Caverswall Quilt Cave

One sandwich belonging to Chris The 'Mended' Foot, could even be time for a new name... We pondered over quilting design, thread colours and time limit... 'Twas decided that Chris should stitch in the ditch (ditch hopping as we have come to call it) following the secondary design of wavy lines. That will stabilize the centre. Then she's going to quilt the borders with something simple, trim and bind the quilt then Chris can quilt the cream areas according to how much time she has left, could be a simple heart in the middle or four hearts using the pointy bits as the bottom of the hearts... we will have to wait for Chris to show us pictures of the results as we won't see this quilt again.. it's off to the USA.

Brenda Barbara is thrilled to bits with the speed she's able to piece this 10 minute block quilt... she added another two Cathedral-y bits to the two centre junctions. She's going to do the hand stitching as homework and is already planning another 10 Minute Block quilt for a gift, I told you she loved it!

Margaret not only practised her first ever free motion quilting... she actually used it and almost completed her Butterfly Bed Runner quilt... that's the way to do it, practice practice practice, don't waste time unpicking, keep going and you will improve your free motion stitching.

Kate also made a sandwich, white wadding and white backing and stitching with white thread... easy choices. She started quilting with following the sashing lines stitching in the ditch, again to stabilize the quilt. Kate will go back to each individual block and decide how to quilt them, most will involve shadow quilting as the appliqué is so pretty that it would be a shame to over quilt it all.

Helen was adding sashing strips to her  nine and a half inch blocks, the ones sent in by your good selves after a request to help Helen fund raise for a school play. Some of the blocks were tricky sizes but once they were sorted out, it was all together quite quickly. She didn't quite finish the last few sashing bits as we ran out of time.

There were other ladies too, Lynda, Ann, Gwynneth and Maid Marion but no time for my photo taking, so you will have to stay in suspense about their progress, and there's been a lot!
I did manage to sandwich my fishy bubbles quilt.

Right, I hope you have all remembered that we will not be meeting in Caverswall Village Hall next week, neither Wednesday nor Friday... the ladies might never forgive me, they've been on my case all week telling me I should open up as I am not going away anywhere, ha ha ha.... I am staying home to sew!!! I'm sure I shall blog my progress, no matter how slow.

My Mum's Finished Another...

After making the red and cream quilt, the one using the Kayak block My Mum (Gwynneth) decided she never wanted to stitch anything with triangles ever again in her life... a sentiment shared by a few others in our groups... this thought usually hits after completing a patchwork design that's rather fiddly. As you can see there are no triangles in Mum's latest finished quilt... or are there??
The pattern fro this can be found by clicking here 

Take a look at this fabulous pieced backing... go on, look closer... click on the picture if you need to, there are triangles in there... the blocks are set 'on point' and to do that Mum had to insert setting triangles. She's cured again now, the fear of triangles has passed, I think she will share my aversion to blocks needing fussy templates for a long time yet though... it turns out that they were the problem, not wonderful triangles.
Click on the first picture to see the quilting too, number 4 stitch on Mum's little Bernina... cool eh!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

What a day!!! We had a full house, full of ladies and full of chatter, full of happy atmosphere and so many projects... every table was in use, our Quilt Cave was full to the brim! There wasn't a lot of time for picture taking but here's the few Mum took...

I'll start with this one, taken at a strange angle... Wendy started this Bargello quilt last Wednesday, (you can scroll down in the posts to see that if you like, she had cut the strips and sewn a few together) we should not have been surprised when Wendy came with her spectacular Bargello Quilt top completed, WOW, just gorrrrrgeous eh! except there wasn't room today for all the sandwiches to be prepared... lots were done by other ladies... Wendy had plenty of other stitching to be getting on with so she decided to wait.

Arty Janet has made quite a few of these very wonky stars now. She wants them to be joined up in a random manner. We decided that they needed something to frame each one as the assorted backgrounds, though beautiful, didn't have the right effect... do I sound like an artist?? No, I know, but I know what I'm trying to say... anyway, we liked this strong colour for a little Liberated sashing, it looks a bit much in the picture but they will only be narrow in the finished quilt, not that the whole quilt will be made up of random stars... lets see where it goes next...

