Angie's Patchwork & Quilting Shop

Caverswall Quilt Cave and Uttoxeter Quilt Class have been fabulous fun and I do understand that there are a few folks who would be happier if things could stay the same. It's the huge popularity of our meetings that has pushed me to open up my very own quilt shop. Our meetings are bursting at the seems, Table Top Shop, wadding on the side is enormous now and very heavy, too heavy to continue travelling... I love spinach but I am not prepared to eat tins of it every day! For the time being, Wednesdays at Caverswall Village Hall 10am - 3pm, will continue with a much reduced Table Top Shop but all other meetings will be held in My very own quilt shop. 3 Queen Street, Cheadle, Staffordshire, ST10 1BQ I'll let you know here when the changes happen.

I was at my very own Patchwork & Quilting shop yesterday, tinkering and supervising, when a lady knocked on the door with a huge smile on her face. She handed me this card... she wanted to tell me how excited she is to be having a quilt shop opening, she told me that she couldn't wait to be my very first customer... Now isn't that lovely... She made my day... made me feel so very happy and very much more positive...  I invited her in for a little peek... now she's even more excited and decided to book herself in for classes!!

Quilty Quarters

I'm sure you won't be surprised to know that I am having a very tough time concentrating on any stitchy-ness. My mind is so full of shop stuff that I can't settle at any of the sewing machines. Yesterday, Sunday, I was told to "Go Sew"... so I did, I pulled out the drawer full of 2 1/2" strips and started to sew them together with no plan at all. Recently I had watched this video clip 
I thought it looked rather clever, that's what I made with my strip sets... Cut blocks 10" wide, put 2 together, stitched them all round the edges then sliced em up. The downside though, all the edges are bias... yuk! I'll use this little quilt top to practice free motion quilting I think, one day... or I might make more blocks or I might think of another plan... for now thay will sit there on my design wall while I do more Angie's Patchwork & Quilting Shop preparation... Today it's the wood guys making shelves, more fabric will be delivered and there's an appointment with a money man to attend.... Hey Ho

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Lynda finished her Pineapple Blossom quilt top. This picture was taken before the other 3 borders were added though. Can you see what she did for the borders? She practised the very much loved PMS technic (Please My Self) She's making two of these quilts and wanted to use her bonus HST (Half Square Triangles) on both, by placing different sized bricks of fabric in-between the HST she will have just enough and both quilts will look fabulous. Lynda also made a sandwich with this top before she went home.

Christine had finished all of her quilting and was ready to trim. She's been quilting for quite a few years and had never been shown how to trim the excess fabric and wadding, a quick "How To" from yours truly and she was an expert already... She was also impressed with the "How To" I showed her for making a perfect sandwich, I guess we could say trimming the quilt is like 'cutting the unwanted crusts off' ha ha ha

Maid Marion, now don't laugh, it's something that could happen to anyone really (go on, I laughed a lot, it's really quite funny, he he he) Marion had planned to do all the fiddly Cross Hatch quilting on this triangle block. So as not to waste time at Quilt Cave drawing lines, she decided to get all of them drawn the night before, great idea eh... except she had used her Sewline Air Erasable pen... I bet you can guess the rest... and I bet you are laughing!

New Sue's Teddy Quads... they are almost finished, all the background areas have been free motion quilted. She did some shadow quilting on the various parts of the teddies to give them a little definition, like the inside of the ear and outlining the waistcoats and trousers. She's also done a little micro quilting.

Late Sue's already got her next project decided, which is a good thing as she's just about finished all the quilting on this lovely Pineapple Blossom, she's done loads of free motion quilting on it which looks especially good on the back where she's used a delicious aboriginal dot design, I think it's a Fassett one. Next step will be faux piped binding.

Jenny Barlaston won most of these blocks at the last SPQ evening at the beginning of February. She made up an extra 9 blocks giving her enough to be able to get this Barn Raising design, I love the Log Cabin quilts, they're timeless, traditional and so now too!

