I e-mailed the magazine who told me that it was designed by their editor but not available. I was now on a mission to find it or something similar. I looked on the internet at absolutely loads of sites, all to no avail. Then I remembered a shop that I had been to many years ago in Tiptree called The Cheap Shop - sounds like one of those cheap market shops that are around but it's a Pandora's box full of every kind of craft material you can think of.
Anyway as it was Mr M's day off we took ourselves off for a ride out in the vicinity of Tiptree, enjoying a lovely ride in the countryside. Suffice it to say they had nothing like the fabric I wanted. However I did buy a few haberdashery bits and some fat quarters and the day wasn't wasted as we had a lovely pub lunch before returning home.
We stopped off at a lovely farm shop where they had all manner of fresh fruits and vegetables
and of course I could not go home without the obligatory jar of Wilkinson's Orange Marmalade!
On Saturday I saw an advert for a 'taster session' in patchwork quilting at a small fabric shop in Leigh on Sea not far away. I went along on Monday afternoon and yes you can guess, I found what I was looking for, more by accident than design. They're not quite the same but very similar. They didn't have much so I bought 1.50 metres! way too much for what I want but hey you never know when you might need it again. And as I am beginning to learn, you should save all your scraps for future projects.
As far as the taster session went, I was shown lots of different sewing techniques which will all come in handy one day, BUT was disappointed because the tutor only believes in hand stitching all the patches together as well as hand quilting, hand applique etc. When I asked if one could use a machine I realised straight away by the disapproving look on her face that it was not the thing to do/ask. I'm sure this is the right and proper thing to do, but I'm so impatient and at that rate I would never get anything done. I came away quite disillusioned and a bit put off by the whole thing.
So it's back to the drawing board so to speak and any advice would be more than welcome. I must get on with those hearts though and will post when they are complete.
