Quilty Quarters

A few more hours in Quilty Quarters and I'm almost done with the centre of this baby quilt. It's in three sections at the moment. I need to finish the blanket stitching on the name... actually, I haven't started stitching the name yet but the lovely hearts are done, I love 'sticky stuff n blanket stitch' appliqué, don't you? Once the name is done the three parts will be stitched together and a three inch border added... and then the backing, oh, and the sandwich will be made, the quilting will be done with free motion, the binding made and stitched and lastly the label to be made... I wonder whether people who order custom quilts actually realise how much goes into making them? hmmmm... not very likely is it, good job I love what I do eh!

Quilty Quarters

Halloooooo! Gosh I thought I was never going to get into my Quilty Quarters... I hope you've had better luck finding a little pocket of stitchy time... Yeeeeha, we're almost back to normal. Still, it's only once per year isn't it... sewing prevention season I mean. Now though, I have to make a baby quilt, the lady ordered it on 21st December and would have liked it before Christmas but I just couldn't do it. I've started it now though. It takes a little longer to get all the pieces ready when there's fussy cutting involved... but soooo worth it...

I have to make 42 of these boxed squares, they finish at 5 1/2"... I'll try to stay in Quilty Quarters a bit longer today, I am all caught up with chores and I haven't heard a any other plans being made for my time. Hope you get a little stitch-y time for yourself... Catch you later...

Caverswall Quilt Cave

What a wonderful day we had... festive hats, silly musical ornament adoring machines and tables and a very cheery atmosphere filled the room (even the heating worked!) as we stitched all, all all day long... very much fun indeed.  We had a rather wonderful Pot Luck Lunch followed by my most favourite present game, oh did we laugh!!! It's my most favourite game to play...

Gail brought in her finished festive cushions and table runner quilt to show us. She's thrilled to bits to have her new walking foot, it means she is able to continue sewing at home. She's debating whether to make a king size quilt next or whether to play safe and try a double bed size... hmmmm, I know which one I would choose as my second quilt project.

Lynda made a good start with her new project, I hope it's not needed for a Christmas present. She loves all the bright colours and will make a Pineapple Blossom quilt. She cut out lots of 2" strips so that she could mix them up, the pineapple-y bits will be pale blue, you can see the fabric, it's the 3 1/2" square in the middle at the top of the picture.

You won't be surprised to hear that I didn't take many pictures, I forgot... We had a lovely day, we have such lovely ladies you see. This is the last Caverswall Quilt Cave post of this year. Most of us will be enjoying "Sewing Prevention Season" for at least few days... you can be sure that I will.
We meet again on Wednesday 4th January, 2012... weather permitting, of course!

Just left to wish you all a happy and healthy last few days of 2011... I'll post again about Quilty Quarters or any other quilt related things that happen, if they happen, oh... of course they will happen!!!
Happy Holidays!!!!

The Exciting News...

Remember I told you there might be exciting news coming soon?
Here I put the links to a couple of older posts that might give you a little clue as to what's coming up in the very near future...
http://angiequilts.blogspot.com/2010/02/angies-mini-shop.html
http://angiequilts.blogspot.com/2010/11/angies-quilt-cave.html

Quilty Quarters

42 x 15inch squares, just the right size, that was my plan. Except with 1/4" taken from each side for the seam allowance, they're 14 1/2" each, which leaves the backing short, duh!... I rooted and rooted in my draw of 2 1/2" strips (it's the blue plastic draw you can see on the shelf to the left there) I found an abundance of red strips... problem solved... a 5" wide strip added to each side before the last round of squares and it's going to be just perfect.
I have to use those steps to reach the top, the quilt is about 90" x 100"
See the 3 cushion bases on top of the plastic drawer stack, they've been waiting for patchwork covers for 2 years now! The fact that they are in Quilty Quarters means I must be thinking about making them eh... I've a commission quilt coming in to be quilted tomorrow and I want to quilt and finish this crumb quilt, it's called "A Trip Down Memory Lane" a huge quilt, before I even start rooting for the right fabrics for the cushions... busy, busy, busy...

