Patchwork quilting Christmas presents!

It's that time of year again, and if you are looking for presents for a patchworker, or if you are a quilter looking to make a treasured handmade gift for someone else, we have a great range in stock!

Firstly we have introduced a great range of bag patterns - if you're looking for a quick and simple project to give your loved ones this Christmas you can't go wrong with a beautifully made bag, and we have tote bags, handbags and backpacks to choose from, with one pattern so simple it can be made in a couple of hours from just one fat quarter!

Also ideal to make as presents, or to buy as a great gift for a quilter are our range of Rachel's of Greenfield wallhanging quilt kits, with themes such as Wooly Sheep, Baby Bear and Spotty Cat these would look great on a child's bedroom wall!

If you're looking for gifts to buy for a quilter, we have loads of great tools available - although many people will have a list of what they need, some useful items for all quilters are the Clover desk needle threader, or the decorative hand held needle threader, the bobbin saver for bobbin storage, and you can't go wrong with the high quality Clover patchwork scissors. For beginners we have discount sets of tools, great to get started with patchwork, and for fabric lovers don't forget our ranges of fat quarter packs and stash packs - with colour coordinated and themed packs there should be something for everyone's tastes!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

New Rouenneries Moda Jelly Rolls and Dancing Bugs novelty fabrics

This month's Moda Jelly Roll and Moda Layer Cake are now available to buy on the website - the Rouenneries range by French General for Moda is a lovely muted range in faded reds, oyster and pearl colours, in large and small scale floral prints with a selection of matching solids. Perfect for a traditional quilt!
Also new in we have the Camelot Cottons Dancing Bugs range, a great fun novelty patchwork fabric collection featuring bugs of all sorts, great for childrens' quilts, and the Benartex Kitty Kimono range, sumptuous autumn coloured fabrics with golden highlights in a variety of leafy prints inspired by nature. Both ranges are available in fat quarter packs, giving a 5% discount over buying the fabrics separately.

China Blue patchwork range by Makower now in stock!

Brand new by Makower patchwork fabrics we have the China Blue quilt fabric range - a stunning collection of blue and white patchwork prints in florals, dots and stripes, in navy, white and mid blue. Watch this space for a fat quarter pack and quilt pattern using these fabrics!

Brand new fabric ranges in stock!

Brand new in over the past few days we have received the Galaxy Calico Cuties range, lovely little floral prints on white backgrounds - perfect to bring in some summer warmth over the winter months! Also new in is the Classic Cottons Colour Essentials patchwork fabric collection, 6 fabrics in baby blue and pink, perfect for a quilt for a new baby.

We have also added to our quilt fabric strip roll selection with 2 new products - the Calico Cuties strip roll, with all 20 prints from the Calico Cuties range, and the larger plain fabric full range strip roll with 45 2.5 inch strips in plain 100% cotton fabric, in all the colours of the rainbow!

October jelly roll and layer cake - Mill House Inn

Brand new in we have our latest Moda jelly rolls and layer cakes. Designed by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda, the Mill House Inn patchwork fabric range is a stunning set of floral and spotty prints in soft reds, greens and creams, with colour names such as rose red, fresh apricots, meadow grass and clotted cream. The collection was inspired by the designer's stay at a country cottage in the Cotswolds, so it has a real English country feel!

New BaZooples range plus new templates

Brand new in we have three fabrics from the Springs Creative Bazooples patchwork fabric range, by Vicki Schreiner Designs. These are really cute fabrics ideal for baby quilts, featuring the BaZooples - Lester the lion, Elsie the elephant, Gertrude the giraffe, Zach the zebra, Ollie the emu and the flutterbugs!

Also new in this week are the EZ quilting multi-shape patchwork templates in diamond, triangle and hexagon shapes. Sturdy and transparent, they can be used with a rotary cutter to produce several different size patches from the same template, saving time and money! Each template comes with a mini instruction leaflet, and more details and tutorials can be found on the EZ quilting website.

New fabric range and fabric strip rolls

Brand new to the website we have now uploaded the Classic Cottons Changing Seasons collection, a full range of 25 tone on tone fabrics in jewel bright colours graduating from light to dark in pinks, purples, blues, greens and oranges. These fabrics make perfect background fabrics, or can be used to great effect on their own - check out the quilt patterns available on Classic Cottons website for two stunning quilts made from the Changing Seasons range.

