Summer Holiday Time!

Vacation time! After a long, busy year, we are taking time out to refresh and rejuvenate. Thanks to our wonderful, creative, loyal customers, both in Australia and worldwide. We love what we do! 

Emails may (or may not) be checked and answered, every couple of days (subject to patchy internet access, while we are travelling).  Thanks for your patience - all queries will definitely be followed up on our return, after 21st January.

Cheers, Lisa & Andrew, 4 Jan15

Reflections on Christmas Day, 2014

Another year has passed... and Christmas Time is a good time to reflect on what has been happening, and what is to come.

First, let me wish all my family, friends, acquaintances and customers all the Very Best for this Festive Season!  Thank you to all of you for your love, friendship and support this year - which has been Very Busy!    

I've really enjoyed participating in meetings, retreats and workships arranged by my Quilt Guilds: Patchworkers' & Quilters' Guild, Ivanhoe, Bay Quilters, Beaumaris, and Vic Quilters, Inc.  Thank you for the warm friendships, stimulating conversations, and wonderful inspiration - especially as these groups all feature a strong, lively 'Charity Quilt' aspect.  I'm proud to be a member.

Christmas Lights, on a house, on the street where we live.

For our business "Sunset Seams" - we have made Acrylic Templates for over 500 Etsy Store customers.... far exceeding expectations!  Thanks to everyone who "passed the word" via Blogs, Instagram, Pinterest and all those wonderful reviews on Etsy.  I am truly humbled by your generous comments, and am glad that I've helped to enhance your quilting and patchwork and sewing experiences.  We now have 31 separate items listed for sale (including multiple copies, and different versions with either No Seam allowance, 1/4 inch Seam Allowance or 3/8ths inch Seam)

Thanks so much for all the suggestions from customers for new template sets or variations of old favourites - hopefully next year I will list even more.

Hopefully, 2015 will be a time for more blog-posting.... I've been a bit lax, as Instagram is far easier to use!    However, I will try to be more diligent next year.  We are also in the process of commissioning a new Logo... which should be finalised early in the year.  This is a pretty exciting development for us, using a professional graphic design company in Sydney.  Stay tuned!

It's great to see "returning customers", and to see the fantastic final quilts from quilters who have used our templates.  Please email your photos to me at SunsetSeams@hotmail.com, and with your permission, I'd be happy to display them on this Blog.

Finally, I wish you and your loved ones Peace, Harmony and Good Fortune as we come to the close of this "eventful" year.... worldwide, there have been many difficulties and tragedies, but with hope and prayers and good wishes, hopefully 2015 will be a Great One!

Cheers from Lisa & Andrew, here at Sunset Seams.

Spring Quilt Show - at Beaconsfield 13th September

This Saturday, 13th September, I will be attending as a Market Trader at the Beaconsfield Quilt Show, in O'Neill's Road, Beaconsfield - 10am to 4pm, only $5 entry, and with funds raised to go the CFA (Country Fire Authority)... a very worthy cause, given how close we are, again, to the summer bushfire season.  As our on-line business is becoming busier, I only attend one or two Markets per year - so it's exciting to be preparing for this one.   Also attending, among others, are Sarah from Sew Materialistic and Karen from Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop.  Hope to see you there!

It has certainly been a busy couple of months since our (short) holiday in July, with LOTS of Custom Acrylic Template orders.  This keeps  me busy 6 days out of 7, and often late into night (which is when I usually communicate with the international customers).  Heaps of thanks to all the new customers who have found us (via word of mouth), as well as a very warm "welcome back" to our "repeat customers" who just love using our Acrylic Templates to help with their quilt-making.

On 6th August I was invited to give a short presentation to the Southern Cross Quilters group at Carrum Downs (SQuilters) - thank for your warm welcome, and lovely flowers - it was great to meet you all.  

Several quilting teachers  and a Quilt Shop have approached me to make up Class Sets for their workshops - usually between 10 & 20 sets of Acrylic templates.  These are all reasonably priced (discounts apply for 10 or more sets), and using custom-made templates does speed up the fabric-cutting process for the participants, so that more class time can be spent on learning the actual sewing technique.

Once this upcoming quilt show is over, I'll be working on some new template design ideas - stay tuned.  In the meantime, I've recently added Acrylic Templates for the traditional block "Flowering Snowball" to my Etsy site - these are available for both a 9 inch and 6 inch finished block.

See you soon, and remember:  Happy Quilting!

Cheers,
Lisa.

Sunshine in Winter

Sailing, snorkeling, swimming, seaspray, sand, seafood buffet, sleeping in, spectacular sunsets, sauna, spa, serenity... These are the special ingredients for our short but  stunning mid-winter, Semester break, at Queensland's Daydream Island Resort.

It's been a huge, busy, successful six months to date, thanks to all our wonderful Etsy & website customers, past & repeat customers, and supportive members of my two Quilt Guilds: Bay Quilters, Mentone & P's & Q's Ivanhoe.

After a short spell of "R&R" we'll be back after 15th July 2014, with more template sets, photos & some new original Applique templates. Stay tuned!

Cheers,
Lisa

February - Happy Valentine's Day

This is an experiment with "pinks" - called "Raspberry Cones". Reminds me of gelati, and candy-stripes and girly doll's clothes. Not a colour I would usually work with, however I found a few metres of pink and white seersucker in my stash...and used this as the background.

Originally this fabric was bought 25 years ago, to make a frilly bassinet set for my darling baby daughter (and several romper suits...she was a gorgeous china-blue-eyed blonde with alabaster skin). 

I may have slightly over-estimated, and bought about 5 metres!  Still...lovely to find another use for it now.

Happy Quilting!

Cheers, Lisa