Stitching News

My Mum Gwynneth is fascinated by differently (and usually tricky) pieced blocks and quilts. When one of the ladies produced this unwanted design, she jumped at the chance to have a go.

My Mum Gwynneth again, not so tricky for piecing but a close eye needed to be kept on fabric placement... she does enjoy a good puzzle! Two Charm packs (obviously it can be made with 5" stash squares too) and some background fabric... a free pattern on tinterweb...

Helen won't have any teeth left when/if she finishes her sampler blocks, he he he... talk about teeth grinding with frustration!!! She refuses to be beaten by a few little 'evil triangles'... that's what she calls them! Stick at it Helen, it really is a fun thing to do!

Lacey Ann decided to 'wonk' only the alternate blocks, doesn't it look fabulous... she added a little square of wadding behind each ballerina and quilted them so that, once she adds the main wadding, those ballerinas will be extra phooofy... nothing quite like a phooofy ballerina!!!

This was Wendy's table... she received a Jelly Roll for subscribing to a British Patchwork magazine, I think the Jelly Roll is Trade Winds one... the same one Jolly Jo was working with... Wendy's making Wonky Stars... they don't half help you make a mess... and a lot of tiny scraps.

Sheila attended the last workshop we had in My Very Own Classroom with Jane Lockley. She's continued adding arty farty bits and bobs, adding fancy stitching and embellishing and now it's ready for the edging treatment, this quilt will be hanging in my shop soon for you all to see, Wendy and Geoff finished theirs too... they're also on display.

Most of these pictures are from Caverswall Quilt Cave on Wednesday this week... I hope you have remembered that we will NOT BE MEETING next week 3rd October... for the simple reason of...the hall will be in use by the WI. We will be back together on October 10th.... But some of us will be stitching together on Saturday at the SPQ Soup, Sewing and Sixties day... I'm really looking forward to the day.. there's room for more of you take a look here if you want to go...

Stitching News

Jenny Barlaston had this brilliant idea... making 40 ruby red applique hearts for a ruby wedding anniversary gift quilt. She's been collecting red fabrics for quite a while now so every heart is actually a different fabric, lovely.

Ann is still working on her black and purple Ohio Star quilt but, as there is no hurry to finish it, she's decided to make Christmas cushions as well.

PM Pam had shown her lovely cushions to a friend... you won't be surprised to know that the friend has commissioned Pam to make a cushion for her will you?

Geoff is suffering a weeks holiday from work... all those outdoors-y jobs stand no chance of getting done with all the rain and flooding we're experiencing, so... he decided to sew... after a visit to my very own quilt shop, Geoff made this quilted tote bag for his wife using my tutorial for the Big Quilted Panel Bag.  

Jean Bean has all of the blocks stabilized now so she was able to trim away a lot of the excess wadding. With everything stable, Jean can quilt the borders and bind the lovely quilt before doing her free motion design, makes it much easier to squish through the machine hole..

Shirley Lerly is making a quilt for her Dad, Bento Box. She's made up quite a few blocks now... folk in class have seen what she's up to so it looks like we might have a few of these quilts being made sometime soon. Isn't it a great feeling , knowing your quilt inspired others to make one too! 

Princess Jackie eventually added borders and corner stones to her Christmas Tree wall hanging. The measurements for her blocks and the lining up the block at the top of the tree have proved a little taxing... she cracked it in the end and all the effort has paid off for another fabulous tree!

Lovely Lyn finished all of her quilting and added the binding. There's just the hand stitching to do as homework and a label of course, and it will be ready to have it's very own Toot toot toot moment!

I could no longer keep the other computer going, the blooming thing kept crashing... but I knew how to use it... I am learning to use this one, can't get on with the photo sorting very well... so I do apologize for any rubbish pictures you see... be happy there are pictures though... that's a good thing! ha ha ha

Stitching Catch-Up

Joan The Shop is back from her travels with rather beautiful sun tanned hands... she's missed us... missed my coffee, missed my biscuits and missed all the chatter-y chatter... Quilt Club starts at 10am... this is what time Joan actually started to sew, she did make a few Kaleidoscope block though.

Helen has lots of good sized bits of cream fabric left over from her Heirloom project so she's decided to work her way through the 501 block book making up as many 6" squares as she can, they do look good don't they.

Late Sue is making Disappearing 4-Patch blocks ready for the baby play mat (quilt) she's planning on gifting. She got in a pickle with the sheep fabric as Sue wanted all the little sheep to be the right way up, twas more of a challenge than we expected it to be.

Jolly Jo has decided to make a Log Cabin quilt with a Christmas fabric theme. She's determined to perfect her patchwork piecing skills and the Log Cabin blocks are great for just that. Jo had purchased a new 1/4" foot with no guide bar, took great care cutting the strips and didn't use an iron... as far as I could see.. these small changes did the trick! First block was bang on track to perfection.

