Wishing For You...

Everything you wish for your very own self... I can't do any better than that.
I'm thinking that would make you all very happy...
You want it... go get it, go do it... it's the only way.

I'll be spending the first few days of 2014 in isolation in hospital... radioactive! It's the final, at least I hope it's the final part, of Thyroid Cancer treatment. They plan on Zapping anything that's left, they call it the belt and braces approach.

There's been very little stitching done round here. I've been waiting... I didn't need to wait, but I waited anyway. I actually found I couldn't concentrate on sewing knowing I was going to have this treatment... so, I cleaned, sorted, tidied and filled bags with "what am I keeping that for?" stuff. Quite therapeutic actually.
Quilty Quarters has been tidied too... My Lilly has her very own craft room now so I can happily donate some crafty stuff to her, she can make good use of anything as she's such a creative spirit.

Sewing prevention season is almost done and dusted... did you stitch at all?
I know some of you received new sewing machines from Santa wooohooo... brilliant news. I bet you'll be needing new fabrics?
My very own patchwork and quilting shop will be opening as normal from Thursday 2nd January, thanks to My Mum Gwynneth, Jean Bean and Jenny Barlaston... what would I do without them!!
Classes resume from Monday 6th January.

Caverswall Village Hall, Wednesday Quilt Cave meetings will start only in February.
If you remember, I offered to have my shop classroom open on Wednesdays for the Caverswall ladies. No-one has said they would like to come stitching yet so I am presuming that there's no need for the shop to be opened on Wednesday 8th January. I will keep you updated as there's still time for that to change.

Happy New Year to us all.... Here's hoping...

Sewing Prevention Season

Merry Christmas

That's it, it's here...
I'm playing in my quilty Quarters...
  oh no I'm not!!
Not yet anyway but it is the main plan, as it stands today! Hope you manage to arrange a little bit of stitching time. I don't expect to be blogging for a few days... unless I produce something wonderful of course!

Michelle My Belle

Toot toot toot-e-ty toot toot fanfare for a fabulous and finish quilt...
and what a finish it is, indeed!
This is a huge quilt, Jenny was standing up on the table and Michelle up on the very top step of my step ladders with hands touching the ceiling and still a bit of the border is curled up on the floor (I should just mention and ask... "have you seen the fantastic patchwork tiled floor?") It's about 98" by 108".... I'm back on the quilt now... it was made of two layer cakes with some extra yardage, quilted with a walking foot with some free motioned detail... on a domestic sewing machine, a fabulous Juki HZL 210, called Baby Belle. Michelle was commissioned to make this beauty, she's done a lovely job! A tricky photo to take but I think you can see how lovely the quilt is, can't you?

Stitching News With Tooting

Toot-e-t-ty toot toot
Joan The Shop finished something!!!
In her very own words too...
A fabulous... and finished, wall hanging
for our festive sewing prevention season

Toot toot toot Jenny Barlaston...
A fabulous and finished festive table runner...
 just in time to be gifted.

Barbie was quilting the final parts on her beautiful Bluebell quilt.
The binding is already on but Barbie had noticed that a few flower stems had missed the original quilting process, not a problem, we are allowed to go back and quilt more if we want to. 

Sporty Sue made her January calendar mini quilt...
 which reminds me that I haven't got a January yet.
There are some fabulous calendars in these here parts!
Thanks to the Art To Heart books

Chatty Cathy worked on a bag with a million pockets...
I exaggerate only slightly!
Without pictures I find patterns quite tricky to follow so I wasn't much use to Cathy. Luckily it was Dotty's quilting day... she knew what to do!

Stitching News

Annbacan has thoroughly enjoyed making these little festive treats.
She's made three in total and they will be gifted very soon.
They could become family heirlooms in years ahead.
Oh what a lovely shop we can see in the background!!

Jean Bean only has a mile or two left to hand stitch her fabulously impressive binding. Pieced binding is quite a fiddle but well worth the extra work, you can see that quite clearly though can't you.

Christabelle is making another totally terrific tote bag.
She's using the instructions from Sue's Tote Bag workshop which she attended a few weeks ago, months actually! Gosh, soon we will be saying last year!
You can guess where those tantalising fabrics were purchased, can't you?

Dam Julie is ready for a toot toot toot as she's finished the first of her three Christmas quilts.
During her 'School Day' (she tells her kiddies that she goes to school on Thursdays!) she almost finished number two quilt and number three is about to be joined together... 4 days to go!

Last but my goodness, not least for a tooting fanfare, is Peggy.
She's finished her little kiddy play mat and it looks just like a real quilt!
The squares are one of the pre-cut packs that have been very popular recently.
Peggy is delighted with her quilt and is making plans for next year's project already.

Crafting With Scraps

Take one ring shaped thing, in this case a polystyrene loop from the flower arranging department. Cover it with red or green fabric... 
I chose red, for me that's extra Christmassy!

Once it is completely covered, start tying on the thin strips of fabric, I would use plain, woven or batik fabrics if you have the choice because they are the same colour on both sides... don't worry if your fabrics are a little frayed, that adds to 'the rustic look'

Keep going until the hoop thing is full and trim the bits that are too long..... or don't and leave them long... PMS Pleasing My Self is rather fun

Next find one unfinished Christmas ornament from last year and attach it to the centre ... then hang it on a door!

Tooting New

Trumpets polished and held high... A loud and jolly fanfare is required for lots of finished projects please.... toot toot toot toot toooooot...

Morning Judith finished her gifting quilt. Don't tell anyone you saw this one, keep it between you and I... there's going to be a very happy and surprised fellow on Christmas morning. Judith could only work on it when he was out of the house and had to hide all evidence in the meantime... but that's fun eh.

