Dip into our Crafty Clubs

Hands up, who likes surprises?

Join one of The Oz Material Girls

CRAFTY CLUBS

and receive a surprise in the post every month!

If you are addicted to fabrics, patterns or kits, then this is the perfect option for you. With payments spread over 12 months, it makes good sense too.

It's like a LUCKY DIP for adults!

Whatever your preference is, we have something for you...

Stash builders, charm squares, jelly rolls, fat quarters, or log rolls

Patterns, Bags, or Softies

Even Beginners Quick, Quilt Kits

Which will you be dipping into?

I love a sunburnt country

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

-My Country, Dorothea McKellar

As Australians we are privileged to enjoy a country of diverse, contrasting and unique landscapes, flora and fauna. The Down Under quilting series, by Robyn Jones for Winddancer Creations, celebrates this uniqueness.

“Winddancer Creations continues our quilt-the-world designs by adding the beautiful Australian pattern series… the Down Under Series featuring bright handprints in many Australian animals including fish, parrots, bush, and butterflies. Each is a 6-block design.

- Winddancer Creations

Rainforest Butterflies
Finished Size : 32"x44"
Available as a Complete Set of 6 patterns plus all of the fabric needed, including backing, binding and wadding OR as a Block of the Month, with all fabrics and wading, one pattern each month for six months OR pattern only set.

Under the Great Barrier Reef
Finished Size : 32"x44"

Available as a Complete Set of 6 patterns plus all of the fabric needed, including backing, binding and wadding OR as a Block of the Month, with all fabrics and wading, one pattern each month for six months OR as a pattern only set.

Parrots of Paradise

Finished Size : 32"x44"
Available as a Complete Set of 6 patterns plus all of the fabric needed, including backing, binding and wadding OR as a Block of the Month, with all fabrics and wading, one pattern each month for six months OR pattern only set.

Are you a softie for Softies?

You have to admit, designers like Melly & me are releasing fantastically fun softie patterns to tempt us everyday! Owls, ducks, giraffes, hippos, monkeys and more, in fact something just right for every little person you love!

Now you can join our Softies Club and receive a complete softie kit delivered to your door each month. You will receive the pattern, fabrics and premium toy fill necessary to make 1 toy per month.

At just $49.95 per month for Australian subscribers and $64.95 for overseas subscribers (includes postage), you will not be disappointed as a member of the fantastically fun Softies Club!

Our Complete Kits have you covered!

Do you fall in love with patterns but never find the time to actually shop for the perfect fabric to match?

Do you feel overwhelmed by the thousands of fabric choices available and wonder how to match fabrics to patterns?

Are you worried about how to choose the right fabric and correct amounts for your first quilting project?

Now you don't need to worry, we have done the hard work for you!
Just choose a project from our range of Complete Kits!

Complete Kits come complete with pattern, fabric,fusible webbin, toy fill(for softies) or stabiliser ( for handbags), literally whatever is needed to complete your chosen project. We have Complete Kits to suit every sewer...

Beginner and experienced quilters

Mums and Grandmums

Softie lovers

Bag lovers

Why not check out our range of Complete Kits today?
Happy sewing!

Advent Angels and a Stitching Tutorial

We are in love with Rosalie Quinlan's new wall quilt and advent calendar, Advent Angels.

Available now from Patterns Only, order today to have plenty of time to get busy stitching and finished before Christmas 2010 surprises us all!

For readers of The Oz Material Girls blog, Rosalie has kindly shared her process for completing the stitchery element of the quilt.

1. First the stitchery must be traced on the linen. I like to use a light-box and a permanent pigment pen. Draw accurately and the permanent pen will easily be covered by your stitches.
2. When you have finished tracing the design, iron a thin, fusible, woven interfacing such as weavline to the back of your work. This is to prevent any threads showing through to the front.
3. To create a knot free beginning, cut a single thread of embroidery floss to twice the length you would like to work with. Fold the thread in half and then thread both cut ends through the needle eye.
4. Start at the back of your work, bringing the needle through to the front on one of your traced lines. Do not pull the thread all the way to the front. Make your first stitch by bringing the needle back through to the bottom of your work.
5. Thread the needle through the loop of thread at the back of your work.
6. Pull gently. This is how to anchor your thread without a knot. This really makes the work look neater and sit flatter.
7. To do back stitch, bring your thread to the top of your work and take a small stitch back to the bottom of the work. With needle at the back of the work, travel twice the distance of your first stitch along the traced line. Bring the needle to the front and bring it back down in the same hole as the previous stitch. Continue in this manner.
8. I like to do a fake blanket stitch rather than the real thing as it holds well and looks neater. Simply back stitch the line and then come back through making stitches at 90 degree angles to the back stitches. I put a stitch in each gap between the back stitches.
9. To do a chain stitch. Start with a single lazy daisy stitch and then come back up through the top of the loop to attach the next loop.
10. Pull gently to achieve the correct tension without destroying the "loop" effect.

Friends: Introducing Rosalie Quinlan

Today we take great pleasure in introducing you to Rosalie Quinlan, designer of all manner of gorgeous quilting, embroidery and sewing projects through Rosalie Quinlan Designs and Melly & me.