PM Pam's Christmas Tree

PM Pam popped in yesterday with her bag jingling... She pulled out her beautiful and finished Oh Christmas Tree wall hanging, Toot Toot Toot... it sounded just like a magical moment... Pam stitched lovely jingley bells to the points of her Christmas Tree and they do jingle in a most lovely way... of course she bought them from a little jar on the shelf of My Very Own Patchwork & Quilting Shop. I almost got excited about there being only 94 days to go... now then, have I made your day with that little snippet?

Toot Toot Toot Early Sue

Bento Box quilts are fun to make, not a triangle in sight and that makes it very appealing, the method we use is fun too. This beauty belongs to our Early Sue, she purchased the fabrics pretty much on the day they arrived, not knowing what she would make with them... Oh No.... Would you EVER do that? ha ha ha. She quilted fabulous Free Motion hearts and loopy loops all over the quilt and finished off with perfectly pieced Faux Piped Binding... it's done and ready to be snuggled under... just in time for the cold weather!

Toot Toot Toot Jolly Jo

Jolly Jo's very own design... you've heard of Quilt-As-You-Go ... this is Think-As-You-Go... we do a lot of that! Jo started with gifted fabrics, wanted to keep them all in the same quilt, made the 5 large blocks.. decided to make a larger quilt, added large white blocks... looking a bit too white, piece and appliqué tiny hearts... loved doing the tiny squares for the hearts, wanted to make more.... borders... and so it goes..  and Yes, it is huge...What a stunning quilt!! 

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Posh Lizi's most stunning Log Cabin thirds are now all stitched together... at least the backs are. there's a bit more stitching needing to be done on one of the top joins but, apart from that, it's almost binding and toot toot toot time! 

We're having a bit of a run on large sandwiches at the Quilt Cave lately. For several weeks we have needed to use every single table... This is Jolly Jo's Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope quilt sandwich, she had already pinned her Jelly Roll quilt... she's certainly got plenty of quilting to do.

Chatty Cathy also made a sandwich, you can just about see it here, top right of the picture, it's a king size bed scarf of tiny Log Cabin blocks and is as long as the stage. Front and centre are Cathy's Kaleidoscope blocks, she was deciding which fabrics to use as borders and sashing, the Indian Batik will make a great backing Fabric, don't you think?

Tuesday Stitching

Giggly Gillian continued to work on her scrappy quilt. It's now only a little bit like the pattern she was following. I always encourage PMS (Pleasing My Self) Leaving people free to change their mind and change the pattern makes for some fabulous quilts... Gillian brought in her second favourite book, it's about piecing the backings... a fun book. 

Lovely Lyn added two borders to her Christmas Tree wall hanging.. a stunning quilt top!
She had announced that she would never... really, Never EVER paper piece again... now she's finished this quilt top... she will paper piece again in the future, she changed her mind... that's allowed too!

Princess Jackie finished another quilt top... it's so lovely, gorgeous crisp colours and stunning border treatment!.... She joined the pieces of fabric and spare blocks to make a fabulous pieced backing then made a sandwich. Jackie's really in a productive mode and enjoying every minute of it!

Monday's Update

Brenda Barbara's making a table set ready for the festive season... (not sure why she's making blurred quilts though he he he... oh .. that was me) These blocks will be joined together with a very clever method to make a table centre, I'll show you next time.

PM Pam added borders and made her Christmas Tree sandwich, what great border fabric eh! No points for guessing where that came from! She spent the day quilting this lovely quilt. It's fun doing a small project, especially when you have a huge one waiting! he he he

Longport Lynda, what a card she is, I defy anyone not to be laughing in her presence. This quilt design is now called Rail Tracks, Lynda loves it, and no wonder!  The background shows one of the walls in My Very Own Classroom, it looks bigger than it actually s really.

Longport Lynda attended one of the Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope workshops recently.  Her fabric was a little challenging as it is curtain fabric, a little thick for getting the pointy points... she did a great job, two more borders to go! actually.. I think there might be another round....

Afternoon Judith's Play Mat/Quilt

Toot Toot Toot for Afternoon Judith's latest quilt finish, she made this cute baby play mat from the book Sweet Nursery Chic, such a lovely book with the cutest patterns and all very use-a-bubble. What great colours and fabrics for a neutral baby gift, not a dot of pink or blue anywhere!

Recycled Stuff, Art Quilt Workshop

In no particular order, here are a few of the photos I took yesterday during the Arty Farty Workshop in My Very Own Classroom. 

Teacher for the day was the very lovely and, evidently inspiring, Jane Lockley

Students only needed a few inspirational words... and they all set to... 
Paint this, melt that... stick this... how about covering it with that... try a different colour... oooo what's that in your box?

