Cynthia 's Ark Club News

Have you hear of our  Cynthia's Ark clubs?  If not let me tell you about them. We have 3 clubs for you to choose from at the moment.

There is our Batik Fabric Club which has been running this year with a Block of the Month December is the final month. So starting January we will have a new Batik Fabric Club which will running like our Stash Building Club. Each month you will receive 4 x 30 cm width of the fabric of 4 beautiful hand dyed batik fabric for $30 plus postage per month ( a total of 1.2 metres). Plus in January, April, July and October you will receive a bonus with your fabric. eg thread, pattern, notion etc.   Join today for a January start.

Next we have the Stash Building Club which features new fabric arrivals and themed packs. This one is the favourite because of the variety on offer and it guarantees you receive the latest fabrics in your hand from the leading fabric companies. Plus I am open to theme suggestions, so if you have a suggestion email me the theme and if I get enough interest I will arrange it but warning it may take up to 6 months depending on ordering time from my suppliers. Each month you will receive 5 x 30 cm width of the fabric (a total of 1.5 metres) for $38 plus postage each month. Plus in January, April, July and October you will receive a bonus with your fabric. eg thread, pattern, notion etc. This is November selection Always the Season.

Join now and you will receive these fabrics in your first shipment.  I can give you a little sneak peak of what is to come, we have Ardently Austen by Amanda Herring, Harrington by Leonie Bateman, Era of Jane by Sue Daley Designs and more planned. Note This may not be the order they come in, there may be a couple of others it all depends on when they arrive in stock.

Lastly we have the  Cynthia's Ark Batik Bright Thread Club. Collect 72 x 150m spools of hand selected Aurifil 40 wt cotton perfect for machine piecing and quilting. Each month you receive 6 spools over 12 months plus in your first month you receive a bonus personalised box to store them in for $39 plus postage each month. Join today and your first shipment will be next month.

There is a new thread club in the works. It will be a hand piecing thread club. Keep an eye out for more details in the new year.

Any questions email at sales@cynthiasark.com.au or put it in with the comments. These clubs can be shipped around the world if you are interest. I am happy to work the postage charge out before hand for overseas customers.

NOTE: Credit Card payment is the prefer payment option for these clubs. Just for the ease of processing all the monthly orders.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

350 Block Project October's Report

We have reached October already. This year is flying away. It is almost time to do a review on my 2015 To do list. I'm sure there will be a couple more crossed off my list before the year's out. In the meantime I better count up my blocks for the 350 Block Project.
This month's total is 30.

The last 10 Ohio Star block finally were completed. All the 6' stars were joined to a square.  Then I got to lay it out. 2 rows have been sewn together. 12 in total.

This project had a deadline I didn't make but I was the only one.

Plus the rest of my Hope Chest blocks 11 of them. Oops no picture.

My 2015 Batik Rainbow Sampler was sewn together for 9 once the rows were joined and 2 borders were added. No picture allowed at the moment.

On my Forget Me Not English Paper piecing project 6 more  half flowers were made and sewn on.

This make October total 40. 

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Hot Bolt of the Week #8

This week's Hot Bolt of the Week is Civil War Miniatures Red Wallpaper.

As always this fabric has been turning up in post in the last month or so in my Forget Me Not Sew Along project. You know I love share with everyone how I use the fabric I stock in my shop. This is so many way this fabric would fit into a project with it being a small scale print. So this week it is only $14 per metre down from $23 per metre. This is where these little half flowers fit into the project. As you can see I have use it twice so far.

This fabric and all the fabrics in this project are available from me at Cynthia's Ark 

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching 

Cynthia

Forget Me Not Sew Along #4

I have done a little more on my Forget Me Not project. There has been a lot of other stuff going on, so sewing time has been precious when I have had a few minutes. So this project has been the go to project because it is English Paper piecing. I can pick it up and spend 5 minutes on it at a time. I am up to step 6 and that is a little flower fill in piece so it hasn't taken me long to create the 6 wedges.

Sewing them in will take a little longer and I will enjoy every stitch I make as I know there won't be many this week.

Don't forget if you see a fabric you like in this project, they are all available at Cynthia's Ark

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching 

Cynthia

Under the Pressure Foot #13.

What have I been up to? You may guess what this post will be about if you have seen some of my Instagram posts and my post of More animals are moving in.
That's right I have been making up the shop samples  from the new Ric Rac, Melly & Me and Funky Friends Factory patterns that arrived. The patterns are all available to purchase now at Cynthia's Ark. By making up the samples this allows me to create kits with the fabric we have in stock. Sometimes it is just easier to purchase a kit to make up especially if there is a sample of the finished items.