Caverswall Quilt Cave

This is Lynda's quilt. Simple Half Square Triangles (HST's) all facing the same direction... stunning... we don't always need fancy or complicated designs do we... this is a Quilt Cave favourite! Lynda added a piano key border with wider strips but decided to make them much thinner, because she wanted to, wooohooo PMS (please my self) strikes again! The extra work paid off as it looks fabulous.

Barbie was cutting out hundreds of strips in teals and pink fabrics, not a colour combination she chose, it's a family request. Barbie needs four of these braid strips 38" long, they will be the border to a rather beautiful vase of flowers done with appliqué, sound familiar? This is Barbie's second and there is a third quilt ordered.

Helen is putting a lot of creative juice into making a very personal project. She's used appliqué, trapunto and embroidery to make the designs. This is a tribute to a friend and each of the designs has a meaning, and yes that is an aubergine! She's adding the faux piped binding, black trimmed with the purple... perfect.

Mystery Margaret is making a large quilt using only neutral fabrics. It's been on her list for a while. She saw the design in a shop, though there it was red, white and blue fabrics, but she instantly knew it was the perfect design for the effect she wanted. It's basically a Rail Fence design with the alternating blocks having either three wide or five thinner strips, I'm expecting it to look almost woven?

Maid Marion worked on her Heirloom quilt block. She had to do some quite intricate stitching on this one, following the tiny petal bits in the centres and they have sheer fabric over the top of them... tricky... Marion's Bernina baby is almost a year old... she used the knee lift (Hands Free System) for the first time on this block and... oh yes... she loves it!... doesn't know how she managed without it, ha ha ha.

Wendy finished up the quilting on her very own Quick Table Topper, doesn't it look chic! The silver fabric that's shining there is super silky but hasn't been a problem at all. If you notice, Wendy has added a border to her topper... this project is so flexibubble! Looks like we can do anything with it and it still looks great.

We meet again on Wednesday 21st December. It's our last meeting until January 4th so we will be stitching the day away, having a wonderful Pot Luck lunch and playing a daft gift game, like a Christmas/End Of Year Party... so Table Top Shop will be staying home for this meeting.

Annie Pie's Quilt

Annie Pie finished what she calles her "Triangle Quilt" it's the one she started during our Katherine Guerrier workshop back in June. One left over block? Use it in the backing... i think you'll have to agree... this looks great

Chatty Cathy's Quilt

I'm sorry the front view is a little blurred but you can see the design quite clearly... it's the 10-Minute block that's been very popular of late. Remember Cathy made this quilt with recycled fabrics... what fabulous backing we made just by changing the direction of the stripe and there was enough fabric to bind with recycled fabrics too... doesn't the quilting show up a treat!!

Uttoxeter Quilt Class

Lovely Lyn wanted to learn how to make Cathedral Windows. I just happened to have a step by step sample made up so, quick as a flash... Lyn was able to see how to do it... Watching carefully was Marisabel... she purchased a fat quarter from Table Top Shop and ran up a sample too... No picture as she made her sample rather blurred... he he he
Messy Maureen was making table coasters from scraps... her house will be sooo quilty!

Marisabel had been very impressed by my Christmas Cactus wall hanging, it is rather stunning Toot Toot Toot... actually, if you buy the paper piecing pattern and follow the instructions it can only turn out stunning. Marisabel went to the site where the patterns are and chose this lovely daisy pattern... she had no teaching from me... she taught her very own self how to do paper piecing! Clever huh!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

More catching up with the photos... Early Sue had a great idea of adding hearts to her purple shirt quilt. There weren't enough fabrics left over to have a heart in every square, besides, I think it might have looks really busy that way... a little random spreading of the hearts came out really well, don't you think.

Irene has gone back to working on her grandson's quilt. These strips will be part of the piano key border... one of my favourite kind of borders and great for using up any extra yardage (I guess we should say metre-age?)  Irene sewed long strip sets before cutting them into these segments... hoorah for speed piecing!