Joan The Shop had her pieced backing ready so we were all able to help her make a sandwich. This is half of the quilt as Joan is using the Apartment method, stitching the quilted halves together once they are completed. Joan finds free motion quilting so much easier to do than using the walking foot because she has 'dicky' shoulders and the pulling and pushing needed to get the quilt through the machine hole can be avoided.

Helen's commission quilt centre has all the sashing now so we did the 'mathemisms' to calculate how much more fabric she needs to make 28 x 9" Saw Tooth blocks which will be used as the pieced border... the problem is, each block needs 3 HST (Half Square Triangles) and Helen detests making them, he he he... poor Helen, you only need about... 90!!!

We meet again on Wednesday 29th February. 10am - 3pm and Friday, of course... but that won't be until March... daffodil time!

Jolly Jo & The Chickens

Jolly Jo, as promised back in 2011, is making her way through her PhD's (Projects Half Done) on a mission to finish them all. Here's her latest achievement... Hens... The quilt has been named with something very humorous but, you know... that name escapes me for now. Jo used her Bernina machine hand quilting stitch (technology!) to quilt the chicken details, click on the picture to see closer... I really like how Jo changed the direction of the Cross Hatch quilting for the middle Hen block... or... was that the right way and the other 8 refused to conform? We may never know.

You really have to click on this to see the fabrics... Cute chickens and eggs, Jo's not too sure what possessed her to buy "EGG" fabric but doesn't it look perfect on the back... Chickens and Eggs... made to be together eh!
This Chicken fabric, as I said in the previous post, you just can't help but smile when you look at it... are you smiling too? There's not much left and with Easter round the corner... Shirley predicted that there might just be a rush for it... we'd better form a queue eh!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Oh what a wonderful, fun filled day we had. Usually the ladies start to drip into Caverswall Village hall from about 9:40am but today, they arrived just as if they had all come on the same coach.. almost all at the very same moment, it felt like party time, yeeeha We were very busy all day. All the tables were used and, rather than wait for a space we used the stage as a design area... At the bottom of the photo there's Helen's Log Cabin blocks, top left is Lacey Anne's quilt top, she was making a pieced backing and to the left of the top it's ME! Joan was needing a pieced backing too but she had a very cunning plan... left me with the mathemisms and all the cutting, crafty madam.

Early Sue had had a Jelly Roll gifted to her so she's working on a baby quilt. 4 of the smaller 5" blocks make up each larger block and there will be 6 of those, I'm quite sure they were 10 inches each. The blocks will have a strong pink sashing with a crisp, white corner stone.. very cute and girly indeed.

Maid Marion was doing her Cross Hatch quilting and, once again, she had the benefit of a private lesson from her teacher, Helen... who has made several of these blocks, actually I'm thinking she made only 2.... No need to tie off thousands of threads any more, Helen devised a rather clever trick to save all that time, all she did was to change the order of things... it's a secret, you'll have to come on over if you want to know.. it saves a lot of cursing time too he he he.

Dotty Maureen, I'm sure you'll remember, started this 9-Patch Pineapple only last week... she's made hundreds of the triangles and has them all sliced up.. she's keeping them in very tidy piles so she can chain piece them into blocks... I wonder how big this project will be? Dotty is loving her new Bernina Aurora Baby! She was quite lucky to get one as they have been replaced by a more spruced up version with a matching price tag,

Shirley Lerly wants her quilt to be at least 88 inches square. Using 6inch blocks it's taking a good length of time to get all the blocks complete. Today Shirley seized a moment when the tables were vacant and was able to spread the blocks out... 12 wide by 12 long should do the trick, with borders of course. The 9-Patch blocks have 3 different designs so Shirley needed to have one last count up to know how many more of each to make.

Lizi wasn't able to join us today but she asked her Mum (Shirley Lerly) to buy some of my truly wonderful "Chicken Fabric"... Lizi is going to use it as the lining for this super practical tote bag, what fun to look at little chickens every time you pop something into your bag... sure to bring a smile to the face of the lucky recipient eh!.. It makes me smile every time I look at it...