Borrow a bit of this... borrow a piece of that... I love your this and that... take it please... I have loads... Share mine, take a snip of hers... the most amazing collection of 'stuff', from sweety papers to sheet music, a feather or two and beads galore.... monkey stamps, plaited threads...

There was lace to be painted... lace by the metre, lace from sexy knickers... oh the memories... geoff announced he might be getting a little embarrassed! 
Stitching with thin thread, thick thread, shiny thread, metallic thread... straight stitch, zig-zag stitch

variegated thread .... hand stitch... Add a few dried flowers, pressed flowers, buttons... why stop at flowers? dried fruit, fruit sacks, little people, buttons, beads and sequins...  They had so much fun!

Our next arty workshop will be using felts and stamps and walnut inks and more pretty threads, all needed to make little samples like these... oh boy Miss Jane is a great teacher isn't she!

Oh Christmas Tree

Early Sue's Christmas Tree wall hanging, complete with beautiful  paper pieced  baubles. She must be very pleased with it as she sent me the picture.... folk only do that when they are 'toot toot tooting', ... funny how I  only get photos of the quilts folk are chuffed about! Sue says she really enjoyed the paper piecing and will definitely do more projects using the method. I wonder how Sue will quilt it?
I just had a funny thought.... Christmas Tree Sandwiches? 

Oh Christmas Tree

We shall have our very own forest of Christmas trees very soon, he he he. Most of the ladies carried on making their paper pieced baubles directly after the workshop last Saturday so, I think, they're all going to be finished in plenty of time for the festive season. This one belongs to Carole, she was shopping for the border fabrics, there are so many to choose from in My Very Own Quilt Shop you know!

I forgot to take pictures at Friday Quilt Club, so it's a jolly good job Carole popped in to save the day!

Wendy's Quilt

It's getting to be quite a Toot Toot Tooty week isn't it... this latest one belongs to our Wendy. It's the quilt she started making quite a while ago, using the book that cost only 99 pence, she now knows why it only cost 99 pence! It's a good job Wendy is very skilled... we would never know the trouble the templates caused looking at this lovely quilt now would we.

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Jean Bean made her beautiful and bright quilt sandwich... she's been doodling on paper, getting ready for free motion quilting... what a fabulous design she invented.

Chris The Foot really enjoys making the Split 4-Patch blocks. This time she's using a Charm pack, no points for guessing where she bought it from, he he he, it's looking great eh!

Chris The Foot again... she finished and sandwiched this baby play mat (quilt) It's going to be simply and quickly quilted and finished as baby already arrived...

Shirley Lerly's quilt is almost as big as the Caverswall Village Hall stage! She has a few blocks left over so there will be a beautiful pieced backing to perfectly complement the top... sandwiching next week might need 10 tables, he he

Posh Lizi finished all of the quilting she could do with the three sections of her beautiful Log Cabin quilt... time to start joining them together... not as easy as it looks when the top design needs to be so very accurate... seams to match up each and every inch of the way... she wasn't smiling like she usually does.

Rosey joined us for her very first time, she came to see what was going on after seeing Charlotte's beautiful Bad Scarf last week... She purchased a very convenient Charm Pack from the much smaller "Table Top Shop" with wadding still there on the side. Rosey was getting her borders ready by the end of the day!

A rushed post is better than no post isn't it?

Jenny Barlaston's Quilt

Jenny Barlaston's fabulous finished quilt photo, as promised ...and here I go... Toot Toot Toot!!!  isn't it just lovely!! Jenny started this quilt at a workshop last year... see anything familiar in the design?  Do they count as 7 towards the table topper record which stands at 11 right now?

Tuesday Stitching

Krafty Karen is just about arriving at the top of the 'home straight with her Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope quilt.  She quilted the centre in two halves before joining them, appartment style, and is now working on quilting the borders which have been added separately... Toot toot toot is just around the corner!

Same for Jenny Barlaston, another toot toot toot is on it's way (really! wait for the next post!) Jenny said that she had started this quilt over one year ago and will be very happy to see it finished. Jenny sent the quilt to Quilters Trading Post to be quilted by a computerised machine and it looks wonderful.

Lovely Lyn spent her day making more paper pieced baubles for her Christmas tree wall hanging, I'm not sure she will ever paper piece again in the future. You know Paper Piecing is like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it! Once everyone had packed up to go home there was enough table space to sandwich Lyn's beautiful purple quilt, so we did just that.

Princess Jackie finished her last few blocks and, after a quick 'how to', cut the side setting triangles and pieced the whole thing together. There's a chart in My Very Own Classroom to help with the side setting triangle sizes, tis very useful indeed... 

Giggly GIllian made this little quilt last year and I had asked her to bring it one day so that I could have another look at it, and get a picture to show to you too! We had a lot of fun with fudging and improvising while we worked on this one, it's really beautiful isn't it.