Quilty Quarters, Apartment Quilting

As you know, I am on a mission to help all of my ladies to quilt their own projects, no matter how big they are. They already know, because I showed them, how to do Quilt-As-You-Go. They know how to join all the blocks together with a thin sashing... what if you want a wider sashing... this was my dilemma.
I had a few ideas, tried them all and deleted them. This one though, I like... beware, I might confuse you , he he he.
You already know that I quilted 9 x 17" blocks (blue) just to try this joining lark. I wanted 2" sashing.... (this method would work for any size. You want 12" wide sashing? he he he... OK, I exaggerate but it will work). ..
So what I did was... cut & sandwiched a 2 1/2" sashing strip (red) and quilted it, in this case I used just one straight line of walking foot quilting. I think if you wanted to do some free motion, it would be safer to cut the fabric wider than the desired sashing so that it could be trimmed to the exact size after quilting. Then I joined the red, quilted sashings to my blocks with white fabric using the same method as for Quilt-As-You-Go, easy!
I used white fabric for my joining strips for two reasons... 1. I wanted it to show up for demonstration purposes, I could easily have used the red fabric so that the join wouldn't be so noticeable. 2. I think it looks good!
This is what the back looks like, only one fabric, it's a Brazilian cotton and I think, looks great with the white thread. You can see the quilting, each block is completely different. There's a lot of stitching to do all the joining, especially because I decided to use a blanket stitch on the joining bits, I love my blanket stitch.
Considering this quilt was only an experiment.. I am very much liking how it's turning out you know. Today I "would like" to add borders... more later.

You can see how many times I wrote the word 'sashing' almost every post has the blooming word... wouldn't you think that the spell check might have realised that it should add "SASHING" to its word bank! ha ha ha

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Maid Marian's quilt centre. The pattern is based on one seen in a Fabrications magazine, the one Ann bought in a few weeks ago. It gives the illusion of some very clever piecing, but it is the good old favourite... Railfence! We're very impressed.

Brenda Barbara was free motion quilting using the Bernina Stitch Regulator (BSR) She meandered around the inner borders which made the Christmas Tree 'pop' out. She did both of her Advent calendars so I suspect next week we will be binding them....

AJ (Angela that's not me) came to play.... not to see us but to take complete advantage of our lovely big tables... and who can blame her, they are wonderful. She's going to quilt the project in the two halves, then they will be joined together and borders added last of all. You see how chic AJ is... her work box matches her project, which is a Pineapple Blossom from Quiltville.com

Helen, seen here modeling a very special favourite of mine, Free from fuel Galp gloves!... and the Bernina of course, ha ha ha. She's free motion quilting "in the ditch" of her stars, very skillfully too... I think it's the gloves!!

Joan The Shop still has forty or so 6" Daizies to make but, after calculating the coping strip, she couldn't wait to get it sewn on... that lovely, bright yellow just makes the Daizies shout "Sunshine"
It would have been a good day for you to visit Kettle Corner ... Pauline brought in fresh cream chocolate eclairs and Helen made special birthday cup cakes for us all, what a treat!

We meet again on Wednesday 3rd NOVEMBER! 10am - 3pm, I will be demonstrating another way of doing Apartment Quilting... (quilt as you go)

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Irene was able to make her quilt sandwich, this quilt top was made using the Railfence blocks and is Irene's very own design... it's her quilt so she can please her very own self!

She was a little cross that she had forgotten to bring her backing fabric, luckily she found a perfect piece for the job at the Table Top Shop... fluffy clouds so snuggle up to?

Wendy was very arty farty this week... my goodness what a fiddle, she's working on a "Triptych Wall Hanging" (I had to look it up 'Triptych' I never heard the word before, I think it means art in three panels)

she used lots of methods including Seminole, foundation piecing and curved lines...ooooooooooo curves! She's using lovely bright colours.

Foxy Margaret had a little fight with her machine whilst trying to quilt her four strip Railfence... not a problem as a Bernina Aurora 440 QE stepped up to help out...

Laura has a half-term holiday from school and was very keen to get her Railfence Table runner finished. She did the final lines of quilting, trimmed up and added the binding.

Gilly's made all of her half square triangles now... after a gathering of ladies to help decide on placement of colours she set to with piecing them all together.

Helen had a few blocks left over from the top of her quilt... so we pieced them together to add a little interest to the back.. love it!in no time at all, a sandwich was made. (Happy Birthday to youooooo, tis Helen's Happy Birthday today!)

Annie not only made a sandwich but she almost finished quilting the whole lap quilt in the one session. Annie is totally addicted to this patchwork and quilting thing that we all love so much... I would like to officially welcome her to "The Dark Side" ha ha ha

We meet again on Friday 29th October. There should be lots of spare tables because it is the weekend of the Malvern Quilt Show and lots of my ladies will be there.
Kettle Corner might be a little lonely this week.