Lots of other projects to show you but that's enough for this one post. We meet again on Friday 24th February, 10am -3pm as usual. "Table Top Shop, wadding on the side" has started to shrink a little now as lots of the bolts have been put ready for the Angie's New Quilt Shop... that's me... I am a real quilt shop owner... how very exciting eh! Don't worry though, there's still a huge selection at every meeting, should you need... or want anything.

Caverswall Quilt Cave

A most productive day, once again. It's great to see so many ladies making sandwiches and quilting their own beautiful quilts of all shapes and sizes.
Joan The Shop is making this quilt for her son, he chose the design and now he's waiting for it to be finished, yesterday! Joan's doing her best... the blocks are about 15 inches and with sashing of 3 inches, it's growing fast, Joan only needs 12 blocks in total It's a very colourful project, Joan says it's her best quilt yet... I'm sure she says that with each one... ha ha ha

The top of this picture gives you a sneak preview of my chair.. the one we might get for the classroom side of my shop and on the table there is something My Mum (Gwynneth) and I started to play with. She lays out the blocks every time we meet at Caverswall Village Hall and that's as far as she gets... we're just too busy. The main part of this picture shows Lacey Anne's floor quilt, not a quilt to use on the floor but a Minton floor design, she was working on the borders, they look 3D don't they. This is another occasion when the colours don't show up well in a picture, they're really very rich.

Late Sue finished off her walking foot quilting during the day so was able to make a good start on the free motion bits. The visibility is very good on these Juki Beasts (TL98) It's so much easier to see where you're going and, of course, where you've been. I've just noticed the colour co-ordinated gloves Sue's using... very chic eh!

Dotty Maureen, can you believe it... she remembered to bring everything she needed and everything she might need to have a fun stitchy day, well, all except her fabrics... this could only mean one thing... buy more fabric and start ANOTHER project! Cubes... this time for a baby quilt, imagine finding jungle animals in your boxes!

Helen has been commissioned once again... she was asked to make this quilt for a teacher at a local school. It's based on the Lilly's Colours quilt (picture in the side bar to the left of this blog)... I know!...it looks reeeeally different with this colour way doesn't it. Helen is not a big fan of piecing, which is a shame as she's very good at it, she's sure to complain about all the half square triangles she'll need for the Saw Tooth border.
Last minute Chris has also been commissioned to make some small quilts, My mum has two waiting and Annie Pie has a list of orders... people must think we're running a sweat shop! ha ha ha. Looks like quilts are great fashion items these days Yeeeeeehaaa finally!

We meet again on Wednesday 22nd and Friday 24th February, 10am - 3pm as usual. I will be a real quilt shop owner by then... there won't be anything in it, apart from cleaning things and mess, but a shop owner all the same! "Table Top Shop, 4 kinds of wadding on the side" will continue to wait for you at Caverswall Village Hall for a few more weeks if you'd like to pop over... I'm sure to have something you didn't know that you needed!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Dotty Maureen, talk about a quilting whiz. does anyone make as many quilts as she does? I don't think so actually... This Pineapple design is very clever, first of all she made triangle blocks then she sliced them up and switched them around, of course then Dotty stitched them back together again, are you following?? There's a video here ... tis a very clever method isn't it. Dotty confessed to a new addiction called You Tube!

Krafty Karen must be nearly finished with her quilting as we can see the borders have stitching on them.. always the final stage... Poor Karen has workmen in her house, along with sick men folk of the family... not a good recipe for finding any stitching time! She surely enjoyed her peace and quiet... not that it's quiet with a bunch of quilters in one room... no drills & no hammers though...

Chatty Cathy is still making blocks with her scrap fabrics. She's determined to master accurate cutting and the perfect scant quarter inch seam. All these blocks are different sizes which isn't a problem... once she's finished practising we can play a game... a puzzle game, it's a bit like 'square pegs in round holes' ha ha ha some how they will fit together!

