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A lovely crocheted Christmas Tree with fluffy, soft snow... I didn't make it, I am still battling with my crocheted bag... My mum made this one, she ran out of green yarn though so it won't get any bigger than this. If you make it as instructed here it makes a very cool advent calendar.... it's a bit late now I suppose it's the 6th December ALREADY!
I went on a mini-mission to locate the two quilt shops from the meeting on Thursday evening.....Pollyanna Patchwork is just inside a small shopping centre in the high street of Eccleshall. There's plenty of free parking in the streets near by. It's a lovely bright shop..... as you can see.
Look in the bottom left corner, see the chair with the quilt draped over it? That is Pollyanna's "Chap Chair" he he he.... it's the one your driver/husband/dad/bank manager/ can sit in while you shop! he he he ... of course Mums and Aunties and girl friends can sit on it too...I found Zigzags shop too, in Newport, Shropshire.... but I forgot to take pictures.... oh no, I will have to go back another day!
The meeting was a little different than usual, t'was party night.... The organisers had invited three ladies to come along and give us short demonstrations...
This one was so cool, you know how we think we don't need the 'slivers' of fabric? the ones we throw away unless we are stuffing things... the ones you might get from cutting the folds off instead of wasting time ironing them out... look what you could be making..... Alison from Pollyanna Patchwork was demonstrating these little cuties... she invented them all by her very self whilst fiddling with the tiny bits one day..... brilliant! and what a great thing to do with those cute buttons we can get these days....
This is Zigzags quilt shop... they demonstrated little gift tags made using lutrador and painted newspaper, and tiny little gift boxes, and greeting cards too... all quite useful. Ineke Berlyn is going to be at their shop in Newport tomorrow, signing books and available to chat with... Zigzags doesn't have a web page just yet but it is under construction.
This demo was fabulous, I didn't catch the lady's name but she was lovely and made fabulous art out of stuff we generally throw away... she gave us permission to eat chocolates and sweets, just so we can save the lovely wrappers! now that's a winner!!!!! back on track.... she starts by painting bondaweb... underwonderwonderunder... I forget what she called it, anyway, it was so good that I am going to organise full day workshop with her. She can do it for 10 ladies... I will let you know when I have news.
We had a short 'show and tell' at the end of the evening. Great colours in this one.....
One lady had made this as a Christmas gift for her grandson, can you see the lighthouses? She should get a huge hug from him for this one eh!
It was a good evening, we had fruit punch, tea & coffee and a pot luck buffet, a raffle, a snowflake competition and the 3 demo's... a good evening all round!
Gillian has not only finished her Rail Fence table runner... she didn't bring it in today because it has taken pride of place on her table all ready for the upcoming holiday that shall not be spoken about in this post...! This is Gillian's second project, a baby quilt. It is one of those already printed tops so it only needed quilting. Gillian quilted round all the framing and will hand quilt some of the pictures... this needs to be finished before baby starts school!
This is Jenni with her very own Bernina Aurora 440 QE. She has been studying the manual and learning how to love it even more!!! he he he. She is adding the binding to her table runner in this picture and, a little later, she went on to make a label for it.
After making the label we started learning a few of the many ways to make half square triangles. Starting with the 'cut 2 triangles and stitch together... being very careful not to stretch the bias and not to let the triangle points disappear into the feed-dogs" method... I call it "the old way", he he he. We moved on to drawing the line on a square and stitching either side method with a few little tweaks of my own.... making perfect half square triangles. Jenni was impressed with the sheet method.. you know... making lots at one time where you mark a bigger piece of fabric and sew it all BEFORE cutting anything... love that method.... and just for fun because we made so many HST samples, we made some hour glass blocks too. Don't worry about the colours here... it was just for practice! he he he
Dotty Maureen bought in her Inekle Berlyn landscape quilt, the one she started at the workshop last Friday. She has been adding the applique things and has starting embellishing with decorative stitching, doesn't it look fabulous!I've had to change some of the lesson dates for the Utoxeter classes so, if you are interested, please check out the right side column of this page for the new dates.I am hoping to get more classes started in the New Year, which is only just around the corner now! Remember... if you would like me to bring Aurora 440 QE sewing machines for you or your group to play with...email me angiequilts@gmail.com
My new Ikea wardrobe, the one I built all by my very self and posted a picture of yesterday, has generated quite a lot of interest.... so I thought I would post some information about it. The wardrobe is from the Ikea Pax range, link here ... I had the one that is 210cm tall because I wanted to put my batting rolls on the top. It cost £65.The baskets can be found here from the Komplement interior range. I bought 8 of them but you can choose to have shelves as well. The baskets are £4 each and come including the sliding things that you screw to the wardrobe sides. It was all very easy to build.I hope this helps those of you who were curious.
Not all of the ladies have their fabric sorted out for the next project so I thought I would teach Paper Piecing. I took in little kits, enough to make this little tree, kinda Christmas green... which makes it a bit Christmassy... don't you think?
Jenni's tree.... the corners are a little different... it is always good to learn about 'fudging'. This mini quilt had borders in Christmas fabric at the end of the lesson. I think she said that it would be a pot holder when it's finished.
Gillian's very Christmassy tree. She is going to add a little embroidery to this mini quilt... we did suggest a partridge and a pear but I think Gillian decided on a robin.... he he he