Quilty Quarters

I am on a learning curve. When I really want to do something, I refuse to give up until I master it... Now, this doesn't happen very often so don't go worrying about me! I've spend days on this now. I quilted up 9 x 17" squares with the intention of joining them with the 'apartment' method... with a twist... it's the twist that had me baffled... but this morning, whilst sorting and pairing sock (which also rarely happens!), I think I might have thought of the answer.... more later...

I took my new Daylight sewing lamp into classes last week to show to my ladies. It's nothing short of FANTASTIC! Those who ordered one, at a veeeeery special price, will be chuffed as they all arrived yesterday!
There isn't a Class for Uttoxeter today so I shall continue to climb my learning curve. If I have success, I will tell you all about it later.... you will, most probably, hear about it should I fail too!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Barbie's braid borders, she couldn't wait to make them, so she did! Who says we can't start making a quilt by doing the borders first? .... "whatever makes you happy" I say.
This is the pattern for her applique centre. Barbie is going to do most of the applique by hand, we discussed adding a few embroidered flowers too, like the blue bells, I think it will be wonderful with all the textures... oooooer, I'm getting excited about this project
Dotty Maureen is improvising. Sometimes we start a quilt top and half way through have a change of plan, like the fabric choices. This pattern is Shakespeare In The Park. Dotty's borders will have a different treatment to the pattern, which is fine, it's her project so she can.
This is another of Dotty's, she never works on only one project, which would drive me nuts, but there are no rules you know. This one she has called Funky Chicken. In the middle is a 3D bed that will include a detachable soft toy chicken.... all very intricate and fiddly.
Brenda Barbara made sandwiches with her two Advent Calendars, then had to decide how to quilt them.... free motion? or walking foot?.. dilemma!
She practiced free motion first on a Bernina Aurora 440 QE. Brenda did so well that she is going to use it on her tree borders, swirly whirly patterns. The actual trees will get the walking foot treatment, very smooth.
This is the photo "plan" of Lacey Anne's quilt.. a floor in a hallway... I showed you before, lovely....
She has all the blocks made for her quilt and was able to piece them together... I think it is just BRILLIANT! I should mention that Lacey Anne has only been dabbling in patchwork for about two months, WOW eh!
Deciding on the borders.... we auditioned many different combinations. Fabric quantities were a bit restricting, but this looks just the ticket, don't you think?

We meet again in Caverswall Village Hall, next Wednesday, 27th & Friday 29th, 10am - 3pm.
I'll continue the demo on Quilt As You Go.... Apartment quilting this time though.... wider sashings and bigger blocks.

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Here we go... in no particular order and with photos taken by Gilly (thank you Gilly) I present today's post from our meeting in Caverswall Village Hall...
Annie, I can hardly keep up with her progress actually.... this is her second 'Split 4 Patch' quilt top, she cut out all the sashing and corner stones. She has still got all the
green and yellow split 4 patch blocks that she made last week... they will have a scrumptious yellow sashing with green corner stones, just lovely!
Lacey Anne continued to work on
her floor tiles I am very impressed with how it's looking so far, I have taken lots of photographs of floors over the years but I never did anything with them.
Foxy Margaret added the borders and made a sandwich with her project. It's for a 96 year old friend, Helen suggested calling it 'Strawberry Shortcake', good name!
Arty Beryl's fabulous crazy pieced block. She confessed that she keeps missing book club to come to our Quilt Cave and is loving it so much that she might be retiring from book club completely, ha ha ha "welcome to the dark side Arty Beryl" ...
Irene is working on a Railfence baby quilt for a little boy. It's always a pleasure working on baby quilts... I think the size has something to do with that eh.
Lizzy made a sandwich with one of her Christmas 'Quick Table Toppers' and started quilting it in the ditch, it's perfect for this little project and great practice too!
Diane had a private tutor for the day. She wanted a zip in her double sided cushion and, I freely admit, I had no clue how to do that. So I called on the expertise of Dotty Maureen, who knows how to do just about everything, (I only know about patchwork and quilting you see.. oh, and cleaning it seems! ha ha ha) it took all day to get it just right for Diane, I bet she uses Velcro next time!
Chris was free motion quilting the huge Mat & Ruler bag sides again... I can't decide whether she loves using the Bernina Aurora BSR or it's just a thing she has for my Galp gloves! (free from purchasing diesel in Portugal)
Joan The Shop has finished quilting the Peppa Pig quilt and we trimmed up all the edges... wooooohoooo! Joan is so pleased to have it almost done. She purchased a lovely bright pink fabric from the Table Top Shop to use as the binding.
Gilly announced to us all that she had FINALLY finished fussy cutting all the bits she needs to complete this project, she even did a bottom wiggling victory dance just to add to the moment! ha ha ha Now to the piecing....

It was a fun and productive day, as usual. We had a very inspiring demonstration on Quilt-As-You-Go... provided by me, myself, yours truly... yes I am blowing my own trumpet, I did a great job! ha ha ha

We meet again in Caverswall Village Hall on Friday, 22nd October... 10am - 3pm, give or take a few minutes.
Kettle Corner, once again, will be very happy to have you visit to see what we are up to and "Table Top Shop, with wadding on the side" will be happy to serve you with all your patchwork and quilting needs, and wants... lets not forget the wants !!!!

