt and the name of your pattern - I'll collate the entries and send them to Steve for judging! Entries are to reach us no later than Saturday 14th September so that we can announce the result on Jelly Roll Day!

We're delighted to be collaborating with Victoria Oliver ceramic design again to offer this botanical coaster workshop next Friday 26th July!

There's still time to join us for a workshop this week....

We've got Birdhouse Foundation paper piecing on Thursday 10-4 (not suitable for beginners) and beautiful slow stitching on Saturday 10-1. Full details on website.

This week Hermes is showcasing a bandana in one of the new 'blender' fabrics from the Beyond Time collection by Ellie's Quilt Place.

You can't have a quilting fabric shop with out having a good selection of blender fabrics. Mostly blenders come as part of a collection of fabrics e.g. I'll order one or two 'feature' prints from collection plus 2-3 blenders but sometimes I'll order bolts of fabric purely because they'd make a good blender or would fill in a shade gap on the shelves!

Craft and cocktails 🍸 this month is on Thursday July 18th and we are making this punch needle seascape!

All materials and a cocktail or two are included.

Hermes loves his daylight walks in the summer but we do miss hearing the 🦉 owls, particularly on morning dog walks whilst dawn is breaking 🌄

So he's chosen a bandana in this owlish fabric from the Spellbound range by Sally Mountain for Dashwood for this week. Twit twoo!

Recently I have been determined to get some of my own dress making done before I start on making samples for workshops and Christmas! 3 dresses 👗 done plus a pair of shorts nearly there - just waiting on a fluorescent button or two to arrive! All fabrics are from the shop but the patterns are from my own stash.

Dress one is the Stevie pattern from Sew La Di Da in a bright and bold cotton print. We need a heatwave now!

Dress two is the Streat pattern from Sussex Seamstress in a floral cotton shirting fabric.

Dress three is the Florence pattern (one of my favourites) from Sew Me Something in the gorgeous new rayon from Create Joy Project.

Which is your favourite?

P.S. They all have pockets 🤗🤗

For the cross-stitchers and embroiderers 🪡 amongst you all....

Grab yourself a free vintage style box (complete with two Parisian patterns 🗼) when you buy ten DMC threads or alternatively we will be selling them as a kit (box, patterns and six DMC threads)....

Does anybody else have 'jobs' they put off?! 🤔 🤣

I love sewing but.....27 badges to sew on.....wish me luck!

Hermes and the house he calls home....

This week Hermes has chosen a fabric for his bandana from the new "My summer house" range by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda.

If you've been in the shop this week you'll probably have heard (😉 sorry) that I've been doing a bit of decorating....the late late nights were worth it and Beatrice is thrilled with the result.

I realise I'm lucky to have a sewing space set up in the spare room but boy have I missed it these past few months whilst Florence and then Beatrice were using it as a bedroom whilst their actual rooms were redone. I'll be glad to be back in it 🤗🤗

Coming up on 5th July is this exquisite embroidery workshop with Laureen.

There are a few spaces left if anyone wants to join us!

The team at ZigZags like to keep busy....😍🪡🧵

Libby was quick of the mark to use the new Tilda fabrics to make a sample block for her new BOM starting in September.

Rose has been experimenting with some of the new Enchanted Christmas 🎄 fabrics from Makower with a quilt kit in mind.

Laureen has been using her genius to turn a mini charm pack into a gorgeous FPP 🐦 bird house panel.

Jenna was tasked with making up the first of the Christmas panel samples - a stocking- and now her exams are done and dusted for this year she'll be working on some Sashiko workshop ideas!

Phew!!

These might be my 😍 favourite Tilda do far.... and Hermes looks resplendent posing in the sunshine with his gorgeous blue 💙 floral bandana from the new Creating Memories range.

Libby has a quilt as you go BOM planned using these fabrics so keep an eye out for more info about that.

Our bolts are from the 'summer' spectrum of the collection but we do have a very limited amount (2 of each at present) of the seasonal charm packs - spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Coming up on Saturday June 22nd is our half-day 'Mini Tiny Dancer' quilt workshop. This really is a miniature beauty which measures 16"x22" when finished!

It's a great way of using up those pretty charm packs languishing on your shelf or for doing some stash busting as the quilt uses 5" squares.