Krafty Karen is making a small lap quilt. She needs 12 Hour Glass blocks, which were done last week, and 12 Churndash blocks, each measuring 6" that she was working on this week... cute eh! This quilt should be a fast finish now that Karen has her New Juki machine at home... no pressure Karen... ha ha ha

This shouldn't shock you... not one tiny bit, the newly re-named "Last Minute Chris" decided there's need for another Christmas finish... my goodness she puts herself under pressure... This sofa throw quilt needs 8 Ohio Star blocks, each one 9", some lovely sashing and a little cunning border treatment, maybe... depends how much sleep Chris needs! Ho ho ho.

Quick Table Toppers

Here are a few pictures from both Caverswall and Uttoxeter meetings.
Quick Table Toppers, the ladies have made hundreds of them....

This one's Wendy's, done with QAYG (Quilt As You Go) for a Christmas gift though made to use all year long as it's not Christmassy at all, the colours are brighter than they look here.

I think this one belongs to Chris The Foot, she started three or four of them last Wednesday and needed them all in the post on Friday! Last Minute Chris could be her new name now that the foot it fully mended.

Lizzy from Uttoxeter class decided she needed a few extra Christmas treats for friends, Table Toppers to the rescue!

Joan The Shop made several Toppers, she added 6 place mats to each making the full table sets. She's getting a bit fed up of binding and corner turning, she's getting plenty of practise though eh. One more set to go!

Another made by Wendy, this one is for her very own self, tis very chic indeed. Black and silver, party colours? and the silver fabric is very silky shiny!

I'm not positive who this one belongs to but I have a feeling it's Shirley Lerly's, maybe it's Chris's? It's been made with QAYG, looks like it was made with bigger sizes too... lovely.

This belongs to either Shirley Lerly , I think it is Lerly's hand (which means I am wrong about the one above) or Chris, though it could be Foxy Margaret's?  Obviously I'm loosing the plot.. can't keep up with the Toppers, sooo many!

There are more too, luckily I don't have pictures of them all... how confused would I have been then?

More pictures later....

Blooming Computer

This is just to keep you updated... what a blooming palava with this blooming computer. It's back here...and it's been stripped of everything... and I mean everything... I am now rooting rooting and more rooting looking for all the CD's for stuff to be reprogramming. My camera is over 5 years old and I've moved house three times since installing the stuff to get the photos from camera to computer... you think I can find the CD?
It must be here somewhere!

We've had some great quilty meetings at both Caverswall Village Hall and at Uttoxeter Bank House Hotel, it's a shame I can't show you the lovely things the ladies are producing.
I've got the most exciting news to share with you all too... just a few more " T's " to cross and an " i " or two to dot and I will be able to tell you all about it!!

For today, I will carry on rooting for my computer stuff, it's not easy rooting with all your fingers crossed! ha ha ha

Blooming Computer

Once again my computer is in the computer hospital having a bit of major work done, as soon as it's sorted out I'll show you what the ladies have been making... it might be Saturday though... loooooooong time without a computer.... back soon

Update... Monday, they will try to get the computer back to me by Monday...

Raffle Prizes

Caverswall Village Hall committee members are very much dedicated to keeping the hall for villagers' use as much as possible. I joined the committee when I started to hire the hall about 18 months ago. They run lots of events in order to raise the necessary money to keep the hall open, village halls are not cheap to run. Bingo evenings, monthly dances with live bands, the friendship group, raffles etc. During December the raffles are rather more extravagant so I was asked to make a little something to be used as a prize for two of the events. These two Christmas Wreath quilts will look lfabulous with a lovely poinsettia plant in the centre, don't you think?

