January Stitcher's Showcase

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year from Frangipani Fabrics!

Every two months in 2012 we will be showcasing a selection of the wonderful things are customers are making.  If you have sewn something using our fabric or patterns we'd love to see it!  Pop in to get your work photographed or send us a photo by mail or email, with a brief description.  Sharing your work is a great way to inspire and connect with others. 

Lemoyne Star by Kay Paltridge

Kay completed our beginners patchwork class and ambitiously decided to sew this beautiful Lemoyne Star quilt for her grandaughter, Ava.  She raided our selection of greens and mauves for the stars, and bordered them with a tone-on-tone white fabric.  The finished quilt was enormous at 90x100" ( 228x254cm) Kay says that it took "many months" to make (she lost count of just how many!), and Ava loves it - especially the secret mouse that she included in one of the stars.

Felt Angel Garland by Sue Vincent

Inspired by Moira's Felt Angel brooch pattern, Sue enlarged the pattern, sewed the angels and embroidered them each with the name of a family member.  As a special welcome to her family on Christmas Day, she attached them to some gold string by some xmas tree shaped pegs strung them across the doorway between the kitchen and dining room. Sue had planned to use the angel pattern to applique a table runner but ran out of time. She will save that project for next year! 

Malakai Disco Bot by Michelle Dean

Michelle Dean whipped up this Disco Bot by Ric Rac Designs, for her son Malakai.  She used wool-felt for his face and tummy, personalised him with an appliqued snail from our scrap basket and attached her son's name tag. She was so pleased with her Disco Bot that she enlarged the pattern and made another one double the size!  You can visit the Disco Bots Moira made for us instore.   

 Autumn Leaf Chinese Coins by Gitta Jensen

Gitta, a member of our Tuesday hand-sewing group, handpieced and quilted this beautiful quilt inspired by some autumn leaf fabric snagged from our sale box.  It features a Chinese Coin pattern, and stripey borders.  Gitta put the quilt aside until she could find exactly the right stripe!  She has hand quilted in with a formal swirly pattern in the borders, and little crosses in the Chinese Coins. 

Things are getting festive at Frangipani Fabrics

We've been working like good little elves at Frangipani Fabrics to create some wonderful Christmas sewing projects.  Many of these projects feature our new stock of wool felt!

We now stock over 30 colours in gorgeous wool felt (although we're temporarily out of red due to high demand - our next shipment should be arriving this week, so let us know if you'd like us to keep some for you!)  Our felt is $3 for a 20x30cm rectangle, or 5 for $12, $1 for a 6" charm square, or $12 for a 50 x 50cm piece.  I am gradually getting all of the colours onto the website.

Here are some of our festive sewing projects:

Merry Go Round Ponies and Hearts

Sew and embroider these lovely wool felt Merry Go Round Ponies and Hearts. Beautiful as Christmas decorations (just add a hanging ribbon) or toys. Finished size Pony 5x4", Heart 3x3.5". A Moira Bevan, Frangipani Fabrics design.

 

Pattern cost: $13.20

 

Appliqued Felt Needlecase

Sew and applique this beautiful and functional needlecase, which includes a hard cover, spine and cotton batting pages in which to store and sort your needles. This would be lovely as a Christmas gift or present for yourself! The pattern includes the cotton batting pages, and plastic cover templates. A Moira Bevan Frangipani Fabrics design. 

 

I sewed this needlecase under strict supervision from Moira and can't wait to liberate it from the shop display as I'm sick of them falling into the inside of my pincushion and pricking me!

 

Pattern and template cost: $15.00

 

Bird and Bell Wreath Kit

This is one of my designs!

 

Make this easy and beautiful shaggy fabric and ribbon wreath in a day. The wreath features a fabric bird, wool felt hearts, and a red liberty bell suspended from a red and white spotty ribbon. The kit includes the pattern, pre-cut fabric strips in reds, whites, greens and pinks, organza and grosgrain ribbon, a galvanised wire ring, wool felt, fabric for the bird, red and white spotty ribbon for the centre and a red liberty bell. You will also need general sewing supplies and wool stuffing. Finished size 12".

 

Kit Cost: $45

 

 

Origami Christmas Decorations

Learn an exciting fabric folding technique to make these Japanese-inspired origami Christmas decorations. Once you have mastered this technique you can turn the decorations into a brooch, or sew them into cushions and quilts. A Moira Bevan, Frangipani Fabrics pattern.

Pattern cost: $13.20

Felt Angels

 

Sew these lovely wool felt angels and turn them into a festive brooch, or hang them from your tree. Finished size approx 2x3".  This is a great project to do with children! A Frangipani Fabrics, Moira Bevan design.

