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!

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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!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Krafty Karen finished the quilting at last week's meeting but we didn't hear any "Toot Toot Toots", not everyone likes to 'blow their own trumpet', (not a problem I have, ha ha ha) This is quite a large quilt and we have to remember that it's only Karen's second project. Not only that, it's her very own design, a little guidance from yours truly, yes... but it is all Karen's work and she did a fantastic job! She made Faux Piped Binding, a lot of it as it's a loooong way round this quilt edge... she started to stitch it on and announced that This Quilt WILL be finished next week...
Will you polish your very own trumpet Krafty Karen?

Chatty Cathy had been busy at home... she had successfully quilted all of the curved lines that she had drawn last week so she decided to add more. Out came a cardboard template.. I think you should be able to see in the picture that Cathy is quilting a smaller curved shape just inside the other. There'll be quilting added to the Cathedrally window-y bits too.

Arty Beryl came to play, this is a rare treat these days as she took herself off to full time art college in September. She wanted to play talking... whoooops... I mean free motion quilting! ha ha ha. Oh I think Arty Beryl is missing our Quilt Cave meetings. By the end of the day she had all the basics to free motion, now it's just practice, practice, practice in between homework, of course.

Annie Pie was quilting the quilt she started at our Katharine Guerrier workshop back in June. Obviously she isn't sewing at this photo moment... she's sitting next to Wendy and Arty Beryl you see, they are catching up... swapping ideas, sharing photos and discussing possible projects... Annie Pie's head will burst one of these days, he he he.

Dotty Maureen made 9-Patch cornerstones ready to add to the borders of her purple and teal quilt. Cornerstones are a great way to fudge borders when the fabric isn't quite long enough... no-one would ever know that they had not been planned to be there right from the start... except for me telling you all that is, he he he. Once these are stitched on it will be sandwich time for Dotty.

This is only a small selection of what's going on at Caverswall Village Hall, you'll have to come visit if you want to see everything, it's all very inspiring!
We meet again on Friday 25th November 10am - 3pm, tomorrow actually... 13 new bolts of fabric arrived, a mixed bag from Maywood Studio, very lovely indeed... there's an absolutely gorgeous purple I have my eye on!

Uttoxeter Quilt Class

At the top of this picture you can see Giggly Gillan's latest project... a Quick Table Topper. She took her time with the fabric cutting because she wanted it perfect... that's what she said, 'perfect'. She almost finished sewing it together too, and it did look... perfect!
The black and white table runner belongs to Lovely Lyn. Each block is identical but looks very different only because Lyn varied the placement of the light, medium and dark fabrics, cool eh! Take a closer look, exactly the same they are!

Messy Maureen made a sandwich with her liberated Quick Table Topper, she then quilted and bound it... it's a very poor photo, I seem to becoming an expert at the blurred shots... ha ha ha... It must be because I am rushing, how hard can it be to keep a camera still for a split second? Obviously , very hard!! Marisabel was quilting her Wreath Wall hanging, she had trouble with her metallic thread breaking and we tried all kinds of solutions, nothing worked. hey Ho... not giving up yet!
We meet again on Tuesday 6th December. 10am to 3pm, and the class is/will be full. Full of ladies, full of fun and laughter... as always.

Quilty Quarters

Whilst piecing these scraps together over the weekend, I decided that I really didn't want a quilt made with the bonus half square I got from this quilt. It was a colour thing... I've now used up ALL of my 1 1/2" squares and I'm very happy about that. The little 9-Patch units had to be trimmed down to 3" so they would fit with the HST's. Can you have too many aprons?
Evidently not!!... and this one has been made with all the bits that would have been 'chucked away' by a none scrap collector.

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Jolly Jo needed to switch days to join us on a Friday, there're a few ladies who switch between the two days, it's not a problem at all. Jo's quilting her chicken quilt. All the main blocks have stabilized with 'ditch hopping'. She's using the 'hand quilting stitch' on her sewing machine (sounds a bit strange doesn't it) to quilt the detail on the chickens. There might be a bit of fancy background stitching in the yellow bits...  we'll see next time.

