This quote could not have been more true of our time this week!
We begin every week with our usual Monday morning business meeting to make our plans for the week. We start off overexcited and make unrealistic goals, we stop, laugh at ourselves and then we break it down into a list of achievable goals.
On the to-do list for this week:
Film and edit a new YouTube tutorial:
Project cut out ready to go, website breaks, no time to film.
Make a reel ( A 30-second video tutorial for Instagram)
Task complete.
(Don’t worry if you’re not on Instagram, we re-filmed how to make cover strips without a bias maker, you can see this video in our Facebook group) Click here to join if you’re not already a member of our free Facebook group)
Manage Online Quilt As You Go masterclass enrollments:
Website breaks.
Had to close registrations so that Alaura could spend another day creating a new platform for the course to run. Great success, this new platform is going to run much smoother. Perhaps a blessing in disguise that the problem happened 5 weeks before the course starts!
Answer email enquiries:
Still trying to catch up because the website broke.
Pick up Island Home fabric samples and pay for production of printing:
Did a 3-hour round trip to inspect samples, disappointed because they weren’t as vibrant as we wanted. More time spent on the phone organising more samples. Another 3-hour round trip the next day to inspect the samples again. Excited to report that we are now happy with the samples and the fabric is now in production. Hooray!
So, as you can see, it’s been a week of ups and downs, so let’s move on from the downs and focus on the ups!
Last week we launched our Island Home, Quilt As You Go, online Masterclass. Thank you so much to all those that have already joined, you’ll be receiving an email from Alaura early next week with the details on the new platform for the course. Registrations are now open again.
If you haven’t heard about our new course, you can read about it here and also check out the requirements list. This is our 4th online course, after the success of Twilight Dreaming, the Beginner Sampler and Applique of the Month Club.
We are over the moon that the Island Home Fabrics are in production, we’ve been promised a
1-week turnaround if not sooner.
The Island Home fabric pack is 16 different prints, each piece measures 23 cm x 33 cm (9” x 13”) and will be used for the patchwork and applique on the quilt top only. Here are pictures of the actual fabric on the cream background fabric that we will be using, we're in love! Can't wait to get started on the quilt this week.
The cost per pack is $ 59.50 (Australian Dollars) plus shipping.
Shipping costs are as follows:
Australia: $12.00
USA and Canada: $35.00
UK: $ 40.00
NZ: $30.00
Rest of the world: $45.00
(All fabrics will be shipped express and will have tracking)
Please note that the prices are in Australian dollars, to see what the cost is in your currency, you can see a currency converter here.
The fabrics are more expensive than regular patchwork fabric because they were not sourced from the usual channels and were expensive for us to print. They are original designs, exclusive to us, digitally printed in Australia on organic cotton poplin, with 100% of the profits going directly to the artist, Alex Birdfox who will be lovingly cutting, folding, packaging, and shipping out the fabrics directly to the customer. The fabric has a high thread count and as it's digitally printed, it has a slightly stiff feel that softens up after washing, much like the feel of a batik fabric.
For those that are taking part in our Island Home Online Quilt As You Go Masterclass, we totally understand that these fabrics aren’t for everyone and we are happy for you to use your choice of fabric, this is just a start for Alex Birdfox and a collaboration that we have dreamt of for a long time. Hopefully, there will be more fabric from Alex at a more affordable price in the future, as his popularity grows as a fabric designer, the more fabric that you get printed the cheaper it is.
We have a limited supply, so will be offering them to course members first. Taking a lesson from this week, we won’t be putting them on the website for sale until we have them in our studio. If all goes to plan, this will be next week, and we’ll be shipping them out 3 weeks before the course starts.
So it's full steam ahead! After a well deserved weekend, we are looking forward to next week, we’ll be filming a welcome video for the Island Home course members, a video explaining the requirements list in greater detail and a free YouTube tutorial for Pattern Poole TV.
Have a creative weekend!
Monica and Alaura xo