Hedgehog Circus is the first one I tried. This is the first time I have make a project by Ric Rac and I do like to try a pattern from a new designer when I start to stock their patterns to get me a feel on how their patterns works. It helps me help the customer if they get stuck or need help choosing a pattern to their skill level.
Hedgehog Circus was a clear winner. With good clear instructions (as long as you remember to follow them). They were easy to make and you could have lots of fun with the body fabric, like I did. These two were finished in no time. I still need to sew their little noses on but I couldn't wait to show you.

The second pattern I tackled was the Plattie the Platypus from Funky Friends Factory. It took me an evening to make Plattie and is an easy pattern to make if you are new to making soft toys. I can see him in lots of fun colours. After I made him I thought he would look great will some on my hand made felt for his bill and feet. I might have to make some more felt to have a go. Plattie is available to purchase in kit form now using the Riley Blake Design fabrics pictured.

If you are in Australia there is a special offer in the current issues Patchwork & Stitching and Handmade magazines from us when you order any of our soft toy kits until the 31st October 2015.
There is 3 more soft toy samples still to be made so tune in again to see how I go making Melly & Me Black Sheep, White Sheep, Funky Friends Factory Diggles the Dragon and Ric Rac newest pattern Elliot the guinea pig.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Forget Me Not Sew Along #3

I have been jumping between projects over the last few weeks. This project had been put to one side and now my star is finished it is time to get back to it. This is where I was last time I posted on this project.

 Since then I have added 6 more flowers to my project.

So this is what it looks like now and I am ready for the next step.

I took my project outside for this picture but it was a little breezy this morning so it took a couple of goes to get this shot. This is what I was getting.

My hexagons are all cut ready for gluing for the next step.
All these fabrics I am using in this project are Penny Rose Fabrics and are in stock in my shop
  Cynthia's Ark.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

More Animals are moving into Cynthia's Ark

There hasn't been any decent sewing time this week. Just a few stitches in my Farmer's Wife Sampler binding. My Double Wedding Ring Bed Runner did get pinned. So what have I been up to then. I have had 2 new shipments of soft toy patterns, a couple were top up stock like Funky Friends Factory Larry the Lion and Melly & Me Black Sheep, White Sheep. The rest are new and we all love something new, don't we!
There is 4 Ric rac patterns, Baxter, Rumble & Clomp, Hedgehog Circus and their latest pattern Elliot.

I am thinking I will have to make some of the Hedgehogs for the shop.
The other shipment was full of Funky Friends Factory patterns. More Larry the lion patterns plus we now have Plattie Playpus, Diggles the Dragon and Puppy Dog Pete.

I think there will be a shop sample sewing session so we can put some kits together. Some fabric selections for 2 new patterns and one that I had a special request for.

Tune in next week for the sewing session post. We will see how easy these patterns are to make.

                                            Until Next Time

                                            Keep Stitching

                                             Cynthia

Another Finished Project

Here she is! My Star Wall hanging finished. It is great finishing a project and this one was a quick one to make. You can find all the details to make this project on Instagram +Fat Quarter Shop  I used the dark blue fabric in the outer tips of the star for the binding.

 Unfortunately this was a new project and it is not on my 2015 To Do List.So I can't cross anything off the list but shortly I will be able to cross off my Farmer's Wife Sampler which is in the final stages of binding. So far 3 evenings and I have only reached the first corner. I think I started on the long side and a couple of cats wanting to sleep on it. Now that is really exciting after 3 plus years of hand piecing, it will be a satisfying finish. It is the largest quilt I have made.  So it is time to select the next  project on my list to complete. I think I need a smaller project, so I have pick my double wedding bed runner as the next UFO to complete. It is at the quilting stage and I want to play with some more of the Westalee rulers I purchased. The range of their products are increasing in the shop as I go.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Hot Bolt of the Week #7

After last weekend events it is time for a new Hot Bolt of the Week. This week we have Katagami Floral Web fabric for $15 per metre.

