🌈 Rainbow Ramblings 💍📖

Click here to view this email in your web browser

Hey Reader!

I hope you've made a cuppa and settled in for a bit of a read because gosh do I have a lot to share about in this newsletter! It has been a huge few weeks here, full of so many good things and exciting news! Both personal and quilty.

Let me tell you the personal news first - it has a quilty twist. Let me set the scene. It was the night before I was flying out to Norfolk Island (for the above-mentioned retreat). It was my partner's birthday and we had decided to stay in Brisbane for the night and go out to dinner. He told me I needed to pack a quilt to take for quilt photos - he knows me well. He told me he'd found a perfect spot and sunset photos would be ideal. I was all "it's okay, I have some quilt photos already, no stress, but if we get them, awesome". He was quite insistent. So off we went.

He held up the quilt for photos, then was taking such a long time after I was done snapping pics, I went over to see what he was doing. It was at this point, the quilt photo facade ended, and he got down on one knee and proposed! Naturally I said yes :) So we're all official now, and I have a sweet proposal story to share with my quilty friends! Oh and some pics!

Here's the quilt we took for photos (Book Binder - made with Fire Glow), and here's the ring that appeared shortly after!

Clearly now we are keeping that quilt forever (despite some of the ladies on retreat trying to negotiate for it - one even offered up joint custody of her amazing mother-in-law in exchange!). The quilt also went with me to Norfolk Island for more photos but I'll share those next newsletter! (Oh and in case you're wanting the quilt pattern, you can find it in the shop here).

And now onto the quilty news!

Norfolk Island Retreat

My bestie Ange of GnomeAngel and I just hosted a week long retreat on the beautiful Norfolk Island. It's a tiny island located halfway between Australia and New Zealand. We met up with nearly 40 amazing quilters and have just had the best time. The island is beautiful, the scenery absolutely stunning, the quilters were talented, kind and an absolute delight to spend time with.

I'd like to tell you I did lots of sewing and finished all sorts of things. Alas, I did not. I did however do a lot of talking, laughing, and spending time with fellow quilters. Even taught a few of them to paper piece! Amongst our Aussie crew, we also had 7 quilters travel from the US to join us - and we had a lot of fun teaching them some of our Aussie lingo ;)

We toured the island, spotted chooks and cows, indulged in a little star gazing, we met so many of the amazing locals who are so proud of their beautiful island community, we stitched, we unpicked, we ate a lot of food. We even went on a glass bottom boat tour (a highlight!) and most importantly, we reinforced what a good bunch quilters really are.

Don't worry if you're feeling a bit of a FOMO - we're going to do it all again next year! We'll be sharing more details in our newsletters in the near future, but now's an excellent time to start thinking about a lil jaunt to Norfolk Island in July 2027!

To make sure you don't miss out on all the details, jump on the waitlist! No extra emails, just first in the know when we share info on the next retreat.

Join the retreat waitlist!

A Year of Flowers

While I was away on an island paradise, a new flower quietly bloomed into our Year of Flowers! The August flower has arrived for our Block of the Month and it's the beautful poppy.

Each month we are sewing the birth flower for that month. August is the poppy and represents remembrance, peace and sleep. While we may be over halfway through our Year of Flowers, it's not too late to join. Sign up and you'll get access to all of the flower patterns released so far.

Join us in a Year of Flowers!

Here's a little look at just some of the amazing progress our BoM quilters have been making on their versions of a Year of Flowers.

Left is a beautiful version in solids pieced by Leah M, and right is a lovely low volume scrappy version by Amanda (@prairiequiltco). Aren't they so stunning!

If you'd like to sew your own Year of Flowers, click the button below and join us!

Count me in!

Make Mine Mini

If you love to indulge in a little foundation piecing, and you have a heart for all things 80s rock, this might be just what you're looking for! During July in Make Mine Mini, we're stitching up cassette tapes, boom boxes and music notes! These patterns are perfect to add to other projects - or turn them into cushion (pillow) for the music lover in your life.

These are my versions where I used the brightest rainbow prints I could find, and dug into the selvedge stash to create the labels for the tapes! But here are some other amazing versions pieced by clever quilters so you can see how the patterns look in different colours and fabrics!

Top left is by Sarah, top right by Martha.

Bottom left is by Lisa and bottom right by Mark. Aren't they just so fun and cheerful?

If these are patterns you'd like to stitch up yourself, join us in Make Mine Mini. It's a monthly membership designed for foundation paper piecers just like you. Brand new patterns each month, an exclusive shop to purchase unreleased patterns, a special discount, even an entire alphabet pattern that's yours to love and keep.

I'm joining Make Mine Mini!

In case you'd like to hear from one our wonderful members, here's what Melanie had to share!

"I’m not much of a “joiner” but Make Mine Mini designs are a perfect combination of fun inspiration ( funspiration?) and reasonable size! So many other FPP projects are beautiful but sizable, too much for me to take on. Kristy’s designs make me want to sit down right now and stitch one out."

Melanie · Make Mine Mini member

Sign me up!

I may need a lil nap after all the excitement of the past few weeks! Sending my boy off to the army (he's doing well at basic training though it's a big adjustment for all of us - especially me!), a sneaky little engagement, a big trip to Norfolk Island, and now back home and back to reality and routine!

There's no rest for the wicked though - I have some fun stuff planned that I'll be sharing about soon. It involves a bit of sewing and a bunch of fun and I can't wait to share more soon.

In the meantime I hope that you're having a wonderful week and finding time to carve out a bit of creativity!

Happy sewing!