Helen made a strong (and brave) decision... she's not going to start any more quilts... not until she's caught up on her PhD's, she has a few Projects Half Done you see, this advent calendar was started last year, it's a panel only needing quilting... never the less, it missed last Christmas. This year it will be ready in plenty of time... today Helen had it quilted, trimmed, binding attached and stitched by machine... DONE!! Then she got out the blocks that many ladies had sent to her for the fundraising. The design is sorted, the sashing has been chosen... Helen's on a roll!

Annie Pie wasn't able to come last week so she started her Bargello today. After a little, very informative talk from yours truly (toot toot, he he he) fabrics were chosen, final colour placement was decided and bits were stuck to the design sheet, just to ensure the strips get sewn together in the correct order, then Annie set about cutting the 1 1/2" strips ... lots of them.

My Mum (Gwynneth) is making Friendship Star blocks with the left over HST's (Half Square Triangles) from making her Pineapple Blossom quilt top, which was, and still is, waiting to be sandwiched. It's fine, we might have a bit of time to sandwich it on Friday, until then... there are enough HST's for 24 Friendship Star blocks so that should keep her busy.
There were many other projects being worked on, I'll get pictures another day, for now, tea needs to be consumed and feet need to go up... boy was I kept busy!! woooohooo fun, fun, fun.

Quilty Quarters

I thought you might be interested in my progress...
I decided it was all starting to look a bit dark so I've added more black fabrics... ha ha ha... that's bonkers isn't it, but it works for me (I'm very much practising PMS) the black seems to lighten things up. I've also started to add two wider, wonky strips to some of the stars, they're better to show up the wonkiness, see top left block. All blocks are back in piles again now...
Caverswall Quilt Cave today, I better get a move on! See you there!

Quilty Quarters

Almost a whole day in my Quilty Quarters... Perfect!
It's holiday season here... This home is in 'relax' mode... I don't actually enjoy going 'away' on holidays... you might think that's a little weird, but remember, I am a big fan of PMS (Pleasing My Self), you go 'away' on your jolly holidays if you want to,.. I am happy to be here, relaxing... playing in my Quilty Quarters... (not that I am on holiday yet, that's next week) I've been rooting, rooting and more rooting... learning, steady cutting and stitching, choosing and experimenting... here's the progress so far... Continuing making blocks based on the Katharine Guerrier workshop I attended at the beginning of June. In her book she suggests making piles of blocks and not attempting to 'place' them until they are all done... I've only popped them on my design wall to show you... loving it... but they are back in small piles now... until I make some more blocks, no final decision will be made on design.

Quilty Quarters

What a hive of activity it was in my Quilty Quarters yesterday... it seems I am on a roll!! woooohoooo. I finished the binding on the 'Not Too Pinky Pink' quilt, soon to be labelled. I rooted and rooted to find something to finish off the quilt top in the picture there. Mike says, and I quote..."it's OK for a kid Mum!".. he thought it was for me, ha ha ha. I made it to add to my Quilts For Sale actually... busy isn't it! I made a rather wild pieced backing for this too. So I have two quilts waiting for the sandwich treatment. Next on my agenda is to continue with the project I started at the Katherine Guerrier workshop, now that is looking fabulous, even though I do say so myself! ha ha I'll show you the progress tomorrow.

Quilty Quarters

I finished the quilting yesterday. I'm aware it took longer than anticipated / predicted, quilting with a walking foot takes me much longer than free motion work... though I used both methods on this quilt. The binding is on... I'm just pinning ready to machine stitch it to the front... you have to use loads of pins to get it straight. Just a label and it's ready to be wrapped up... Then I can get started on another PhD (Project Half Done)

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Annie Pie works on several projects at the same time. She's continued making up more of the blocks we started at our Katharine Guerrier workshop, she's going to applique flowers on her Bento Box and she is making a stunning pieced backing for her Square Dance quilt... very busy lady...

