Thursday 27 November 2014

You may soon not be able to buy British patterns.

Within the EU there is a sales TAX which is in the UK called VAT. In the UK it applies to most things with the exception of books, food, medicines and children's clothing. It is a cumbersome tax and all businesses with a turnover of over £81,000 (turnover, not profit) have to charge it and deal with the paperwork involved.

There is a move afoot for anyone selling digital products to any member state that they will have to register and charge VAT to the customer even if the tax involved is only £1. Effectively this means if I put out a pattern and just one person in an EU country (not the UK) bought one of my patterns I would have to register for VAT. This would mean filling in the forms every three months, (and possibly hiring an accountant to do it). And I would have to do it for each country involved. There would be a scheme where a government agency would deal with it but I would then have to register myself as a VAT trader (not required for any other business with less than an £81,000 turnover).  If you sell a pattern online you have no way to stop people in EU countries purchasing.

So what would you do? You just wouldn't publish any patterns or designs in digital format, it would not be worth the hassle for the very small profit involved.

Please sign this petition. It will hopefully make the government listen to how silly this is for micro businesses.

You can read more about it here.

And if you have been thinking about buying a pattern, book etc in digital format from a British writer or designer, it might just be a good idea to do it now.

Thank you!

Sally

Tuesday 11 November 2014

I got all those hexagons appliqued.

I would post a photo but honestly it looks just the same as it did in my last post but finished.
Now I have to work on the next round.
I spent time cutting hundreds of 1 1/2" squares. I need to punch some more 1/2" heagons but I have enough to be going on with.
 I have run out of compartments in the nail polish box I bought to store the hexagons, so I bought 3 of these from a supermarket in the tool department. I lightly use the glue stick on the hexagon to hold it in place for basting. The reds in the above box are similar but not quite the same.

I know I am doing a scrappy look to this quilt top but I like to keep each fabric separate so I can spread the colours evenly (or put a bit of zing in where I want it, not just by accident).

Do you remember the disaster of the flood in my studio? Find the sad story here. Well the same thing has happened again. Same reason. I am not happy. The bath was cleaned yesterday, not from being used but just because it gets dusty from not being used. (we all shower). And the tap was not quite turned off. This time the water avoided the freezer paper but went into the drawers. This is when I found one of the red fabrics runs, and runs badly..... I wish I had taken a photo before I put it in the machine. Then only some of the daisies had turned pink. I put the white hexagon there as a contrast to show what colour they were. The peachy red thing on it is a colour catcher. Poor little things, those colour catchers didn't stand a chance against this fabric.

So I guess I shall be clearing up for the next couple of days.... sigh.  Luckily it only ran into two smallish other bits of fabric which had been folded four times .

Sally

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Only 12 left to go.

In truth, I haven't posted because the progress doesn't look so great. I have twelve left of these hexagons to appliqué.
 In truth it has been amazingly boring appliquéing these down. The only variation being the change in thread colour with each little flower.
 And turning it back to cut out the little holes to remove the papers.
 I think this is easier to do one at a time. Even though each paper was held in place by a little bit of glue stick, they pop out quite easily.

Whilst clearing out my studio I came across this little quilt, made when I had less skill and much more time on my hands. What on earth was I thinking? All in Liberty Tana Lawn.