That's all folks, a measly 3 pictures, actually, 4 if you count the £2 quilt from the last post... I'm still mad about that beauty....
We meet again today, 17th February, 10am - 3pm, as usual. If everything goes to plan, I will take photographs to show you... might just be safer to come on over to see everything for your very own self... it never seems to go to plan! ha ha ha

How Very Dare They??

And I really mean... "How very dare they??" indeed... Someone had very kindly donated this quilt to a local branch of Douglas Macmillan Charity shop. Our Maid Marion, a lovely lady who does a lot of things for charity, happened to go there the other day... she purchased this quilt, for a song... now... I love a bargain and I would probably have bought it myself had I seen it... Not because I wanted it for my very own self, but to rescue it.
The price on the sales ticket??? You really want to know?? Two whole British pounds... £2.00 that's the price of a cup of tea. It's how much you pay to park for only 1 hour in our city centre and you can't even buy a glass of wine for £2.00!!... £2.00!!! oh it makes me cross. It's all hand quilted, it's not prize winning quilting to be fair but even so.... Marion has washed it and dried it in the tumble dryer and it's as good as new, it's a good double bed size with pieced scallop borders, very clever indeed. I am speechless (well, obviously I lie about that!!) how can a charity fund raising shop put such little value on something so beautiful? Someone needs a good talking to.

Uttoxeter Quilt Class

Lovely Lyn has been quilting with her darning foot, free motion quilting. I hope you can see the square zig-zagging that suggests fencing in the fields, it's really effective.. done with free motion! I tried to catch the light well to highlight the stitching for you (with me being a numpty at photoshooting it probably hasn't worked) the border design looks fabulous. I drew a few of the curvy lines with the Sewline Air Erasabubble pen, just to give Lyn the general idea... she followed the lines and when those lines ran out, she continued free-motion-ing beautifully! This play mat's all trimmed up and the binding could very well be on by now.

"Here a sheep, there a sheep, every where a sheep sheep".... Giggly Gillian finished apppliqueing her big sheep, the ones like Lyn's, and has carried on to add the little cute lambs, butterflies and flowers... as you see here. Gillian had a 'play school' day... cutting and sticking, he he... She did do some sewing, but not until after lunch, these are the four corner meadow blocks.

Hilary is our new lady... I think she enjoyed her first day, she's coming back next time! She chose fabrics to make her Rail Fence Table Runner guided by the colour scheme in her dining room, a great idea. She soon got the hang of rotary cutting and she already sews lovely straight lines, which can only help with the accuracy eh... by the end of the day Hilary had a few blocks ready and was able to stitch them together, she was happy to have homework too!

Marisabel's quilt top was ready to be sandwiched. She had placed the quilt top on the bed it will be used on and decided she would like it to be a little longer and only slightly wider, a great time to use 'Piano Keys', they will run 'long-ways' on the sides to add only 2" and soldier style for the top and bottom adding 4", which is 8" on the length in total. All this will be just perfect with a finishing border in a scrumptious blue... did you keep up?... I can show you next time...

Messy Maureen is finally coming to the end of these blue fabrics, the ones you see here used as the background, I bet she's pleased about that as she has used them in every project over the last year or so. It was all in with a box of unwanted fabrics she acquired and the blues seem to have been reproducing, each time we think it's finished we find another piece! Maureen made a sandwich and started the quilting... on her freshly PAT tested machine!

We will meet again at The Bank House Hotel in Uttoxeter on Tuesday 28th February. We have to miss a week because I will be cleaning in my new shop! The wood man will be coming, the fire extinguisher guy, the tables should be delivered... how exciting eh!

Quilty Quarters

Not as bright as you might expect from yours truly in her Quilty Quarters?... There were three carrier bags sitting by my front door, they were stuffed full of "Clothes I don't want any more" not really good enough for the charity shop and so destined for the duster/cloth bucket Fine... we can't keep stuff that doesn't fit can we, that lad of mine grew!. In said bags... cotton boxer shorts! Oh, now what a waste of lovely cotton... waste?? Oh NO... not when your Mum's a Quilter!