Shirley Lerly's Gift Quilts

Aren't they just wonderful?!
All three of these gorgeous lap-size quilts have been made for sweet little girls as gifts from Auntie Shirley Lerly, who is "Chuffed to bits" with how they have turned out. Each quilt is exactly the same yet they look completely different... only because of the colours. All of the HST's (Half Square Triangles) have the same large print patterned fabrics (Westminster) partnered with their different colours which lead to the border choices...

ooooh heck.. it's hard to describe...you know what I am trying to say? Fabrics look different with different partner colours, bits pop out according to the colour they sit with.
The back of each quilt is quite lovely too, proper 'girly and cute'! They are sure to be loved and snuggled up to lots by those lucky little girls.

Quilty Quarters

Saturday morning I decided to tidy up my Quilty Quarters. I started with the ironing board, ironing the pile of clothes waiting on top and all the shirts hanging from it... putting the ironing board away makes Quilty Quarters look bigger, tidier and makes it easier to open the doors on the cupboard containing most of my fabric stash... big mistake? Oh yes... I started rooting, rooting, rooting. Maybe it's time to prepare for sandwiching my crumb quilt? Yes it is!! I found several pieces of fabric that would have been good, but if I used them, I wouldn't have them any more... yes, I have issues! I decided to make a pieced backing with reds. I calculated that 6 x 7 of 15" blocks should be big enough... 42  x 15" squares... shockingly... I have more than 42 red fabrics!!! I'm working on it, cutting one 15" square from each fabric... I'll bring you a progress report as it happens.

SPQ Chairman's Challenge Winner

As promised, here's a picture of the Chairman's Challenge Quilt that had won more votes than any other last Thursday evening.
It's our Wendy's, hooooooray for Wendy!!! Her initials are VWL, the colour choices had to be based on those initials. So, here we have Violet, White and Leaf Green. Wendy says the idea for the design began whilst looking through a garden catalogue. It's based on the Clematis Macropetala which, in plain language, means 'multi petalled'... according to my email interview with Wendy... tee hee. It's made using 'sticky stuff appliqué', the shading on the Clematis has been skilfully and beautifully painted, note the beaded centres too, they're the 'W' White. Isn't it beautiful! No wonder Wendy won the vote!

SPQ Chairman's Challenge

This is my entry for the SPQ Chairman's Challenge... Remember, I chose Acid & Watermelon for Angela Whiston. It's the applique Christmas tree that so many of my ladies were thrilled to be making last year from a book belonging to Dotty. The little blocks are 4", quite fiddly and the colours are all hand dyed fabrics, even the striped border, I didn't dye them especially, they were in my stash, I think I dyed them in Brazil, does that make them antiques? You can see I used the Faux Piped Binding yet again, I was stitching it as I put on my shoes to go, very last minute!
I had no idea that there would be voting on the quilts, I thought they were just for a fun display. When the time came for us to ponder and stick our bits of paper on our favourite... no-one chose mine... no shocker there, the colours are rather attacking to the nerve endings, like drinking lemon juice you might say... I wasn't about to be done though... I stuck my own sticky vote on my very own quilt, I love it and, you know me... that's all that matters! ha ha ha

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Giggly Gillian, Lyn and Marisabel all came to play, They are all Uttoxeter Tuesday ladies. Gillian's large bed quilt top was ready to be sandwiched and we really don't have space for such a large sandwich at Uttoxeter Bank House... There's loads of space and lots of tables at Caverswall Village Hall and we're always happy to please in the sandwiching department.... Bottoms up and all hands on deck for pinning.

Brenda Barbara finished adding sashing, pieced backings, purchased wadding,(Hobbs 80/20) from "Table Top Shop wadding in the van" and made two Christmas Tree Skirt sandwiches.... actually, Brenda stood chatting to me while Dotty Maureen made her first sandwich... much to our amusement!! Dotty is almost always on hand to help make sandwiches!

Late Sue continued to make Pineapple Blossom blocks with her gorgeous multi-purples and green fabric. Each block will be 9" finished. Sue's working on her accuracy... because she wants to... carefully cutting, stitching, prrrressing and measuring at every step... it's paying off too.

