Drum Roll Please and Now for the Big Reveal.

Now let me introduce you all to our first fabric club starting in January 2015.

Welcome to our 2015 Batik Rainbow Fabric Club. Each month you will receive a pack of colour themed batik fabrics (4 x30cm width of the fabric per pack) with a block pattern from our Batik Rainbow Sampler Quilt. Plus you will receive exclusive discount offers for our web shop www.cynthiasark.com.au  and batik charm square sample packs when new batik stock arrives. This is the perfect way to increase your batik fabric stash or start your batik fabric stash.  

Book your spot before the 1st November to receive a free gift with your 1st shipment.

For Australia it is $36 plus $9 postage for January, February-December it is $36 per month There is a postage charge only on January shipment.
  

Be quick to book your spot as there is a limited number of spots in this club.

Just log in to Cynthia's Ark and you will find the club on the homepage in the New Product section.

 If you live elsewhere just send me an email at sales@cynthiasark.com.au telling me you are interested in the club and what country you live in for your club costs.

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia        

Aurifil September"s Block of the Month

Here it is. All finished just in time and all caught up for a few days. I must start by saying this is my favourite block so far this year. 

This block really took my fancy from the first time I saw it and I can see this block enlarged and four blocks sewn together for a quilt. Just imagine it. Maybe one day I will make one along with all the other quilt ideas that pop in to my head. It won't be long before we are sewing all our blocks together to complete our quilts. 

Where has the year gone? October is knocking on the door (so to speak) and we are nearly halfway through Spring which means for us here in Australia Summer is just around the corner with Christmas. I better start on my Christmas presents. Oh Hang on a minute! I am waiting for the Christmas fabric to arrive. It should be here this week and will be available from us at Stand #12 at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival (AMQF) Adelaide, South Australia this long weekend or online at Cynthia's Ark hopefully by the end of the weekend, just depends how busy we are at the Festival.

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

What is going on here!

I have been busy preparing for our big launch on the 1st October. It is a surprise so you will have to pop over to www.cynthiasark.com.au  and sign up for our newsletter to be one of the first people to learn what we are launching. It is limited offer.

Also I  have been doing lots of fabric cutting for the Australian Machine Quilting Festival which starts on the 1st October with classes then from the 3rd-6th everyone is welcome at the Adelaide Convention Centre, North Tce Adelaide South Australia. This is the first time we have done this event so it is exciting to see what happens. I am looking forward to setting up on Friday.

I did take Saturday morning off and we went to the Balaklava Show which is 35 km (about 20 miles) up the road from us.  It is an agricultural show, so lots of animals, sideshow alley full of rides and games, a range of displays, food and of course handicrafts of all sorts on show. You all know what I wanted to see the quilts but we had to look at every else first as the hall was closed for judging in the morning. I got there after an early lunch. There was lovely a display of cakes, home brew, vegetables, photos, knitting, quilting and so on. I love looking at the quilts and I was wondering about entering one of my quilts in to a competition just once for the experience. I am not much into competing so maybe that is why I haven't done it before. I decided to ask about how to enter. So I visited the show secretary to get the details and she took my details so when they send out the details for next year event I will receive them. This will give me some time to think about it a bit more and what to enter if I choose to take on this challenge. I didn't see any batik quilts in this year’s display so I think that will be my starting point. How you entered a quilt show? I would to hear your experience on entering quilts in a show. Was it easy or stressful?

Sorry there is no photos I forgot the camera and my phone isn't a smart phone.

Until next time

Keep stitching

Cynthia

Block Testing and Lozenge Blocks

I have been doing some block testing in the last few days. I am working on a special project and while I wait for the fabrics for the project to arrive, I thought I would hit my scrap box and test a few blocks and start on some instructions. Something I am known to drag me feet on. Sorry I can't share some pictures at the moment. Don't worry it won't be long before you know what this special project is.

So while I am block testing I am also working on Leaders & Enders lozenge blocks. I have decided to start pairing some of lozenge blocks to get some idea how big I want to go with this project. I was just going to keep making blocks until the end of October and then sew all the blocks together but now I'm not sure as I still have a lot of rectangles and squares cut. So I will pair up what I have and then lay them out and see how far I have got before I start making more blocks.

There is still a lot more lozenge blocks to pair up.

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Aurifil's August Block of the Month Part 2

I know it is September but I hadn't completed August's block let alone September block. As previously reported I had it cut, ready to sew and then I was side tracked from the sewing machine. Well I finally got it done. Yippy!

 Now I just have to complete September block and I will be up to date. I have picked the fabrics out for the block so it is just the cutting and sewing to go.

Until next time

Keep stitching

Cynthia

Globetrotting Block of the Month # 9

Following my completion of my Wishes block I jumped in to my Globetrotting block for September - Barcelona. This is looking good and I am wondering what we are doing next month as there is only 9 blocks listed so I can't wait to see what is going to happen next.

 Today I brought my backing fabric for this quilt at A Quilter's Odyssey, Kate has some beautiful fabrics in store and there is always something new to discover. I found this one in the 50% off section and I could resist it for my backing for my Globetrotting quilt. It is only fair as Kate helped me pick out all the fabrics for the top so this whole project was purchased in her shop.

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Wishes Quilt Along - September's Block

We are up to September block. I am happy to say mine is completed. I finally broke the machine piecing drought that has been happening here and it is not the last week of the month. So that is 2 stars by my name this month. LOL. I must say I really love how this project is turning out. I can see some other quilts being created from certain blocks. 