Brenda Barbara's had a very productive time at home. She has enough of her Courthouse Step blocks to make two Christmas tree skirts. Here we were deciding... To sash or Not to sash, quite the question. I love it all busy with no sashing and everyone, yes everyone else preferred the blocks with sashing. When a decision is difficult, we can all gather round to share opinion, hopefully to help... though it looks like I was no help at all, ha ha ha

My Mum Gwynneth was using the number 4 stitch on her Bernina to make tiny wave-y lines through the colourful stripy bits, it looks good doesn't it? She managed to almost finish all the quilting.... she gets a lot of interruptions though... she is our cashier lady, that way I get to carry on having fun helping the ladies with their projects without bothering with the important stuff, like money!..you want to shop at Table Top Shop??? Come on over, you will meet my Mum.

Shirley Lerly, if you remember last week she was making the Faux Piped Binding, using only one colour... it makes machine stitching the binding soooo much easier, you see, there is a 'ditch' to follow as opposed to trying to get the stitch right on the edge of the binding. Anyway, it was extremely successful and Shirley will definitely use it again. Some ladies don't like hand stitching at all and we're always looking for ways to make it a little easier.

Sheila came to play too. She's already an experienced quilter so she's not really coming to be taught... she enjoys the meeting as much as everyone else though. It's fun stitching the day away with a bunch of quilters?
A group of quilters?
A class of quilters? or maybe...
A giggle of quilters?? Yes, I like that one  
A Giggle Of Quilters, that's what we are... ha ha ha
We meet again on Wednesday 23rd and Friday 25th November, 10am - 3pm, as usual... dare I tell you that more new fabric came for Table Top Shop.... or course I dare, we love it eh!!!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Computer is back with me for the moment, seams it was virus ridden... hey ho, here we go... pictures from Wednesday at the Quilt Cave.
The purple one at the top is Early Sue's, she's quilting using her walking foot and stitching 1/4" away from all seams, it's looking great. The second quilt is Lacey Anne's floor tile project. Now there are more blocks stitched together you can imagine it as a floor, can't ya!

Maggie pieced all her blocks together to make up the Christmas tree, it looks three dimensional doesn't it... she decided not to add a tree trunk, I think she made the right decision, the red pot is perfect to finish it off. Maggie made her sandwich ready to do the quilting. This will be trimmed to the shape of the tree, a triangular wall hanging, very cool. I expect it will need a piece of dowel across the wide tree bottom, otherwise it'll keep folding forward.

Chatty Cathy had all her hand stitching finished on the Cathedral-ly window-y bits so was able to mark up the top ready to quilt... it's much easier to draw the lines on the fabric before sandwiching, so that's what Cathy did. We made a cardboard template to help Cathy keep the curves even.

Helen continued to do free motion quilting on her grandmother's hexagon quilt. She's doing a beautiful job of it too... Grandma would be proud to see all her years of hand stitching finished this way. Helen loves doing free motion quilting.

This belongs to Chris The Foot. She quilted with Sulky metalic gold thread and it looks fabulous. As you can see, Chris machined the binding in place ready to be stitched to the back at home at home... she had another sandwich to start quilting, a picture or two on a wall hanging... I'll show that next time...

We met again on Friday 18th, see... my post is behind times, the future was already done when I wrote this... ha ha ha

Uttoxeter Quilt Class

A selection of our most popular project... The Quick Table Topper.
It's extremely easy... well, once you've made the first one it's easy... everyone seems to get a little unnecessarily confused with one part of the process. Once the pattern is understood... then it's very easy. Almost everyone goes on to make at least one more, most make several. They give instant satisfaction, fast and fun project, great for giving as gifts... there'll surely be more to come.