Kate completed the second of her 18" borders and added it to the centre with white sashing. If you remember Kate is making up this king size quilt using apartment quilting, more commonly known as Quilt-As-You-Go, though for me that means doing the quilting as you stitch the patchwork... hey ho, doesn't really matter what we call it, it just makes a large quilt more handle-abubble, and therefore, do-abubble! he he

Wendy's friend has a huge table so she needs a giant 'Quick Table Topper'... I think the centre square was 12" and the strips are 2 1/2" wide. Wendy chose to do "Quilt-As-You-Go"... you have to fiddle about to keep the runner from going wonky... not a problem normally as we can fudge it back to be straight, but with QAYG you don't have that option... Wendy's didn't need fudging... she kept it good and straight.

I have pictures of Shirley Lerly's fabulous finished gift quilts, my Chairman Challenge quilt and the SPQ prize winning wall hanging to show you, I'll save that excitement for another post though.

We meet again on Wednesday 7th December, 10am-3pm. As there's no meeting in the Quilt Cave for Friday 9th December, Wednesday will be like a party as the Friday ladies join us for their weekly fix... good job we have loads of space and tables!! I think it's quite exciting indeed as we approach the festive season...
8 New fabrics arrived for Table Top Shop, wadding on the side... fun fun fun.

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Wendy started this quilt at our last meeting. She had a specialist ruler, beautiful fabrics, a pattern and a vision. Perfect recipe? Yes, of course... throw in a dash of expert advise about "Y" seams, a few top tips involving drawing lines, prrrrrressing and bias cuts (Toot Toot Toot) and Voilà... a perfectly flat, quite complex, rather stunning table centre finished off with lovely quilting and, our very favourite, Faux Piped Binding.

Gail finished the last bit of quilting by 'ditch hopping' on both sides of the cream inner border then adding two lines to the outer border using the guide on the walking foot. She trimmed all the edges perfectly and made her binding... traditional binding, so she has some hand stitching homework which is not a problem at all. She went home with her head whizzing with ideas for quilt number 2.

Here's a shot of Joan The Shop's work table... busy, busy, busy. She has piles of Quick Table Toppers and even bigger piles of matching place mats. They're all very quick and easy to make... until it comes to the binding. Joan wants each one to have the Faux Piped Binding, which is super easy but boy that's a lot of corners to turn and so many very Brilliant Binding joins to perform. One thing's for sure... she will be a master at binding after all this practicing!

Chris The Foot played with her Bernina Baby's BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) all, all, all day. She's quilting round the detail on her bird picture fabric. It's making the picture pop out in all the right places. She completed the quilting but had left all the ends to tie off later.. whilst babysitting, great idea, I wonder whether she'll have "Pop & Crisps" too, I remember babysitting and they almost always left goodies for me! ha ha ha!

Irene finished adding the sashing to her Poinsettia blocks. This is now a table runner, rather stunning it is too. As you can see, she made a sandwich and worked on the quilting. It's a great, and easy, appliqué design and Irene has ideas for other flowers, Sunflowers in fact... same shape, different colours, fabulous!

Jolly Jo had finished the Drunkards path quilt at home so her first job of the day was to make a sandwich. Jo practised her free motion quilting skills on a sample piece, she practised a lot actually, once you get started doodling and meandering with free motion... the clock races forward... have you noticed that too? She did have time to make a good start on her Drunkards Path quilting though, shadow quilting with the walking foot to start with... the free motion will be added later.

Krafty Karen joined us with her brightly polished, virtual TRUMPET, woooo hoooo and Toot Toot Toot? she did indeedy. This quilt looks absolutely fabulous. You need to click on it for a closer look. Karen came to Quilt Cave in June with a bag of animal prints and animal picture fabrics, mostly fat quarters, and asked what she could do with them. Of course she didn't want to cut the pictures up so, we started her off with fussy cutting, moving on to frame the blocks with whatever took Karen's fancy... you have to agree, she made a wonderful, fun filled quilt, It's destined for a very lucky young lady! Well Done Krafty Karen!!