Helen was very happy to deliver the quilt she has been quilting for Foxy Margaret. She's done a great job, you might be able to see her quilting if you click on the picture. Helen has now decided that even though she really enjoys the quilting process, for other people it's very stressful and won't be taking on any more in the near future.

Barbie has a broken toe and should not be walking around... my Mum (Gwynneth) was trying to help by pinning blocks and sashing for Barbie and delivering them to her at the machine, in time to stop Barbie leaving her machine to fetch the next one... they were laughing... Mum kept shouting "sit down!" to Barbie as she delivered the next bit to be stitched, This made Barbie stitch faster to get to my Mum before she saw Barbie move... they started to race each other... oh it was funny.. I guess you had to have been there.

Dotty Maureen has a new bag pattern. It doesn't have many pictures, just lots of written descriptions of 'how to'... she had long quiet spells as she figured it out... but she was successful, all the components were ready for quilting by the end of the meeting. Dotty helped pin Maid Marion's huge quilt in the middle of all that too.

Brenda Barbara brought in some lovely fabrics to make a quilt using the 10-Minute blocks with the Cathedral-y window-y bits. She carefully cut her blocks out, taking her time to get the right combinations. She was so surprised at how quick these blocks come together... she was very excited to see the rapid progress and almost refused to pack up and go home... she wanted to stay for another hour or two! ha ha ha

Gilly is back with this lattice garden project and it is coming along a treat. You can see the woven lattice bits better now that they are stitched together can't you. Gilly is being careful to get everything in the right order but..., she's lost a few blocks and is hoping to find them mixed with another project, fingers crossed Gilly, square one is a long way back!

Maid Marion couldn't believe her luck... she chose backing fabric, had Dotty Maureen and myself helping her to make a sandwich... while she opened all the pins at the speed of light... she was happily quilting in no time. After stitching in the ditch of the strips and blocks she's going to use the 'points and bellies' free motion quilting method again... which will make a flower shape over the pin wheels.. they will look fabulous!

We meet again on Wednesday 27th and Friday 29th July.
The following week, I know I already told you... I am making sure you remember, we will not meet,  no quilting in Caverswall Village Hall on 3rd nor 5th August

Brenda Barbara's Secret Project

Taaaadaaaaaaaaaa... 
This is the pram quilt that's been kept secret from this blog for so long... Carefully pieced and quilted by our very own Brenda Barbara, all by her very own self! She's been taking such great care with every aspect of this lovely little quilt... from choosing the right colours and fabrics right through to tying off and threading in of every single thread end... you see, it's her first ever commissioned quilt! Yes, the lady was absolutely delighted with it and is already choosing the next one... I think Brenda might make something a little less stressful first... it's tough making commissioned quilts... you can't really practice our very favourite PMS!! (Pleasing My Self)

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Chris No Visible Limp Good Foot spent the day adding borders to her quilt top. The first border was done with the same brown as the pointy point stars and it doesn't half make the stars 'pop' out, very good decision!... to be sure to get thin inner borders accurate, stitch on a strip 1/4" wider than necessary then trim the border down when it's stitched on, eg Chris wanted a finished 1/2" inner border so she cut her strips 1 1/4", after stitching she was able to get all the strips perfectly sized and straight... well worth the effort... for very thin borders, it isn't worth it for wider ones.

Shirley Lerly was quilting her borders using the Bernina stitch number 4 set to a 2.6 length (I Think), a very popular stitch indeed. Gentle wavy lines look great on a border. Shirley added three lines per border and was able to trim all the excess fabric and wadding ready for her binding, which might well be done at home, she's also been working on those gorgeous pink and aqua blocks... looking great!

Irene has been working on a few small projects of late... she is quilting the borders of another cat mat so she'll have about 10 to stitch the binding on to. 9-patch units are always pleasing to the eye... some times simple is best... certainly great for relaxing the mind... it's like a little mindless stitching shall we say? Irene has plans for something more complex soon, watch this space...