Here is September's block.

This week the Fat Quarter Shop posted a teaser for next year project. It looks fantastic so I have already decided I am going to do it.

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Look what I found.

I was looking through some boxes and look what I found, another unfinished project. I have 24 English Paper pieced batik blocks and looking at the pile of papers I think I was going to make a quilt. 

Do I really want to make a lot more blocks to make a small quilt this way? Not really. So I decided to change it to a table runner, with a few matching coasters to go with it. This way I just have to make a few more blocks. So this is the table runner pieced ready for backing and then I will finish the set off with the matching coasters.

This is back of my piecing once I had removed all the middle papers. I will remove the outside papers once I am ready to finish it. When I was removing the papers I noticed 2 blocks that I accidently twisted. Oops. Should I fix it or leave it?

Here is the Let's Bee Social link, stop by and have a look at what other quilters are up to this week.

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Painting not sewing

Yes the sewing drought is still happening here. I just don't seem to have any spare time to do any machine sewing. A lot of computer work happening, some poster designing happening for my stand at AMQF. Which has been at interesting introduction to PicMonkey. I have also created a Cynthia's Creating Ark  star link for my blog that now is happily sitting on my web shop, plus you will some of my other creations in the coming weeks. If I can work it out nearly anyone could use this program. 

So what else have I been doing? Believe it or not I having been painting the inside back panels of my new fabric shelving units for my shop. It will be so cool to have these units completed and in place in the shop. I have finished painting 2 coats on the large unit and the first coat on the smaller unit and there is one more small unit that will need painting.

 The other item of shop furniture that is in place ready to be used is the cash register shelving unit. I think the cutting counter is next to be made. I hope so.

Look at my poor lonely machine just sitting there waiting to be used. There are few lozenge blocks waiting to have corners added to them. At least I know where she is.

 Maybe I will find some time in the next week to do some sewing, fingers crossed. At least I have had a few minutes here and there for some hand piecing to keep me sane.

Until next time

Keep stitching

Cynthia

Not a lot of sewing happening here

I still haven't made it to the sewing machine. I have walked passed it a number of times, even stopped and wondered if I should just sew for 10 minutes and thought no let's finish doing the job you are doing first. I have been cutting fabric, so at least I am handling fabric. What have I been cutting? I hear you ask, Pot luck quilt kits and a stack of 5 inch strips for my lucky draw strip packs for AMQF as I am nearly out of them.

This is what they look like once packed in to 1/2 metre packs ready for sale. Just need the label. They are available in our webshop in the fabric bundle section if you want some beautiful batiks.

 I have managed a little hand piecing when I just have to stop for the evening, so you can see I have made some progress piecing my Farmers Wife Sampler quilt.

Sorry I chopped the corners off but it gives you some idea where I am up to.

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Aurifil August's Block of the Month

As you may have guessed, my August block didn't get made in time. I cut the fabric over a week ago and it was sitting on my cutting mat in order ready for the next step. Well the promise I made in my Where is my sewing machine post was to do some stitching in the next 24 hours. I didn't even get any hand piecing Castle Wall blocks in my lunch break done. To top the insult off I had to cut a kit for a customer urgently for pick up and I have messed my Aurifil block pieces up. I promise I will get August's block done maybe with September block. 

The one thing I did manage to do among the paperwork and computer work was to have a little session in EQ7 to work on a HST quilt that has been buzzing around in my head for the last couple of days. It will be a quick design to sew together so I will share it with everyone once I choose some fabrics. It will probably be after Australian Machine Quilting Festival (AMQF) which is at the beginning of October and preparing for this event is taking up most of my time at the moment. It is the first time we are trading at the Australian Machine Quilting Festival at a venue we have not traded at before. So this could be interesting.

Until next time 

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Building Blocks Quilt -FMQ Along #15

In our free motion quilting quilt along I am up to block 7, the disappearing nine patch block. Having made this block before it came together very well and it wasn't long before I was ready for quilting. There is 3 blocks to quilt and the first one was pretty straight forward to quilt. So it should by now, straight lines.

The second block was more challenging with the square spiral and the circles all the same size in rows. Well the neat rows of circles disappeared into pebbles and the last block aha moment on pebbles I want to do more so I did more.

The third block featured a spiral with some stippling. The spiral was interesting to stitch, a little wobbly in some spots but it turned out ok with the stippling. 

The next block is going to be a bit more challenging so we should have some fun piecing them.

Until next time

Keep stitching

Cynthia

Where is my sewing machine?

I have been spending a lot of time in front of the computer, working on a number of projects, a couple pretty special projects and an English Paper piecing tutorial which I swear I wrote the instructions for it and were just waiting on the pictures to be added. I have searched the computer and can't find them. So instead of stressing over it I took a break. I have blocks sitting on the cutting table that I was going to sew together.  Where is the sewing machine? It must be hidden among all the paperwork and computer work I have been doing. Some of it is pretty mundane but some of it is very exciting and needed to finish before the end of September. So I am promising myself some stitching in the next 24 hours, hopefully at the sewing machine. There is a stack of machine piecing waiting to be tackled but at the moment I would settle for some hand piecing if it come down to the crunch.

 I have been playing with some batik fabrics for an upcoming project. I need a few more batiks for it though. Really! My long suffering husband (LSH) would say if he heard this. You can never have too much fabric, if you ask me. 

Some of the batik fabrics I am playing with, maybe some will not make the final cut.

Until next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia