I am rather excited about 2 things this week, actually make that 3 as the children went back to school, but in my sewing world it's 2. Firstly, yesterday I read that the Festival of Quilts is going ahead at the NEC in the Summer - yay!! Last year the children were all going to be away at church camp, and hubby and I had a mini break planned, including a visit to the show, but obviously that all went out of the window. This year we will probably have to take the children with us, as we are not sure about the camp yet, but they won't want to come to the show, and will probably go on a day out with Dad, so it's still a win win for me :-)

Secondly, and I am very excited about this one, I am now an official stockist for Lewis and Irene fabric! :-D I love their designs and the way they capture nature perfectly in them, as well as the importance of family in what they do, and I have fabric from so many of their collections. I have looked into whether I could order wholesale from them in the past, but when I looked at the form, it seemed that I might need to be a big business or company to order, and I was not brave enough to ask and see. Well, hubby knows that I've always wanted to do this, and unbeknown to me, he contacted them himself to find out the requirements etc. and then surprised me once he heard from them - I love this man sooooooo much! The people we spoke to have been so lovely and helpful, and I have now placed my first order, so in a few weeks, I will officially have my first fabric delivery. I am not planning on opening an actual shop, and my stock will be very small to begin with, but hubby is going to add a little shop page right here for me, and I will probably have a link to an Etsy shop as well. It's a teeny step in the grand scheme of things, but for me it's so exciting, and I've ordered fabric that I love, so hopefully others do too! ;-)

In other news, I finished my wall hanging, (again thank you to hubby who bought me several metres of dowel rods and cut to size for me) and it looks really quite striking, even against my already white wall.

I've also made another quilt top, my 5th one this year, and I took note of how long it was taking me, mainly out of curiosity, as I'm often asked how long it takes to make a quilt, and I simply don't know. From Jelly roll to finished top it has taken me around 8.5 hours so far, so I shall keep adding up when I get to the basting and beyond.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do next, but I do still have to quilt the big heart quilt, and hand stitch the binding on the friendship braid quilt, so I may try and get those finished before I start more projects, but then again, maybe not...