My Mum Gwynneth also cut her inner border a little wider than needed, This time she wanted a 1/4" finished green inner border, so she cut 1" strips, stitched them to the quilt top then carefully trimmed the strip to a 1/2" wide making it look like she did the whole think impeccably. The pink border will be 3/4" followed by a 2 1/2"" pink stripe. The thin pink and green borders are the seasoning to the quilt... like a little salt and pepper, to enhance the flavour! ha ha ha 

Wendy only needs to stitch down her binding and this quilt will be ready to use. It's one of two that she started at our recent Katherine Guerrier workshop. The designs show up very well don't they, just a matter of placing the dark and light fabrics in the right place... easy! Again Wendy quilted this quilt from the back following the fabric design of large flowers.

Wendy was the only lady wanting to make a Bargello quilt today, no worries as the others had a touch of PMS (Pleasing My Self) and carried on with their own 'things'.
I will go over the basics again both on Friday this week and both days  next week as lots of ladies were not able to come today. As you see here Wendy got one strip set completed, I noticed that she stops sewing while chatting to her quilty chums... Wendy chats a lot! ha ha ha, it's all about the fun day, not just the stitching!

Foxy Margaret got a lot done today. She had decided to add one extra row to her Log Cabin lap quilt, so we did that... she added the sashing and corner stones then rooted about in her bag for a border fabric. The backing was chosen too... I asked Margaret whether it was time for a sandwich, to which she replied... "no thanks, I've already eaten!" ha ha ha... she realised what she had said a short while after we finished laughing... we will make the sandwich next time....

We meet again on Friday 22nd July, 10am - 3pm.

Please remember that our Quilt Cave at Caverswall Village Hall will be closed for the first week of August. That's no quilting on 3rd or 5th August

Uttoxeter Quilt Class

Messy Maureen works in a charity shop. Someone donated a pair of curtains and Maureen thought the colours were wonderful, so she purchased them. The fabric isn't too thick so they were fine. She had cut up one curtain and brought the fruits of her work to class to ask how could she join them to make a quilt top. I started to play with the pieces and Maureen decided I had made them look like the original curtain... who knew there was an original curtain?? so, to cut a long story short... we abandoned the bits and made a sandwich with the other curtain, Messy Maureen was practising Quilt-in-a-Day me thinks, ha ha ha, this quilt will be finished before you know it.

What a terrible photo... I'll say it before you do, but you get the idea... Giggly Gillian wanted to piece a few of her blocks together so that she can show it to the lady she's making it for next week. The blocks will all be on point actually but she needs only to show the colours rather than the design... I think you will agree that the colours are wonderful, bright, fresh and stunning!

Marisabel took delivery of her very own Juki sewing machine... shiny shiny! She has decided that my mistake from last week was a good thing, her faux piped binding looked great with the accent fabric showing on the back so she made the second one just the same. She will finish the binding at home because she wanted to make a Mat & Ruler bag for her new equipment, those mats are difficult to transport around without a proper bag... but I bet you already knew that, did you make your bag yet? Tutorial is on the right side bar...

Lizzy is ready to start a new project. She likes to make one block quilts. The tough thing is deciding which one block to use. She chose this one and, at a glance I figured that it might be a little troublesome so I suggested that Lizzy make up one block using her left over fabrics, which she did. The problems started with the 1/4" foot, it seems that the guide that Lizzy depends on has moved itself a tiny bit to the right so all the seam allowanced were too big. With a change of foot, the seam allowances were quite a bit too small... she's going to choose a different block, this was too fiddly to make a double quilt with.

Lovely Lyn was ever so quiet for the first part of our day. It turned out that she was concentrating on cutting her strips perfectly to size because as soon as she announced that the strips were cut... she came back to our conversations... sometimes we just need to focus eh.... she is cracking on with her blocks and for homework will make up the 72 Half Square Triangle units for the Saw Tooth border blocks which give this quilt the "Wow factor"

Lizzy had been doing her quilting at home and was able to bring 'show and tell' This little lap quilt has been made with butterfly fabrics and Hour Glass blocks. Lizzy made it as a tribute to her Mother who loved butterflies. What a lovely idea, now Lizzy has a lovely quilt with lovely memories to keep her knees warm... it's a great size for a car quilt, which seems to have sparked off a few ideas with the other ladies... well we had such a terrible winter this time, we need to be prepared eh!!

