please welcome...oh and the winner is...

So, for the long-awaited, most delayed giveaway results ever, finally we have a winner...

and it is number 9...Gill! Gill has the pleasure of choosing which set of 3 pouches she would like. If you didn't win and would like to make your own pouches, or something else completely from this fab range, head over to Saints and Pinners to get yourself some of the fabric.

Other news today, in case you have been sleeping all weekend and haven't yet heard, is that the wonderful website to get all your Kona solids here in the UK - along with other lovely fabrics - has changed hands from Mandy to Justine.

This is a very exciting new venture for our lovely nurse, quilter, mother of 3 friend and I hope you will all give her a warm welcome.

Justine has big plans for Simply Solids. As well as continuing in Mandy's great footsteps, she has exciting new plans too, which will be revealed over time. Simply Solids offers free postage on every order over £15and Justine would love to hear from you if you would like certain colours stocking and other collections. Personally, I'm after her stocking Quilter's Linen...

To welcome Justine Lynne is doing a giveaway, so head over to her blog to read all about it and enter.

To celebrate the launch Justine is offering for this weekend only, every order will receive a free random FQ for every £10 spent in the shop. The offer will run from today thru to midnight on Monday 17th September!! What are you waiting for...GO!!

let normal service resume...temporarily...

So it's the first full week back into the routine and so far so good....if you don't count a few newby High School Girl tantrums...and that's just from me!

Actually, Ruby is doing brilliantly and coping amazingly with her dramatic change in life and with no old friends to hold hands with in an unfamiliar place.

I am having a very productive week (which is a good job as no sooner are we back to normal than the next 2 weeks are disrupted again for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) and even had time for a little creativity with the stunning Elephants Love Water fabrics from the fantastic Umbrella Prints gals.

I started the week off at full speed, inspired after the great Makers' Fair last weekend and promised myself if I got everything done on this week's To Do List I could start thinking of what I was going to do with the fabrics. To be honest I cheated a little...let's face it I have more work than my little head can cope with with all that is to come...made it realistic in terms of what really had to be done this week...and consequently decided today was Play Day!

Oh boy is this fun to play with! With my new found favourite block, it was Wonky Windmills all the way when I paired Elephants Love Water with some coordinating Kona solids and navy Quilter's Linen. 6 blocks later and I'm in love! Ideally I would love this to be bed sized, but I think it may have to be satisfied with being lap sized...unless it wants to stay on the never-ending "there's no way I have time to finish this" pile.

Some time during the holiday I started this and didn't manage to show you the end results. Justine has saved me the trouble as she is explaining all about it over here. Go check it out...it may be worth your while!

Talking of giveaways (inadvertently), in amongst the holiday mayhem I never closed and drew a winner for this giveaway. Consequently your luck is in if you still want to enter as I am going to draw the winner on Sunday.

I'll be back on Sunday with a winner and then bear with me over the next few weeks. What with the Jewish New Year holidays and getting stock ready I have a feeling I may not be around very much, but hopefully enough to say hi at least...

Have a great weekend and good luck in the various giveaways!

Introducing Saints & Pinners...

 Saints and Pinners is another of my lovely sponsors and another great UK online fabric store. It is run by mother and daughter-in-law team, Fran and Jo (how great it must be to get on that well with your mother-in-law and have a shared passion!)

Their website is a lovely site, very easy to navigate around and divided into interesting sections. I particularly like the "make this" section where Jo and Fran have listed projects made from fabrics they stock and navigate you to what was used and where in the shop it is.   

 You will find a lot of the usual favourites in store - they are big fans of Cloud 9 and Anna Maria Horner, amongst others, but Jo and Fran will surprise you with some more unusual finds.

One particular collection that I haven't seen anywhere else in UK is the batik prints they currently have. These wax block prints are very striking and very different from what you normally see out there.

Jo and Fran sent me some samples to have a play with and they are so lovely to use. They are very happy fabrics for one! Also the cotton is very crisp and really lovely to sew with. The fabric holds its shape well so was perfect for my pouches.

I really enjoyed sewing with these fabrics and making something that is a real departure from my usual look. I was sent Oak, above, Zigzags, below (my favourite I think - I just love that stripy blue zigzag) and hydrangea at the bottom. 

These fabrics, along with the 2 other designs in the collection are available here and I really recommend you giving them a go in your next project. Step out of your comfort zone and have a play with them. You will be rather pleased you did.

In the meantime I am doing a little giveaway with my makes here. The winner gets to choose the 3 pouches in either Oak, Zigzag or Hydrangea.

Usual story to enter...

4 ways to win...

1. Leave a comment here to say you'd love to enter!

2. Go 'Like' Saints & Pinners on Facebook and come back here and tell me you've done it.

3. Go sign up for Saints & Pinners' Newsletter (scroll down to the bottom of the page on the right) again come back here to tell me you have.

4. Go tweet about it and yup, you guessed it, come back here to tell me you have.

Good luck! you have quite a while on this one...I'll randomly pick a winner at the end of the month...August 31st.

If you can't wait that long to get your hands on some of this go check out this and S & P's other delights right now!