I cut 'em up, starched 'em and sliced enough 8 1/2" squares to make this simple quilt... in a day! Backed with this very soft denim blue cotton, wadding is Cream Rose... extravagant maybe but it was an off cut. This quilt is very soft. I'm not sure exactly what he (son 22) thought when I gave him the quilt, but his face said "Oh, that's my boxers? eeerrrrrm ewww"  fun eh! The binding is just the excess backing fabric rolled over to the front with three rows of stitching to give it a little 'umph', cheating? Nope... actually it's just PMS (Pleasing My Self)

and finally...  I made this Kindle pocket. This is the back view, it does have a flap to the front. It's padded with wadding and stiffened with interfacing, some No Name product that I sell for stiffening bags and the like... and I have to admit, I am rather impressed with it.

Lacey Anne's Quilt Top

Lacey Anne made the centre of this quilt top way back in August 2010, I have the evidence here, oh yes... blogs have their uses, ha ha ha. Of course, Anne has made other fabulous quilts along the way... this one has been a work in progress for all that time. She's stitching the applique letters at the moment, they've been done with the 'Sticky Stuff' method. Anne has a great eye for colour don't you think, who'd have thought that grey fabric would look so good?... but it does...

Caverswall Quilt Cave

What a day!!!  We had to deal with black ice... I slid out of my driveway, slid out of my road but, thanks to some guys throwing down sand, succeeded in reaching the main road, which had been treated. What a journey it was though. There were cars sliding all over the place... very scary indeed. I hadn't expected anyone to turn up at Caverswall Quilt Cave. How wrong I was... us quilters will battle through anything rather than miss a fun stitchy day!

 I was kept extremely busy all day long so... it's mean pickings once again on the photos.
This block belongs to Joan The Shop. She needs 16 of them for the quilt she's making, you can just see that number 2 block is ready for it's Saw Tooth border and, as the Half Square Triangles (HST) are already made,  it too will be finished very soon.

Dotty Maureen was very productive, busy all day. She finished off the little table mats by turning the backing over to be the binding, it was really wide and suited the mats very nicely indeed... twas quite nifty! In this picture you can see the other quilt Dotty's almost finished with Twiddling and Fiddling which she does very well, it makes a great design don't you think?

New Sue had finished making her Teddy Quads at home, they look so cute with their eyes and noses in place don't they? (for those of you asking me, the pattern is in a Jelly Roll book and I'm not sure which one) Sue arrived ready to make a sandwich. She had to piece the backing first, most of us do that. You can buy extra wide fabrics for backing quilts, but we choose to piece them. Sue attached her brand new walking foot and spent the rest of the day quilting.

Lynda has 20 of the Pineapple Blossom blocks completed. She's just decided that the quilt is going to big enough without making more so it's time to start joining them all together. There will be a few blocks left over and they will look great incorporated in the backing. Lynda was auditioning fabrics for the sashings. She tried every colour and liked this purple best of all.

That's it, 4 pictures... I told you we were busy! We meet again on Wednesday 15th and Friday 17th February. 10am - 3pm as usual.

If you missed the PAT testing man, and lots of you did because of the treacherous conditions... He's coming back in April, I'll let you know the details nearer the time. If you have somewhere else you can get your machines tested, I urge you to do so. Yesterday 4 machines had the wrong size fuse in the plug. One sewing machine failed the test because it had an earth leak, a good recipe for an electric shock, and one sewing machine had a dangerous plug, and that's from testing only 18 machines!

Jolly Jo's Quilt

Jolly Jo made this Drunkards Path lap quilt top just after our workshop with Dawn Cameron-Dick back in October 2011... that's only 3-4 months ago but it feels so much longer with saying 'last year'... Jo was very much inspired by the invisible machine applique method so when she got home after the workshop she immediately started work on this. She had wanted to free motion quilt but when she started it wasn't suiting the idea she had in mind. At Quilt Cave we haven't seen this quilt for a few weeks, on Wednesday though, Jo brought it in finished.... WOW!