We will meet again on Tuesday 9th August. We all have busy diaries for the next two weeks and we can change things to suit ourselves if we want to, as we have done, ha ha ha.

Bargello Wall Hanging

A basic Bargello Wall Hanging... a very simple, beginner friendly project...
You might well not believe me if you are actually a beginner, but I promise you, it is easy and I will be there to help you anyway.
Tomorrow or on Friday, at Caverswall Quilt Cave, you could start this project. It was decided that, rather than have a full day workshop, we could have several short tutorials each week for the different stages towards making a Bargello quilt. Those who want to make it will then continue to work on the Bargello and those who have their own projects can work on them... at the same time... in an effort to please everybody, which I love to do!!...we'll see if it works. Tomorrow we will talk about colour, fabric designs and choices, prrrressing, cutting, colour placement, a little 'Back To Basics' etc...

Quilty Quarters

I plan to finish this quilt today, not that I've even started it yet. I chose the thread, a rather lovely King Tut dusky-pinky beige-y. I'm thinking of using the walking foot and shadowing the stars, just thinking... I shall doodle my finger over the patchwork until a decision is made... by me, myself, yours truly Sunday morning and I'm practicing PMS, yeeeeha!

Next I want to work on these, I know it's a rubbish picture...Obviously on the left is the backing to my Fishy Kaleidoscope.. isn't is fabulous!! I rooted and rooted and came up trumps! (what a funny expression!) It will be sandwiched just as soon as the pins have been liberated from the pinky stars I'm working on today.
On the right is a PhD, a Project Half Done... I made it only to use some new fabric that had arrived for the Table Top Shop, new rulers were delivered too, the Tri-Recs ones, (I had ordered them so I could make a Tennessee Waltz for my very own self) also I wanted to try something from a new book I bought about settings for quilts. So I learned a lot making it up. It just needs a border treatment and, as I am rather enjoying doing pieced borders right now, that's what I might do... we shall see, for now I will keep looking at it as I leave Quilty Quarters (to make tea etc) as it's hanging over the door for inspiration.
Right, I'm off to make a start... first I have to cat lick the house..... like a whiiiiiiiiiirl wind!! ha ha ha

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Chris The Very Good Foot returned from her travels and is back on the 'mission possible'... as you can see, the centre of the top is complete... not to mention stunning! Tennessee Waltz made with blocks called "54-40 or fight" If anyone can explain why this block has such a name I would love to know about it.  We played around with the rest of Chris's fabrics deciding on the border strips, a pieced border would be wonderful but there's a time limit so strips it will be.

Barbie has eight of her Pineapple Blossom blocks completed. She's making each one exactly the same... some people find thats's much easier than mixing things up and that's just fine, PMS (Pleasing My Self) that's what we like! Placing the blocks together to see how the pattern will look, Barbie gave the thumbs up... she's loving it. She's already decided to add sashing and corner stones when the time comes.

Maddie visits us occasionally as she lives in Lancashire... she makes the most wonderful appliqué projects. If you look close at the picture, you'll see that Maddie has stitched quilt blocks on those paler fabric squares... what a lovely idea eh? She's done hers by hand but I'm thinking.. with the number 16 Presencia Perle thread, maybe variegated and some stabilizer... this will be a great machine project... OK, tis on my list!

Helen finished all the tricky stitching on this block, placed it onto wadding and quilted it with fine precision, it looks sooooo good. You only place wadding on the back of the blocks for this project as the backing will be added at a later stage, clever eh.

Dotty Maureen didn't bring her quilting projects this time, she's making a new dog harness... a lady of many talents!.. she wasn't in a "quilty mood"... but that doesn't mean she didn't want to stitch or visit Kettle Corner or chat or visit Table Top Shop... so she had fun anyway.