Also new this week to the website we have introduced our colour coordinated strip rolls - for anyone who enjoys the new phenomenon of strip pieced quilts, these lovely little bundles of 20 2.5" strips in greens, blues, yellows and pinks take the hard work out of cutting the strips - and they look so sweet you'll find it difficult to unravel them! Also in the range is a Changing Seasons strip roll of the full 25 fabrics in the collection.

Quilt finished!

Well, the quilt is finished, finally, from all those squares and triangles cut previously! The design is from Celia Eddy's Quilt Block Bible, a block call the 'Ribbon Quilt Block' - this is a great little book, full of inspiration. I used Hobbs wadding (my personal favourite), and quilted the whole thing 'in the ditch' using invisible quilting thread on top, and a taupe thread on the bottom, following the patterns of the ribbons, so the pattern was repeated on the back. Also, rather than using plain backing fabric, I used a lovely light brown backing fabric, so if turned back the backing matches the front really well. Onwards and upwards now to the next project!

New Benartex fabric ranges by Nancy Halvorsen

Brand new to the website we have fabrics from several new ranges designed by Nancy Halvorsen for Benartex fabrics. The ranges are Charms, Winsome and Williams Inn, and all the colours and patterns blend beautifully - so much so that we've put them all together in a fat quarter pack and stash pack! Also don't forget that our fat quarter packs are 5% cheaper than buying the fat quarters separately, and you are guaranteed perfectly matching fabrics!

September's jelly roll and layer cake

The Morris Workshop jelly roll and layer cake was so popular last month, it has now sold out - we have now added this month's Moda Bundles, from the Vine Creek range. Inspired by a rusty sign for an old town in Kansas, these beautiful florals in muted greens, dark blues and reds would be ideal for a traditional quilt.

New bag making products and quilting tools added to site

We have today increased our bag making supplies selection on the website, with the addition of several Clover bag handle designs, as well as bag strapping for rucksacks and backpacks. Although we had the plastic buckles and D-rings, only now have we added the strapping, so you can use all three together for an easy bag strap! The Clover bag handles are excellent quality, and will make for a really smart bag (especially now that stylish shopping bags are a must!).

Also added today are a couple of new tools for marking quilts - the really useful Clover mesh canvas for the easy transfer of quilting designs from layout to fabric, and a pencil sharpener perfect for fabric pencils. To use the mesh transfer canvas, you can trace out designs using a pencil onto the matte side of the canvas, then lift off and place onto the quilt top, and retrace. You will be left with a dotted line where the pencil goes through the holes, just join up the dots and there is the quilting design! Using the matte side of the canvas and a water soluble pencil, you can wipe it clean ready to use again - the Clover Chaco pens are also recommended by Clover to use with the canvas.

Quilt project started!

Well, I have a new quilt order to work on - all the pieces are cut and I've started sewing, it's going to be a long process, take a look at the piles of patches above! The fabric is from our Makower Quilter's Palette range in beige, and I'll post more pictures as it goes on!

In other news we have new patchwork fabric ranges in this week, from Marcus fabrics we have the Gallery In Red range, lovely red and ivory two tone fabrics, and a fun new range in from Windham Fabrics - Traffic Jam. Great for playmats, this range has roads and cars that would be perfect for a little boy!

Quilt Association summer exhibition

Well, to get the ball rolling we thought we'd share the news of the Quilt Association's summer exhibition, held at the Minerva centre at Llanidloes between the 13th July and the 12th September.



As a big fan of Welsh quilting (details and history can be found on our Welsh quilting page), the Quilt Association is one of my favourite organisations. Although we can't be there this year, the summer exhibition is always worth a visit, with antique and contemporary quilts on show, and a number of workshops available to join up to.

Welcome to our new blog

Hi and welcome to the new Pelenna Patchworks blog! We hope to use this blog to keep you up to date with any new products and changes to the Pelenna Patchworks quilting shop website, and also to share any quilting news that may be useful.

Our owner, Sarah Phillips, will be posting on the blog with news, details and pictures of quilting projects, so hopefully they should be interesting and informative - and fun to follow along sometimes!

Thank you for reading, and please call back soon!