Uttoxeter Quilt Class

Lizzie brought in her sampler sofa throw and announced that it was finished... I asked whether she was sure and she immediately said... " Well, no... I haven't put a label on it"... with a huge smile on her face, what a rebel!
Jenni used the wonderful number 4 stitch, with the length set at 2.5, on her Bernina Baby to quilt the borders of her wall hanging, added the binding and set it to one side to be hand stitched at home.
This quilt is Lizzie's too, Ohio Stars, the pattern looks different because of the placement of the fabrics and not having any sashing to separate the blocks... secondary patterns are quite amazing, especially when they are a surprise!
This is Lizzie's next project... a quilt made from the most sumptuous red heart blocks, it's going to be a lap quilt for her daughter. I shall tell you that Jenni loved the red so much that she is making her next project with the same fabric, it's a Moda from the Table Top Shop.
Giggly Gillian did a little bit of machine quilting then decided she was so excited to get all of her four quarters completed that she stopped to sandwich the other three. We won't meet next week so she has two weeks to complete them, let's see...

Pat came with her embroidered cloths and tea tray covers. They are all cut up now so we were able to place them out... She's not too keen on using the rotary cutter so we have decided that it's best to stitch them together by hand following drawn lines, she has a lot of homework!
This is a piece of cross stitch that is being included. Remember to wear your smile and you can help dress everyone else... smiles are quite infectious and I (almost) always wear mine!

So, as I said earlier in the post, we are not meeting next week 26th October... We will be into NOVEMBER when we have the next class, it's time to start tucking your vest into your knickers again... brrrrrrrrrrrrr! he he he

Quilty Quarters

This week there will be chance to learn one of the many "quilt-as-you-go" methods. We are going to start with (in my opinion) the real "Quilt-as-you-go" where you actually piece your blocks and quilt them at the same time. Other methods are out there, and we will do those too.... like... quilting individual blocks before joining them, quilting two halves or quarters of quilts before joining them or quilting strips/rows of quilts and joining them together once completed. These methods are more like apartment quilting, at least that's what I call it and have done since many, many moons ago. I think the idea of making individual 'rooms' and joining them all together like apartments is a good one, every 'room' can be different but the basic 'structure' is the same.
This is a great method to learn if you have difficulty with the actual quilting of your larger quilts. So many ladies have been talking to me about using the service of a long arm quilter, which can be expensive, ladies have even been asking me to quilt big quilts for them, ooooooher! So, I've decided that it's time for us all to know that "We CAN do them at home all by our very own selves!"

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Maid Marian is using some beautiful fabric, it's based on the work of a local lady, Clarice Cliff. She was getting quite excited to see the patchwork design taking shape, this is going to be stunning!


Barbie spent the day cutting strips for her braid borders, not that the centre is made yet... Now then... I have to point out that Barbie left her blade open, which is forbidden!!!! I hope she sees this and gives herself a good, strong telling off... even as far as a good spanking, if the mood suits her, ha ha ha.


Linda worked on an Advent calendar. It is one of those panels that we buy with all the bits and instruction supplied.. it was very fiddly but good progress was made. These are the pocket fronts, they have flaps over the top too... more on this later.

Brenda Barbara almost finished Advent calendar number two. This time she chose to play safe and use a none-directional print for the pockets, it was much easier not to worry about snowmen standing on their heads! Next week will be sandwich time .

Shirley Lerly and Lizzy were working as a team for the day, they are making Christmas table runners, you know the one, Quick Table Topper! proving very popular. Speaking of popular.. another applique tree....
this one was a little different as Lizzy appliqued these fabulous little presents, they're embellished with gold ribbon bows... click on the picture for a closer look...





Wendy was free motion quilting using an Aurora Baby (440QE) without the BSR, she has decided to quilt each block individually, like I did on My Portuguese Tiles... it's a bit of a challenge deciding how to, but she is very arty and got on very well






This is a testing sample of Barbie's braid borders, it's going to look wonderful, the centre will be a huge appliqued vase of flowers with a posh frame... you'll see, in weeks to come.




Pauline arrived wanting to make a bag. She had no pattern and only a few bits of fabric. I am NOT at all good in the bag making department and Dotty couldn't be with us (she's the bag lady!) so, Pauline made a mini Mat & Ruler bag in which to store her knitting project, it turned out to be a good plan as she thoroughly enjoyed doing the free motion quilting, see I got the Galp gloves in there again! ha ha ha


Joan The Shop only has to finish quilting two borders now and the Peppa Pig quilt will be finished, woooohoooo, and Joan will be chuffed, make no mistake.

We meet again next Wednesday & Friday, 10am - 3pm, when we will be doing short workshops on "Quilt As You Go"... everyone wants to know how to make big quilts without the suffering, ha ha ha.
Kettle Corner will be open if you'd like to pop in.
Table Top Shop will be fully stocked with all your patchwork and quilting needs, with wadding/batting on the side. There should be new fat quarters too, lets hope they arrive just in time.