Joan The Shop came to play... she's well on the mend now, a little wobbly on her feet but very keen to be sewing. She's decided to finish all 3 of her PhD' projects (Projects Half Done) before she starts a new one.... how many times have we all said that!!! ha ha ha


We meet again on Wednesday 20th July... It will be the first instalment of the Bargello Wall Hanging project... choosing fabrics, cutting strips, stitching and prrrrressing... if you want to, of course... PMS!!

Quilty Quarters

Another finish... except it doesn't have a label... I haven't come up with a name for this quilt yet. I know they don't have to have names, so long as my name is on the label my duties are done but I like naming my quilts.. I actually like naming every ones', ha ha ha. So the label can wait, one day something will pop into my head... How about Floribunda? hmmmmm an abundance of florals . oooooh I like that! See.. it just popped in there.
The binding has been done by machine, front and back, I can no longer hold a needle so my days of snuggling up on the sofa hand stitching are finished I'm afraid. Doing binding by machine is a 'needs must' for me, not a choice. I rooted for ages to find this dusky, pale purple-y, dotty fabric for the binding, looks good eh.
I have another sandwich made, the batik stars, "Pinky But Not Pink" so tomorrow I shall, no matter what.... be quilting it... I'm on a PhD finishing roll!! The Fishy Kaleidoscope is waiting to be sandwiched too. 
Were going to be starting Bargello in the Quilt Cave next week and I want to get the tutorial cut up and started...   

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Maid Marion needed a little help to cut the long border strips, it wasn't because she couldn't do it though... this fabric is soooo gorgeous that she couldn't bring herself to cut it up, he he he. She only needs to stitch the top and bottom border strips on and she'll be ready to make her sandwich. She bought fabrics for this projects guided by the amounts stated in the book so she has loads left over... we are going to play with them on Friday, hopefully we'll make a fabulous pieced backing.

Wendy spent her day doing free motion quilting. She's used a lovely fabric for the backing, it's covered in huge flowers and leaves so... she's quilting from the back and following all the big flowery bits... it looks brilliant. It's causing one or two tricky moments because Wendy can't see where the centres of the pin-wheels are, which are a bit thicker, if she could she would be able to avoid them... hey ho... it will all be worth it in the end.

Maggie has most of her quilt stabilized, she stitched in the ditch of the sashing strips. She says she's not enjoying pushing and pulling her project through the little 'hole'... well, who does? She has a slightly bigger machine that she will bring to her next meeting, perhaps that will help? I shall be on hand with the big Juki... she'll have no problem with that beast... great height on the 'hole' and wide enough for a big quilt to boot, believe me... I'm loving mine!

Arty Beryl... I'm always a little stuck for how to describe Beryl's work... I just stand with my mouth agape... it's soooo beautiful, in my eyes that is.... Even though it is absolutely stunning, it's not everyone's 'cup of tea' no matter... if we all liked the same things it would be a boring old world eh... my photos never truly show how gorgeous Beryl's work is... she's started embellishing the blocks... stunning, totally stunning.

Now speaking of free piecing and it not being everyone's 'cup of tea'... After a short tutorial about crumb piecing, Helen started on her scrap collection. Many ladies in the group have no intention, EVER... not even a seed of an idea... to do crumb piecing. To be fair, Helen wasn't convinced at the start... oh, she's changed her tune.. by the end of the day she was very much 'in to it'.. she used bits smaller than I would bother with... and she giggles as she does it...

Krafty Karen's 'animal magic' (good name Karen?) project... with two side borders almost completed there's only the top and bottom left to piece. She was starting to feel like she would never get it finished, that happens with a lot of larger projects though... but she left feeling all inspired again after we had spread out all the blocks and pieces and took stock of everything... it's coming along a treat.

Arty Janet continued making her star blocks, she was finding it very tedious trying to get all the joins and points matched up, so... she took the great decision to go wonky... by that I mean that she decided to liberate her piecing and take each star as it happened...and don't they look great, Janet is totally loving them... she was feeling rather pleased with herself by the end of our fun day and she went home singing with excitement... I promise you... I am not exaggerating!

We meet again on Friday 15th July, 10am - 3pm.