Marisabel made a sandwich and started quilting her Christmas Wreath wall hanging, another of our popular small projects. Not as easy and fast to make as the table topper but nothing too complicated either. There's a bit of fiddly marking and cutting with scissors but the sewing is easy enough. Simple quilting is enough as the basic pattern does it all. This quilt of Marisabel's will be finished with the faux piped binding we are all loving since I found it here.

Giggly Gillian's quilt centre is complete... she's adding the border strips... 1/2" of dark brown followed by a 3" of a heavier, sumptuous, turquoise and chocolate pattern. Next Gillian will add a 6" border of piano keys using all the fabrics that were used in the quilt centre. It's getting bigger by the week.

Lizzy finished her Table Toper patchwork,  sandwiched and quilted it and made the binding and stitched it on... so fast that she actually cut out all the fabrics ready to make a second one.... I told you, the ladies are loving these fast finishers!!! ha ha ha... It's great to see less traditional Christmas colours don't ya think?.. winter colours look fab too... and then there's the 'not Christmassy at all' ones....

Messy Maureen, if you remember, brought in some curtain material ages ago. We had made up a quilt from it and a few weeks ago Maureen brought in the left overs... very few and funny shapes. She wanted to make the table runner.... it turned out great... each strip varies a little in width, the little squares following through the centre are all different colours too.... Messy Maureen loves the more liberated approach... she's fun to work with you know... anything goes!

Lovely Lyn doesn't want to start another big quilt until after the festive season. She wants table mats (Joan The Shop, look what you started with your fancy dinner sets!) she wants chair backs, she wants more extravagant table runners... so, starting with black and white she's going to make sampler blocks so each table mat will be a different design made using the same fabrics... well, that's where we started, lets see where we go next time...
We meet again on Tuesday22nd, that's next week. 10am -3pm, as usual.

Quilty Quarters 2?

A lady asked me ages ago to sell her Bernina and her Horn Sewing Cabinet for her. I couldn't find anyone who wanted to purchase, which is a shame really, it's been months and now the time came that the lady needing it gone... so...

ta daaaaa...
meet MY new cabinet and My new, old 1000 Special Bernina...
These Horne cabinets are so clever, the machine can be used at the height you see here making it a flat bed, which makes quilting much easier or, with the flick of a lever the machine can sit at table height.  There's a second workspace that comes up as you pull the drawer unit out, they live in the gap underneath , you can just about see wheel tracks on the carpet there...

 The work surface to the left folds over to be the cabinet top and the door can be closed when all is put away... like this, impressive eh!
This will not fit in my Quilty Quarters, well, don't let that put me off eh...  This is the room where I store Table Top Shop, wadding on the side, you could say it's Quilty Quarters number 2!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Barbie had a most unfortunate day. She happily quilted for hours adding to the quilting she had already done at home during the week. Something made her look at the back of the quilt, probably as it was nearing completion... the tension had gone mad! Barbie's machine often does this but Barbie was very cross with herself for not keeping an eye on the tension... She spent the rest of the day un-picking most of the quilting, what a drain of a job...

Chris made two sandwiches, both wall hangings... we have to love small projects for the sheer convenience of their size.... First to be quilted was Chris's Christmas wreath wall hanging. She used her BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) as she meandered all over the background fabrics.. I just noticed Chris's watch there, quarter to two, So, that's what time I took the photos!

The centre of Kate's beautiful blue and white appliqué quilt is finished so we had a few moments pondering the "mathemsims" of adding the large borders, 22 inches wide so they can drape over the sides of the bed. We had already planned to use the apartment quilting method. The sashing/joining strip needed to be finished at 2" wide so we had to make sure we left enough wadding to fill the gap.... we did a great job, it was perfect... 3 sides to go!

Dotty Maureen finished adding the strips to her Quick Table Topper, she sandwiched and quilted it... not that she had done it quickly, for some reason she had struggled, you know... given all the complex and fiddly things Maureen makes... maybe this project was, plain and simply,  just Too Easy... is that possible?

