Most of you will know of my long and deep love for Kate’s designs – the colours are just perfection and the designs… Let’s just say that if we were in America, I’d have a rug and stationery and cupcake liners and… Thankfully I have some American friends who have sent me some of her gorgeous stationery!! For a long time now, I have had grand plans of a big charm square patchwork quilt featuring as many of Kate Spain’s fabrics as possible. I have been slowly collecting her fabrics, so slowly as in I got a Verna charm pack last February! But my growing collection has just been sitting in my cupboard. Until this week when I was inspired to start cutting my scraps and layer cakes and fat quarters into charms.
My darling fellow Wombat Stew girl, Ms Midge, is hosting a Down Under Kate Spain Charm Swap for Aussies and Kiwis who have missed out on the recent US versions. As an honorary Aussie, I’m allowed to participate! I’m not someone who buys a lot of yardage – half yards are my usual size, and I generally buy backings specific for each project – so I’ve already ordered a couple of prints from Pink Castle Fabrics thanks to their tiered shipping prices. Because I want to order more than a yard of each so I have some spare in case of rotary mishaps, this pushes the shipping over into the full $25 flat rate envelope range for most shops, but Pink Castle can ship 3 yards for $15.25! I chose two Sunnyside prints – Celestial in Vapor and Prism in Glow. My thinking was a little selfish in that these two colours aren’t featured as widely in her collections as others, so should I need to use doubles of prints for my quilt, then I have these extra grey and yellowy-green prints!
I even ordered some more Terrain flannel for the quilt backing yesterday too. I already have some of the green Seedpod flannel, so I ordered some Dahlia Mist – my favourite Terrain print!! This is definitely a long-term project, but my aim is for it to be ready for the sofa this winter. My husband likes his sofa blankets to be soft and snuggly, hence the flannel, and I want to be able to admire all the charms, hence the sofa and not the bed!
So fellow Down Underites, I highly suggest you pop on over to Ms Midge and sign up for the swap! There’s a few places left still, and the fabrics people are choosing are exciting!
Joanna says
I’m excited to get my charms too! No idea what I will do with them put I will love them and hug them forever 🙂 Perhaps I’ll even make a plain old patchwork square quilt with them.
Susie says
Love kate Spain too. Wish you hadn’t told me about the shipping layers at pink castle.
Michele says
I’m glad you got in on the swap and I was so happy to help Ms. Midge get it up and running and helping her to figure out all the details. That is just what quilters do. I hope everyone has fun with their charms.
Verna says
I agree with you about how great Kate Spain is. I saw a layer cake (10″ x 10″) at my local quilt store that consisted of fabric named “Verna.” As my name is Verna, I had to buy it. I wondered why she named the fabric Verna because that isn’t an everyday name. So, I wrote her to ask why. I didn’t know who she was then. But, she wrote back that it had to do with Spring and the flowers on the fabric. If I had known who she was, I probably would have been too intimidated to write her. Now, I see her name everywhere. I’m glad to know that she has time to help her admirers wherever we are.
Verna