It's absolutely wonderful... with all the stitching she did and the coloured threads she used... I'm adding this photo of the back so you can see the design very much more clearly... there's a lot of quilting... doesn't it look great! Jo says she's very pleased with the way it turned out, and that's all that matters eh...

Caverswall Quilt Cave, part 1

Joan The Shop gifted her purple quilt to Helen already and moved on to a new project. Not that she finished the one she started a few weeks ago, remember the chocolate fish? Joan likes to work on a few quilts at the same time... that's fine, some folk like it that way. I'm watching carefully as this quilt has been near the top of my 'To Do' list for a few months now. I gave a quick refresher demonstration of how to make multiple Half Square Triangle (HST) blocks at the same time, which will come in handy for Joan quite soon.

Lizi started her last set of Log Cabin blocks. First she had a query  about her logs looking a little bit bent. I carefully scrutinised, measured and pondered... most of them I could not see at all and the odd veeeeeeery slightly bent log soon straightened up when the next log was added. Lizi is determined to have these quilt blocks turn out perfectly and she's succeeding, it's going to be a stunning quilt!

Last week, Jolly Jo had not really enjoyed using the starch and press your fingers method of turning the seams ready to be invisibly appliquéd. Table Top Shop had just taken delivery of a full display of Sewline items, one of which was the Sewline Glue Stick. Jo purchased one to try and was super impressed with it. She made great progress with the preparation of all the elements of her appliqué picture... she bought a glue stick refill, to be sure she didn't run out, and went home full of good intention!

Dotty Maureen now holds the Caverswall Quilt Cave record for making the smallest sandwich, she still took up two tables though, he he he. She seems to be enjoying making table runners and table mats of late. After seeing Annie Pie's twister project Dotty played around and made a set these, with only 4 small twisters... she will need to search for transparent plates so her guests can see how fabulous their table mat is!

Chatty Cathy is working her way through the blocks in Alex Anderson's beginner book. She wants to practice and perfect her cutting and piecing skills using up her scraps, before purchasing what she calls 'good' fabrics. The practice is paying off, this block was very successful. Cathy has a few projects in mind, in fact she has quite a long list!! who doesn't? We ordered her new sewing machine too... there'll be no stopping her once it arrives, Cathy will be able to sew with straight feeding feed-dogs... that's gotta help eh!

Annie Pie continued with her Chocolate theme. This is a Ten Minute Block of Chocolate quilt, ha ha ha. She's not calling it that, it's just something that I'm thinking ... but it's good eh, and Yummy! Annie will 'Cathedral-ly' turn the edges of those centre white chocolate bits to make them more curvy... with coffee coloured chocolate squares in the centre... is your mouth watering too?

We meet again on Friday 10th February... tomorrow! Please Please remember that you can bring your sewing machines (and any other portable appliance you care to have tested) The PAT Testing Man will be available between 11am and mid-day. £2 per machine, including the cable this time!


6:40am... Oh dear, I just watched the weather man give a local forecast... we might get snowed in over night! I'll have to keep an eye on that. 

Uttoxeter Quilt Class

Lovely Lyn made a lamb sandwich! For the back she chose some fabric with fun little cars in lots of colours so as to make the quilt double sided fun. Can you see the fabulous border fabric too? All tied together with the bright orange inner border. Lyn started to quilt using her darning foot and free motion quilting... she's shadowing the flock of sheep whilst thinking about the background design.

Lizzy brought in her two sandwiches and chose a rather gorgeous King Tut, Tone-on-Tone thread in a sort of mulled wine colour, it was perfect for today's job of quilting. Lizzy decided to stitch in the ditch, not ditch hopping as she's quite an expert by now, of the Churndash blocks and she will probably follow the sashing too. The borders will be quilted once the two halves have been stitched together... and there could quite possibly be a little free motion for the borders.
Marisabel and Messy Maureen escaped the camera so you will have to wait until next week to see what they are working on.

We meet again next Tuesday, 14th February 10am to 3pm... there won't be a lot of romancing but I bet there will be chocolate!