 

Pattern cost: $7.50

 

 

A Nordic Christmas - Linen and Felt Tree Decoration Kit

 

Sew these lovely wool felt and linen Scandanavian-inspired Christmas decorations (deer, tree and bird), using our pre-printed fabric. Kit includes, pattern, pre-printed fabric, ribbon and wool-felt. Finished size approximately 4-5".  Another great one to sew with children! A Frangipani Fabrics/Moira Bevan design, with illustrations by Anna Wray.

 

Kit cost: $16.00

 

 

 

We are also teaching most of these projects as pre-Christmas classes.  Each class only lasts a few hours and will give you a head start in making these projects in a friendly, relaxed environment.  Why not take some time out for yourself, get a head start on your Christmas sewing, and enrol today!

Shadow Dreaming

Ann has just created a new quilt to showcase our Australian Indigenous fabrics - Shadow Dreaming.  Based on a quilt pattern by SK Peters ($2.20 in store), this quilt features squares of Indigneous fabrics, predominantly in shades of red, grey and brown, shadowed by small strips of grey and black, on a cream background. 

Wendy Tomes from Lavender Blue Quilting in Kingston quilted Shadow Dreaming for us and she did a wonderful job - quilting kangaroos, symbols and boomerangs into the top. 

Finished size 54.5 x 67".  To make life extra easy we have kits available with all the fabrics needed for the quilt top!  Kit cost $95

Larkspur

Three more fabrics from the Alexander Henry Larkspur collection just flew in the door.  Abstract, retro flowers, birds, dots and now a border stripe, they remind me of Brian Wildsmith's children's book illustrations (I'm reading The Little Wood Duck to my daughter at the moment). 

These fabrics are $26/m, or you can collect them all in a bundle for $25 (save $8!)

A Frangipani customer Sandra Payne recently made the Make it Perfect jacket pattern Uptown Girl in Larkspur Meadow, lined with Larkspur Circes.  This is the 5th jacket she has made with this pattern - and she has made it in five different sizes!  It looks stunning.

Sweet Nothings Cot Quilt

Ann has just made the perfect, easy cot quilt for a little girl with a mixture of our beautiful Riley Blake Happier and Sweet Nothings fabrics, and some Teddy's Garden by Benartex. 

This quilt is based on our bargello cot quilt method which halves your sewing and cutting time.  The Sweet Nothings cot quilt is availble as a $55 kit (which includes pattern, quilt top and binding), or as a pattern for $9.95. 

This quilt also includes a decorative pink flange, which adds an inner border to the quilt, whilst keeping it smaller than the width of a standard quilting fabric, so you don't have to join your backing fabric! 

Meet Ernest the Donkey

We're in love with Reuben the Donkey by Ric Rac designs, and now we have a relative of Reuben in the shop - his learned uncle Ernest!

Moira started out by making Reuben but as she sewed his head and muzzle she realised he was evolving into a wiser, older, and more well-read gentleman.  The original pattern for Reuben  features a smart coat and satchel (with the satchel clasps make out of the slidey gizmos on bra straps), and he has a full head of black wool-felt hair.   Moira decided that his uncle Ernest needed a tweed wool coat and glasses, and hair just didn't seem to suit him.

The pattern doesn't have tail so if there is anyone out there who has made him a tail, please let us know!

Reuben and Ernest finish at 14.5" high (37cm), and the pattern is $17.50. 

Garden Divas

We've just received a shipment of the amazing range Garden Divas by Jane Sassaman.  Busy birds, bugs and dragonflies set the scene for a glorious day in a country garden. Garden Divas celebrates this colorful cast of characters and the magic dance between them. As always, Jane’s modern interpretation of a classic theme sews the seeds of possibility for contemporary quilts, wearables and home accessories.

All fabrics are $24/m, and incase you can't decide, we've put together a bundle of 6 fat quarters for the price of 5 at $30.00.

You can visit Jane Sassaman's blog to see all the beautiful things she has done with this range including this simple quilt made from topstitching quarter circles onto 12" blocks (yaay, no curved piecing), using the Willow Wands and other designs. 



...and the Gypsy Scarf quilt, using the Zinnia, and Iris and Bleeding Heart designs.  You can download a free pattern for this quilt here! 

The big, bold prints in these fabric would also look beautiful as pillow cases or bags

...and are fantastic for kaleidoscope quilts!  Here is an example from Jane's website of a kaleidoscope made with Iris and Bleeding Hearts.