Tell us about you
I am a wife and mother of three who is blessed enough to run my design and pattern business from home. I love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else. I am also a passionate reader who feels lost if I don't have a great book on the go and at least another three in the "to read" pile.

How did Rosalie Quinlan Designs come about?
I have been crafty from a very early age and was taught most of what I know from my Mother and Grandmother. I continued to craft into adulthood and decided to have a regular craft market stall when I was home with my young ones. It was not long before I started getting questions from the market customers about which patterns I was using to create my dolls and quilts and bags. I told them that they were my own designs and they asked if I would consider selling my patterns so they could also make these items. It went from there and in 1996 I started my own label of patterns.

Tell us about your products
I like to design patterns for things that I believe everyone should have in their lives. Personalised and original bags, dolls and quilts. Nothing shows how much a person cares more than a hand made gift. I try to make inspiring designs so others will also want to create them.
What is your favorite product?
I think my favourite pattern I ever created was "A Bucket-full of Angels". It is the cutest little florists basket filled with four sweet angels of different sizes and personalities.

Where do you find inspiration for new products/designs?
I am usually inspired by fabrics and notions. Vintage wallpaper and buttons are also high on the inspirations list. I look at them and the designs seem to flow (on a good day!)

What does the future hold for Rosalie Quinlan Designs?
I am really excited to be working on my second range of fabric with LECIEN, Japan. After the success of my first range; "Grandmother's Flower Garden", I have been asked to design another and I am quite excited about it. Designing fabric has been my life's dream so it is very rewarding to have that opportunity at this point in my life. I am also starting another book in conjunction with my sister Melanie under our label, Melly & me. If you didn't already know, I am the "me" in Melly & me. We have a great time together and our stitching careers bring us even closer as sisters.

To read more about Rosalie, visit the Rosalie Quinlan Designs blog. To see more of Rosalie's inspiring designs, check out the great range of patterns and designs in store at The Oz Material Girls and Patterns Only.

Don't Forget to Showcase YOUR Creation

The entries have started to hit our Inbox here at The Oz Material Girls and we are very excited to see what you have been busy creating.

Some of the entries so far;

Suzanne's been busy and I am pretty sure I spot some OMG fabric in this hat!

Sally made a taggie for brand new baby Marcus, whose Daddy is a huge Ford fan.

This piece, by fashion graduate Emily, is simply stunning.

To enter, simply email us a picture (thematerialgirls@ozemail.com.au) of your latest creation and tell us a little about it (especially if you have used fabric from The Oz Material Girls or a pattern from Patterns Only).

We will award a prize of a $50 gift voucher for the most interesting project PLUS two runner up prizes of $20 gift vouchers.

This competition is open to international submissions and entries close COB May 31st.

We Love Bringing You New Fabrics

This week we have added the classically beautiful Evening Mist range by Sentimental Studios for Moda to our store.
More about Sentimental Studios;

‘Sentimental Studios is a fine art studio best known for their romantic florals and fine line work. The studio is a melting pot of talented artists from painters to colorists, each an expert in their respected field. Their design story is always one of timeless beauty rich with tradition. Collectively, Sentimental Studios takes a fine art approach to every design they create. From concept through to completion every step is handled with the delicacy of tending to a fine orchid.’

In store, we now have charm squares, jelly rolls, stash builders and individual fabrics available for purchase.
These fabrics are truly beautiful and would make a perfect gift for a quilting friend, or you could just forget to visit and keep them for yourself :)

Zipper de do da: Tutorial Part 2

So where are we up to? .....ahhh the zip pouch, that's right. Let's make this into something special.

You will need:

• One 7 in x 8½ in rectangle (back)
• One 2 in x 11 in strip (handle)

Step 1:

Lay the 2 in x 11 in fabric strip on a flat surface and fold in half length way with right sides facing together and pin. Using your quarter inch foot sew along the raw edge making a tube shape.

Step 2:

Turn the tube right side out - I use a product called a Turn-it-All (previously known as the Bow Whip) it is one item in my studio I use all the time.

Once the tube has been turned press with the seam to one side and top stitch both edges. To get nice and close to the edge I use my blindstitch foot #5 (Bernina) and adjust the needle postion on the machine.
Step 3:

Lay the 7 in x 8½ in rectangle (backing) on a flat surface with right side facing up, take the zipper panel made in Part one and place together with right sides facing - pin all sides together making certain the zip is in the open postition!

Fold the handle in half forming a loop and insert this between the front and back layers, position just above the zip with raw edges together. (yes, you can see by the photo I forgot to insert the handle first time round!...the seam ripper is another tool I can't live without)

Step 4:

Machine sew around all sides of the pouch using a half inch seam allowance. Trim all corners, turn right side out and press.

(ok..this is the moment when you wish you had left that zipper open...)

And your zip pouch is complete.
I hope you have a little more knowledge in sewing zips and that they are not nearly as bad as you thought they were - just take your time and remember to breathe!

Till then, enjoy

Natalie x