 It is available online at Cynthia's Ark, by phone or pop into the shop to buy some. The shop is open on Saturday 10am-3.30pm or give me a call to arrange a time. Now I always like to share something being made from the fabric to inspire you how how you could use it. This one really screams English paper piecing to me for it's fussy cutting potential and it is not the only one in the range you could fussy cut with. Here is what I have been making with this fabric. For more details here is the last post I made on this project.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia 

Quilting Star

I have been doing some English paper piecing lately and I have been sewing along with the Fat Quarter Shop EPP Sew Along on Instagram using the beautiful blues from Katagami range of fabrics..

We are up to the quilting stage of the project. I pinned it on Monday ready for quilting I was hoping one night during the week I would find some free time but it didn't happen.
It was Friday night before I could sit down in front of the machine and tackle this one. I will have to find some serious sewing time  before the end of October as I have 2 project which deadlines are the end of the month. Plus there is one I really need to start on which has a December deadline. Oh boy! I will need to hustle to achieve these deadlines.

I am using a variegated thread for the star and doing some simple straight quilting over the star. Who chose this thread? It was one problem after another but maybe I should of stopped when I got a big bird's nest thread tangle when I was winding the bobbin and picked something else. There is no shortage of threads for me to choose from. Now it is a synthetic thread but I really like the sheen and the colour, plus I have used it before as a quilting thread but I don't remember having problems. As I continued, it was coming off the spool loosely and the machine kept coming unthreaded and a had a few more tangles to deal with. Luckily it is only a small project so I was able to complete the star. The problems I was having influence my choice to change threads when I was ready to quilt the background. I went back to my Aurifil cotton, this time I have selected the #2021 in the 40 wt,  it is part of my Cynthia's Ark Batik Bright Thread Club(You can start your collection at Cynthia's Ark ) and away I went quilting to my heart's delight.

 Normally you would quilt it all then trim it back to the size that you want but I knew my piece was 3-4 inches bigger and I didn't want to waste the thread and my time quilting it all only to cut it off, so once the quilting reached the size I wanted I cut it down to the finished size and then I only had to fill in the corners to complete it. I am so pleased how it has turned out.

Now to the binding I am thinking of one of the darker blues for the binding.

What colour would you choose from the fabrics in my project?

All these fabrics are available online and in store at Cynthia's Ark

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Under the Pressure Foot #12

What is under my Pressure Foot. It is my Farmer's Wife Sampler. It is time to finish it and cross it off my 2015 To Do List. Since I got it back from being quilted I have want to do the binding and finish it but everyone and everything just kept getting in the way. Then of course there was the binding issues. Thinking I was using the left over from the sashing fabric was the easy part. Once I had the fabric in my hands there wasn't enough to make the binding. Do I have any more? Did I go back and buy some more? Was I planning to use something else. But I can't find another piece of the sashing or any other fabric I would of considered using. Maureen bailed me out of trouble in the end, trading the piece from her stash.  I will repaid her next time. More calculation proved I could make it.

So fingers crossed I cut and sewed the binding on with the occasional please don't run out I can't get any more and I want to finish this one this year.

Good news I made it around with nearly a whole strip left. Now I just have to hand sew the binding in place.

I will share the finished quilt soon.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Fully Stacked Round Up

Our Fully Stacked Weekend is over and I am suffering from a bit of a fun hangover. Just a little tired and flat from all the work that went into putting this event together for the weekend and then all the fun  we had over the weekend and now it is over. I am a little sad. From the feedback so far it looks like we will be doing this again with some sewing involved next time. I already have a few ideas running around in my head. So if you have an idea, theme, when you would like to have it, etc I am happy for some extra input.

 Calendar Bingo was a hit and I have already penciled that in for next time as I still have lots of 2015 calendars to use up.  Plus a special February edition of Calendar Bingo will be included after February got banned because there wasn't enough days in the month.
The quiz was interesting online, we only had a few hand in their answers but in store we gave away what I had allocated for the in store quiz prize pool.  Some work to be done on this one for next time. I am think shorter. It started too early this time. Maybe people lost interest.

 Lots of Riley Blake Design and Penny Rose Fabric Stacker packs were sold at the discounted price. People love a discount and it helps when the 2 new released patterns and the revamp pattern featured stacker packs.
Also I need to arrange someone else to take some photos I was too busy to take many.
It is time to have a rest maybe do a little sewing on my Ohio Star quilt which is suppose to be finished by the end of the month. I just love a deadline to give me a good swift kick to the rear end to get me going. I am 2/3 of the way through the blocks. All the large blocks are done just need to finish the 6 inch blocks and piece them altogether.
 Then it is time to start sewing 2016 Block of the Month. We are doing a more traditional Block of the Month next year. We will be use the Riley Blake Designs Shades range and there will be 2 colour ways for you to choose from.

