Cross country treasures!!



No I haven't taken up running - I spent quite a lot of time in my car last week - and came across 2 fantastic, but very different patchwork shops which were on opposite sides of the country.
I visited Wales, with my husband for a short break and, on our journey home, we stopped in Lampeter and discovered Calico Katehttp://www.calicokate.co.uk/.
This is a deceptively large shop, it looks quite small from the front window - but once inside you go from room to room, up stairs and through doorways! In all Kate has now got 12 rooms devoted to fabric, haberdashery, and some wool.

Although I haven't got any pictures of the staff they were all friendly and helpful, obviously enjoying their work - ( I wonder if any of them actually manage to take any of their wages home?!!)

 

and this is just a small selection of goodies on offer - every time I turned around there was something else that I liked! When I finally made my way to the till, with a very restrained selection I wanted to say - don't ring up yet - there's something else I need!! so another trip to Wales is planned!

Thursday saw me driving from the office in Wrexham to Craft Days in Saffron Walden - to run a demonstration in the shop - and I was amazed at how many fabrics and other goodies Jane has managed to fit into her shop - literally turn around and you would see something else to divert and tempt you http://craft-days.co.uk/.

I spent a lovely evening demonstrating the Big Shot and Bigz dies, and then off course just had to purchase some fabric ( it would be rude not to!!)

Both of these shops would make a great shopping experience built into a day out or a holiday - and we have new dies available this month so you could really have so much fun this summer! Check out the website for some of these - Large Dresden Plate - http://www.sizzix.co.uk/product/659847/sizzix-bigz-l-die-dresden-plate-large, Tessellating Pinwheel - http://www.sizzix.co.uk/product/658661/sizzix-bigz-die-tessellating-pinwheel-4-1-2-assembled,

Half-hexagon - http://www.sizzix.co.uk/product/658880/sizzix-bigz-die-5-half-hex ,

Diamonds - http://www.sizzix.co.uk/product/658671/sizzix-bigz-xl-25-die-diamonds-2-1-2-2-3-4-x-6-1-2-unfinished

These are just a few, and some of my favourite new dies - there will be some great new projects coming up in the next few months.

To get a preview of some of these new dies don't forget to come along to the Quilts UK show at the Three Counties Showground next week! 15th - 18th May - I'll be demonstrating the Big Shot and Bigz dies alongside Cotton Patch and Lynne will be demonstrating alongside Lady Sew and Sew - come and see us.

I'll bring you photos from Malvern next week - have fun sewing.

Angela

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lots and lots of half square triangles


I spent the weekend in Malvern at the Autumn Quilt Festival doing demonstrations for Lady Sew and Sew and this morning I am absolutely exhausted! I've been sat at the computer trying to think of something to blog about but all I can think of is how I need to unpack my bag and sort out all my stuff. My brain might still be in one of my bags!

I will also be doing demonstrations this weekend at the Autumn Quilt Festival in Duxford so if you're thinking of going make sure you come and say hello!

Last week I finished off the zig zag quilt for my friend's baby, and I'm happy to say she loved it. I always worry a little bit about making quilts for people. They're quite personal, and what I consider to be gorgeous fabrics the recipient might not agree. I tried to stay safe using soft blues and greys, with a little bit of aqua. Colours that are good for baby boys.

When I was in Malvern I decided I'd bring along fabrics to cut into half square triangles to make a scrappy quilt. I now have a small mountain of pieces, that I will gradually sew together in between other projects. There's no plan or pattern I intend to follow, just lots and lots of half square triangles, maybe it'll end up a zig zag, maybe it'll end up less structured. We'll see! All of the fabrics I cut were from different collections by Art Gallery Fabrics. I still have more to cut up, which I will most likely do this coming weekend. I get through so much fabric when I'm doing demonstrations that I like to have a plan for them, otherwise I end up with bits and pieces that end up in my scrap bin. This way it'll be a lovely reminder of the time I spent with Lady Sew and Sew.

What did you get up this weekend? I hope yours was as fun as mine, but maybe a little less tiring!

An Introduction from Me!



Hello Everyone,

My name is Katie Skilton and I am a freelance craft designer in the UK.  I have been papecrating for over 12 years.  Just over 18 months ago I turned my passion into a business and now work full time in the craft industry.

I am so excited to be working with Sizzix and their wonderful products.  From next week you will see a little more of me when I do my first show for sizzix on Create and Craft.

Today I just want to share with you some of the projects I made recently for my first Sizzix demonstration at Cadbury Home and Leisure Centre.

As you can see from my work I have a modern but clean and colourful style and love working on home decor projects.

All of these products were made using the started kit which I absolutely adore.  It has so many possibilities and can be used for so many projects.

Thank you for looking for looking and I will be back soon to share with you some of my samples from my first Create and Craft show.

Katie 

The Spring Quilt Festival - Exeter


I'm just back from a wonderfully busy weekend at the Spring Quilt Festival in Exeter demonstrating the Big Shot and quilting dies with the Cotton Patch.

This was the first time I'd met the Cotton Patch staff and it was such fun, they were all a real joy to work with and a great bunch of people.

From left to right -
Nikki (having to duck down because she's so tall!), Liz (the boss lady) and Denise (who has been at the Cotton Patch for about 18 years - although she doesn't look nearly old enough to have worked there for so long!) Denise's husband, Alan, was also at the show. He's the engineer for the sewing machines - what he doesn't know about sewing machines isn't worth knowing!

The show at Exeter is only a small one, and I wasn't sure it would be very busy, but I was pleasantly surprised - lots and lots of interest in the Big Shot and lots of new customers, many of which already had Big Shots from card making or scrap booking and were excited to see the patchwork dies. My favourite thing about demonstrating is showing just how easy it is to cut a huge pile of pieces for a quilt in no time at all.  I think an awful lot of people think you can just cut a layer of fabric at a time, when in reality multiple layers work much better - I usually layer my fabrics up to between 6 and 8 layers. The look of genuine surprise on peoples' faces is wonderful, usually accompanied by a gasp and 'it actually cuts 32 hexagons at once? Wow!'

I also tried cutting felt for the first time which was really lovely - beautiful clean cuts and perfect shapes for applique and crafts. I'm going to have to get myself some thick wool felt and have a play with some felt appliques. 

Cotton Patch is the largest patchwork and quilting shop in the UK, and has built up a huge customer base for mail order and internet sales over the past 20 years. They are so knowledgable about the products they sell, and clearly all have a real passion for what they do. Almost every person that I spoke to was a member of their mailing list or a repeat customer, and every one of those people had great things to say about the shop, which is wonderful.

Cotton Patch are also stockists for gracie frames, handiquilter, and the sweet sixteen. Here's Liz playing with the sweet sixteen (and Nikki peeking in from behind!)

You can just see on the right of the picture here one of the quilts the Cotton Patch made up using the strip die - I love the modern chevron look of that quilt, and it's a lovely simple pattern that looks much trickier than it actually is. 

I can safely say the huge hits of the weekend were the hexagon dies, and the applique owl, neither of which surprised me at all. Cutting hexagons by hand is never fun, and everyone loves an owl! Quite a few ladies sighed 'if only I'd had that when I made a hexagon quilt 30 years ago!' 

I've now got a lot of hexagons cut and ready to baste thanks to my weekend in Exeter. This picture shows just about half of what I cut over the weekend! I'd better get to it - those hexagons won't sew themselves, will they? (Now, when will Sizzix bring out a die for that, I wonder?!!!)

Creativeworld recap

As you probably know by now, last week a group of us went to Paperworld as Sizzix had a stand in the Creativeworld section. I flew on Wednesday and did not come back till Tuesday very late. It was really exhausting, but all in all a great experience.

The stand look great as usual.

 The machines centre display was clever and a great focal point. And look, for the first time one of my collections was in display. Actually there were two, Fresh Moments (which is available now)and Winter moments (which you can see on the right side of the left photo). It was a very special moment to see the dies and display up.