Late Sue feels that she might have lost her Mojo... we have to get it back don't we... It's not just the early dark evenings, though that seems to be getting to everyone lately.... We decided that Sue might enjoy going back to basics with a completely new project, learning all the little fudging tricks to get the accuracy she desires... she seemed to perk up a bit from the moment she decided to choose new fabrics, ha ha ha... that'll do it!


We meet again next week, Wednesday 16th and Friday  Friday 18th November. 10am - 3pm, as usual.
Please note... There will not be a Quilt Cave meeting on Friday 9th December as the hall will be hosting the annual Christmas party for the residents of Caverwall.. what fun!

A Local Event

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Arty Janet arrived with a book, it had pictures and instructions and she wanted her project to be exactly the same as the pictures. So, she shopped for the perfect fabrics, in Table Top Shop wadding on the side. You might think "So, what's the big deal?"... for most of us it's quite easy to follow a set pattern and a lot of us try to make our project similar rather than like the patterns... for Janet it was a self inflicted challenge, "Stick to the pattern"... she's a real and propa  artist and finds it quite a job not to go off on a creative journey, we could hear her head whirling as she worked, ha ha ha.

Gail had been stitching at home so, after a little sorting out of the design and a little trimming of tiny slithers to level up the edges she was ready to add borders to her Railfence table runner. An inner border of 1/2"  cream and gold followed by an outer 3" border of the lovely black with Christmassy stars n things. Next week she will be ready to sandwich and quilt.

Krafty Karen continued quilting the borders on her fabulous animal quilt. She feels it's become the never ending project... she's moved house and had huge renovations in the new home so, poor thing can only quilt at the Quilt Cave... it's coming along very nicely though, thing is, Karen is growing a long list of things she wants to make next.... ha ha ha, I know that because she's been collecting fabrics for them... how strange!

Chatty Cathy, what can I say... she has the fastest growing "To Do" list of all quilters I ever met. She brought in her 10 Minute Block quilt top, sorted that out and will take it home to do the Cathederal-ly Window-y bits by hand. She brought in scraps to start this hexagon quilt, inspired by the talk at SPQ last Thursday... she has a Quilt-As-You-Go project picked out and wants to get it started, she's designing a football tribute quilt and she wants a Hexagon hand piecing project to work on in between all this.... and the list grows, fast-ly!.. I can't keep up!

Early Sue had stitched her purple borders to the quilt centre at home so, all she had to do was piece fabric for the backing and was ready to make a sandwich. Irene had sorted the tables to make her sandwich so, a quick call out for help and all the ladies came rushing over to carefully put safety pins in... I love how we can do that... many hands make for fast pinning! (There must be an old proverb saying just that!) Sue had plenty of time to make her sandwich, with the help of Dotty... queen of pinning!

Annie Pie had made two Autumnal Wreath wall hangings so they were sandwiched first thing and set to one side to join her Quilting queue. Next, Annie wanted to add a spectacular bubble-y border to one side of her Bargello quilt top... apparently she woke in the madrugada with a vision! ha ha ha. She purchased 'sticky stuff' (Steam-a-Seam 2) from my Table Top Shop, raided the kitchen looking for different sized circles and came up with this... absolutely fabulous!
We meet again on Friday, 11th November.... 10am - 3pm as usual.
Today, this morning actually, I am off to deliver the tie quilt... wish me luck?

A Local Event

Quilty Quarters, Another Commission Job

A lady asked me to quilt this scrappy quilt for her a little while ago. I've been taking it to Caverswall Quilt Cave with me, thinking that if we got a quiet day I could sandwich on the fabulous tables there. Well, that didn't happen so, once again, all my furniture was pushed either to the side of the room or out of the door and I crawled around on the floor for two hours!... You know... I think the more floor crawling I do, the easier it gets... I stood up without a creak!
This one is half way done, quilted with free motion on the Juki Beast. After making the tie quilt, the 'Juki Beast' and I are very best of friends, ha ha ha
This quilt is the same design as my 'Pink But Not Too Pinky Pink' quilt, lovely isn't it... very easy to do. The back is pieced too, I'll show you when I finish the quilting.