Until Next Time 

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Fully Stacked - All Bricked Up #2

We have reached the last day of our Fully Stacked weekend. It has been a blast online and in store. We have had a lot of new visitors to the shopfront which has been great. So for today the quilt release is a pattern I had updated. All Bricked Up #2.

 It was one of my earliest patterns I wrote and it used a couple of charm square pack. This time I have use a 10' Stacker pack The Quilted Fish Madhuri Stacker pack and cut it up to create a more random look to the final design.

 By updating the pattern it is now available in PDF format and paper copy and they are full colour instructions. The original pattern is still available if you prefer a more structural layout to your quilt. Remember all the patterns I have release this weekend are on special until midnight tonight at Cynthia's Ark and to 4pm in store in Mallala.

Plus place an order to get a ticket in the raffle and to enter your quiz answers in the comments box to win. Visit in store(7 Wasleys Rd Mallala South Australia 5502 and make a purchase to get a ticket in the raffle and to hand in your quiz answers to win. At the moment in store visitors are leading as quiz winners.

Until Next time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

350 Block Project- September's Report

This month's total is 30 blocks.

I have been working on the Fully Stacked projects. 18 blocks for Floral Extravaganza. Plus 6 for the rows being joined. Total of 24.

Project 1 Butterfly Courtyard had 2 borders add to the finished blocks, plus 8.

Still working on Ohio Star blocks. 6 more done. I need to move along on this one the deadline is the end of the month.
Also working on these blocks Hope Chest blocks for a quilt. 12 blocks.
Plus 1 Batik Rainbow Sampler block.
Sorry I have been a little lazy with the picture taking.
Lastly I have been piecing this star for a wall hanging 6 for this one.

This month's total is 57. There is still plenty more sewing to be done before the year is out. Plus I have some new ideas for new designs.

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia 

Fully Stacked - Floral Extravaganza Quilt Pattern Release

Day two has arrived in our Fully Stacked weekend and that means another new release quilt pattern and some more baking. I do enjoy the baking as much as the designing new quilt patterns but try to control my baking time or I would be the size of an elephant. So I am happy to share my baking with others this weekend.  Today's pattern is Floral Extravaganza.

It features the range of Extravaganza by Lila Tueller for Riley Blake Designs. One 10 inch Stacker pack, a little bit of coordinating fabric from the range and a few matching colours from Riley Blakes Shades range. It is another easy project but slightly harder the Butterfly Courtyard as you have the diagonal rows. Once again it is an easy to change the look of the quilt with a change of stacker pack. Here is the block, with a different stacker pack just change the colours of the borders to match some colours in the stacker pack and select a fabric for the corner stones.

There you go. Floral Extravaganza is available in store and online now at Cynthia's Ark. It is on special for the weekend.

Fully Stacked weekend details can be found on this blog post. 

Until Next Time

Keep Stitching

Cynthia

Fully Stacked - Butterfly Courtyard Quilt Pattern Release

Welcome to our Fully Stacked weekend. It is our first special event and won't be our last. Plans for the next one has started.Day 1 has started online and in store I am just finishing the final touches. Let me introduce the first new pattern for this weekend. It is Butterfly Courtyard.

I have used Riley Blake Designs A French Courtyard by Sue Daley Designs 10 inch Stacker Pack and some extra yardage for the blocks and borders. Don't Forget all Stacker packs are 15% off the marked price only this weekend.

We have stock of A French Courtyard 10' Stacker Packs and yardage from the range in store. The beauty of this design is you can pick your favourite Stacker pack and co-ordinated yardage and your Butterfly Courtyard could look totally different from mine. I would love to see it.
The  full colour pattern is available in two formats- the normal paper version which is on special for $10 (Normally $15) and the PDF downloadable pattern which will arrive in your inbox once we process your order, on special for $6 (Normally $10).
I will post some pictures from the shop during the day so if you can't get to the shop you can see a little of what is happening. More details of the specials from the weekend is here in yesterday post.

Don't forget your Fully Stacked quiz answers when you place your order online put them in the comments box for your chance to win a Riley Blake Designs fabric pack from us and with that order you automatically get a ticket in our Fully Stacked Raffle.

Fully Stacked Raffle Prize.

Fully Stacked Quiz prizes.

Until Next Time 

Keep Stitching

Cynthia