I was really happy to be demoing for one of our UK distributors, Personal Impressions, which is a company really close to my heart. I had a blast in no small measure because I was beside the fantastic Dyan Reaveley. Such a fun and inspirational woman.

One great thing about trade shows is that we get to meet different companies, and since I love paper getting to know the people at Garza Papel (amazing 100% cotton paper) or the guys at St Cubherts Mill was great! Specially the samples I got to take home.  

Mr Pete Hughes was demoing at the Rayher stand, one of our distributors. You know, he is a big hit there, with crowds gathered around him all day long!

And behind Pete there was this lovely display made by the Rayher in house design team which was made entirely using dies from my Everyday collection, the Butterflies and Scallop Flowers. Seeing that was really surreal as I did not expected at all! 

And the super talented and incredibly nice and funny Anna was demoing at our Sizzix Stand. I stalked her like crazy!

Can you spot the new look of the Big Shot? Such a pretty machine. And the comes with a completely different set of dies exclusive to the starter kit, which you are going to love if you like Everyday.

Ever so excited...

This weekend I will be demonstrating at Creativa in Madrid. Can you believe is the first time that I will be working (craft related) in Spain?

I will demoing my Sizzix Everyday range at the Fontorpin stand.


---

Este fin de semana estare demostrando en la feria Creativa, Madrid. Os podeis creer que es la primera vez que trabajare en Espana con algo relacionado con las manualidades?

Estare los cuatro dias en el stand de Inspiro (Fontorpin) usando la coleccion de Everyday para Sizzix.

Demo at The Glitter Pot

I had such a fab time at The Glitter Pot on Saturday where I demonstrated along other crafters. I love it there, it is one of my all time favourite shops as they stock quite a few of my most used ranges.
Of course I was demonstrating the Big Shot.

And, of course, I had my Look Book of embossing techniques. Some of them are not that clever. But many of them are!

I love that little name card. I have been demonstrating at The Glitter Pot for many years so it is a great sight every time. The boxes you can see are all made with either the Cabinet Card or the Mini Magnetic Cabinet Card.

Some other samples that I made during the day and before hand.

 And I will leave you with this photo of my view of the room. On the left you can see Alex Kamann (a master of Copics), and on the right Jenny Hayes from Hobby Art. On the other demo room you could find Kay Carley, Jackie Hucksteep, Gilly and Jane Gill (a long time friend and someone whose work I admire very much!).

I look forward to next years event already!

"Splash" class in Cork with Sizzix!

Hi there!
Today I want to share the experience I had last week - I had the honor of teaching a "Splash" class to a group of fantastic, talented women from all around the Ireland and Great Britain, who came to take part in the event organized by Cork Art Supplies and Cardz'n'Scrapz!

"Splash" class is of course media-based, but during the creative process we use a lot of Sizzix dies - Sizzlits Decorative Strips, which are a main part of the composition both for masking and layering...

Here are some of the dies that were used during this class:
657706 - Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die - Curly #2,
657709 - Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die - Ovals, Interlocking,
657708 - Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die - Flower Garden w/Scallops,
657744 - Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die - Fanciful Border,
657745 - Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die - Filigree Border,
657747 - Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die - Regal Edging,
657746 - Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die - Luxury in the Details,
657825 - Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die - Harlequin Border,
657826 - Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die - Washer Border.

And here are some of the photos taken during the process - just look at the creativity and talent of my students! How lucky I am!

Some layout decorating ideas - Sizzix Decorative Strips are just wonderful for all kinds of creations! I'm sorry I can't share all of them, but... there were so many great projects!

Finally - here we are, the whole group together after the long, but fun class - our fingers got dirty for sure! 

And this grungy layout I finished during the class - you can see Harlequin Border, Oval strip and elements of Washer Borders used here!

I hope you enjoyed this post - we surely had a great time! the next "Splash" class is coming soon, I'll be teaching it again in Belgium, during the Scraptastic event in October!
See you soon!
Finn