We meet again on Friday 2nd December, tomorrow.... 10am - 3pm as usual, Yes, more new fabrics arrived for Table Top Shop... becoming a habit eh!
After that we meet on Wednesday 7th December but please please... Please remember that there's NO QUILT CAVE MEETING NEXT FRIDAY, 9TH DECEMBER.

Quilty Quarters

There's nothing quite like a last minute decision... a sudden burst of "I want to play too".
Next week sees the start of another month which means there is an SPQ meeting. Way back in September the Chairman handed out packs containing a fat quarter of black fabric and instructions for us to make a quilt that had to incorporate the black fabric. You can find the details of the challenge here. I had a pack given to me but I left it on my table and it was taken by someone else so, I thought I could get away with not bothering to make an entry. I find myself today with no customer quilts to work on, all of my PhD's are sorted out and I have a full day of Quilty Quarters fun planned. The challenge is to use colours starting with letters from our initials... blessed with only one name, I am Angela Whiston... A & W... I rooted and rooted.... I chose Acid-Green and Watermelon, now to choose what to make with it... ready, steady Go!

******************
7:30pm... have made something quite wonderful, even though I do say so for my very own self, toot toot. I just need to quilt it, bind it, make a label and 'secure it' to the back. The hard bit?? I have to keep it secret until Thursday.. woooohoooo

Caverswall Quilt Cave

A very rare photo of me, myself, sewing... did you recognise me?
Joan The Shop came to play, I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have her looking so well after all that time in hospital. She's just been on holiday so she had a lot of catching up to do... in a quilty, social, chatty way I mean. She was almost out of time for sewing her binding on so, I stepped in, pushed the speed button to 'FULL' and finished it for her... Can you see the shiny glow from my halo? ha ha...

Maid Marion is continuing on her Quick Table Topper marathon, she's made lots of them. They're all quilted and Marion decided they will all have the faux piped binding, ... oh how we love this method, the tutorial is so easy to follow too, click on the link to see it.

Late Sue's got piles!... Piles and piles of pieces that is. She decided to do all of her cutting in one session (or two) so that she can have a stitching marathon next time. Lots of people work this way. Sue used the binding clips to keep her piles in 10's making it very easy to keep count. She had one binding clip controlling her hair too, I think this was their original purpose really.

Barbie quilted all of her borders following the triangle Saw Tooth edges. After trimming the quilt she made binding and had just enough time to get it stitched on ready for the hand stitching to be done at home. Barbie is very happy to be almost finished with this quilt... she has orders for three other quilts... not this same design, much more complex projects involving floral appliqué!

Dotty Maureen finished her 9-Patch corner stone blocks and, as predicted, made a quilt sandwich. She didn't really need any help because it's a relatively small quilt. She's also working on another quilt, all hand pieced and hand quilted, Quilt As You Go or, as I like to call it, apartment quilting.

Helen is making a personalized water bottle cover. She tried free motion embroidery first, which was fine. Now she's trying the design using appliqué.. the sticky stuff, raw edge style of appliqué. When both methods are done and finished Helen will choose which she likes best for the water bottle cover. It could even be double sided?

Brenda Barbara was joining blocks together for one of her two tree skirts. The red sashing strips look great don't they... Brenda's feeling very excited... there's a new carpet being delivered for her new sewing room... it's almost ready for her to hide in with her Bernina baby, just in time for it's first birthday!!

Krafty Karen couldn't wait until next week to finish up her binding so she came to play for an extra half day... she did it too! All stitched on to the back, corners perfectly mitred and then stitched on top...Yup it's the faux piped binding again, so easy to do by machine... there's no need to stay right on the edge of the binding... you follow the ditch-line.. and there's room for wobbly lines too.. just match the threads and no-one will see it, fantastic eh!

We meet again on Wednesday 30th November & Friday 2nd of December. 10am - 3pm as usual.
Please remember there's NO Quilt Cave Meeting on Friday 9th December because the hall is being used to give a Christmas Party for the Residents of Caverswall.. aren't they lucky!