You'll get your own mini-hex acrylic template to keep as well 🤩

Hermes has an assistant model again this week...

Both are modelling fabrics from the Coral Coast 🪸 range by Sarah Knight for Dashwood.

What a lovely 😍 way to end a week of workshops!

Four pairs of Getaway Shorts made - and the lovely Ella in the middle had never even used a sewing machine before!

They all produced fabulous shorts complete with front and back pockets and elasticated waistbands. Let's hope
this 🌞 keeps shining!

Join us on Friday 14th June to learn how to knit socks in a fun day workshop led by Sally Harrison. We will be knitting a 'baby' sock to enable us to cover the main techniques required for socks including knitting the cuff, turning the heel and finishing the toe.

A couple of weeks ago the lovely Reuben from Rhinetex came to visit us while he was over from the Netherlands. He might be my new favourite rep as he gave me this fabulous Kaffe umbrella 🌂 😍. He showed me lots of lovely fabrics including.....
....Tula Pink. Hermes is modelling a bandana in a Tula Pink fabric this week to give you a sneak peek of the vibrant bright colours that will be arriving in the bleak midwinter!

I do like my talented ZigZags community 😊

Last year the children climbed their first munro - Lochnager - an epic (for them) 13 mile round trip! They all have badge blankets and whilst I could get a 'My first munro' and a 'Cairngorms ' badge to sew on, no one did a 'Lochnager' one.....

Luckily, the very lovely gentleman who comes to the shop for threads to use on his Pfaff embroidery machine has been experimenting with embroidered badges/patches.....one commission later and I'm delighted with the result and very impressed given my rather brief brief 😍

If you've popped into the shop recently you may have noticed some new haberdashery items! We now stock beads! Here's just a small selection, but we have lots of tubes full of sparkly, non sparkly, big, small, opaque, transparent beads! The Emma Ball slidey tins would make for great storage!
We also have new wool felt rolls and felt stacks available in lots of lovely shades. Great for applique or making felt animals! What do you use felt for?

The first week of June is a busy week for workshops - there are a few spaces remaining though!

Tuesday 4th June is our summer hat workshop, Wednesday 5th is sewing childrens shorts and Friday 7th June is ladies shorts!

I'm particularly looking forward to the ladies' shorts as I'm going to sew along and make a third pair of these fabulous shorts!

Hermes knew there was only one place to pose for this week's bandana photo - and with such a funky fun fabric it had to be the trampoline!

Hermes and Florence are modelling a bandana and jumpsuit in one of the jersey fabrics we have from Second Star fabrics. I've always loved 😍 their bright bold prints and I think Florence might be a fan too!

As we stock jersey fabrics it only seems sensible to make sure we have the right tools so you can also find machine needles, hemming tape and (on it's way) stretch interfacing suitable for sewing projects that use stretch fabrics in the shop.

P.s. Hermes would like to reassure you that it is his (frequent) choice to join the children for a bounce on the trampoline.

Wow - it was definitely a full house last night with eighteen for Craft and Cocktail! I love these evenings with these ladies - last night Laureen (thank you) was in charge of the Craft aspect and did a fantastic job 👏, I was on refreshments 🍹 and my mum was on tidying and washing up (thankyou!).

In the last week we've also had some fabulous reversible pinafore dresses 👗 made and the Japanese BOM group tackled their Kimono 👘 blocks with great aplomb! I can't wait to see their finished quilts.

Who watched it last night?

I did - whilst finishing stitching Esme - my Patrick seems to look a bit worried 😄

The opening show of this series seems to have created some controversy on social media but my only complaint would be that they air it at 9pm which is quite late for Florence!

Hermes loved modelling his new bandana this week and playing with the campfire set....although he was disappointed that the fish and smores were pretend 😔

There was no hesitation when I saw these panels and coordinating fabric by Stacey Iest Hsu - they were straight on my order list.

I have always loved camping 🏕 and have hopefully passed that onto the children - last year we camped in tree tents on Brownsea Island. During lockdown we did some virtual cub and brownie camps which included campfire cooking - memories for life!

Our "Glimpse of Japan" block of the month got off to a wonderful start last Saturday- I 😍 love seeing how different a block looks in different fabrics and I can't wait to see these quilts progress!

We started with a bit of thinking, planning and colouring and then made the central block as the quilt feeds out from this.