Christabelle made another fun tree... cats this time and every one has a slightly different expression, very cute and amusing... If you don't have space for a real tree, why not hang one up on a wall... Did Ikea think of that one already?

Gail has been a busy bee...
Six stockings here but I am sure she said that she'd made eight.
The blue fabrics under the stockings are from Gail's new project, Jacob's Ladder.

Mystery Margaret wowed us with this fabulous finished quilt...
 She sends a message to us all... you may not know this... 
High loft, polyester wadding... Margaret struggled and fought a battle to keep it from slipping and twisting and would never recommend it to anyone ever, ever... ever! Now don't say we didn't warn you!

Chatty Cathy finished her Christmas Tree Skirt... but there's no hole for the tree! Aha... there will be a real tree, in a beautiful bucket, carefully placed in the centre so there was no need for the hole at all!

News From Birte!

Hi Angie
I made these santas. One of them is mine and the others were made on order
for some friends.  Arn`t they cute.
540   5"  squares. I used a slotcut ruler for cutting

Stitching News With Tooting

Toot toot toot for Princess Jackie's finished kiddie play mat... that looks just like a quilt! Fabulous and fun colours, more perfect appliqué and very cute cars on that never to end racing circuit.

Not quite tootable as the binding is still to be stitched, by hand, on the back. How very cute are those ducklings? I hope you are able to click and get a closer look at the detail. Princess Jackie's  machine appliqué is so neat!

Jean Bean happily hand stitched the binding on her Goodnight Sweetheart quilt, for an hour or so but then... abandoned it and changed tables as the urge to start her next quilt took over...  Jean began cutting up her gorgeous Batiks... most of them from my marvellous selection that had to have more shelves built!

Toot toot toot for New Sue's quite large, finished quilt. This is another that Sue's made to be gifted to a special guy. All but the lighter cream fabric are in the Midwinter Red collection from Moda, a scrumptious range with almost edible reds!

I don't know what you're up to but I'm finding there's very little time available for blogging... and I don't even do a lot for Christmas... sewing prevention season is upon us.... oh never fear, it will soon be behind us... Oh No It Won't! he he he... it seem to last for ever!

Stitching News

Lady Judith is making another Pineapple Blossom quilt... she started to make the blocks on Monday and needs the quilt by Christmas Gifting Day!! She needs to eat spinach and stop sleeping!

PM Pam continued to make Hunter's Star blocks. Dotty taught quite a few different methods during the workshop and Pam had a job to remember which one was her favourite, luckily Dotty popped into my very own shop so the problem was solved, lickety-split

Cynthia started another little and extremely cute wall hanging quilt, her table looked like one at play school and she was having just as much fun as those kiddos do.

Longport Lynda's table, on the other hand, looked like those after a jumble sale... but she knew where everything was and knew exactly what she was doing... So she said!

See, Lady Judith not only started more blocks for another quilt but she still has to quilt this huge Pineapple Blossom Quilt... both need to be finished, yesterday!

Jan's machine is in the repair shop, Phil Morton in Macclesfield, so she used one of our Juki's to do the quilting on her Railfence table runner. She did a great job too.

Monday Sheila made up lots of little stockings using one of our panels, she must have enjoyed making them because she purchased another panel to make a further 8... great value for your pennies with the panel only costing £4.20

AnnBacan, inspired by her postcard workshop, spent the day making and quilting little gift tags... sometimes all you want to do is play with little projects, she had a great day!

Aladdin's Cave??

 Lots of people enter my very own quilt shop and say 

"Wow, it's like Aladdin's Cave in here" and I say

"Oh No It Isn't!! It's Angie's Quilt Cave..." ha ha ha... take a looky look for your very own self.

You can always tell when My Lilly has been to visit... she picks up my trusty camera and snaps pictures from all angles, there were about 25 to choose from. Lilly wants to use some on my new web site that she's been building... now there's a mammoth task! But she's eating it, one bite at a time...

Let The Fun Begin

We're just about to start the festivities we've arranged for Sewing Prevention Season. This week kicks us off with our fabulous Christmas Party at Caverswall Village Hall, our much loved Wednesday Quilt Cave....
This picture was taken during last year's party... Boy did we have fun!
In January 2012 we were snowed off so many times that we didn't meet at all in January 2013... but the weather turned out to be fine, with very little snow, so we had cancelled January Quilt Cave meetings for nothing. I think we've found the perfect solution for January 2014... We shall be having our Wednesday Quilt Cave meetings in my very own quilt shop, smaller and a little cosy but better than no meetings at all... that way, if the weather decides to play silly doodahs... we won't have to worry. I can walk the distance to my shop and if no-one else can get there... I will play in my very own shop all by my very own self.
This being the case, at the time of writing this blog post, My Very Own Patchwork And Quilting Shop will be open every Wednesday of January 2014.
Of course I reserve the right to announce that the snow is too deep, the ice is too scary or the fog is stopping me from seeing anything and I'm staying home!!!

Stitching News

Shirley Lerly made a beautiful sandwich. She's been working on a fabulous backing which will complement the front very well indeed. 
Now comes the task of quilting... whilst dreaming up her next project!

Do you remember Posh Lizi's quilt... the absolutely amazing Log Cabin quilt? It's had to be put on one side whilst Lizi did other, very important things, but... it's back on the finishing straight, right now!!

JennyFlower continues with her quilting, this is a large project so it's tricky getting through that little hole... can you see Jenny's matching her quilt with her gloves and jumper? How very chic.

Helen had decided to make more blocks to make this quilt even bigger... here it's having decisions made about the borders so I quickly snapped a picture... this quilt was top secret but it's been seen already so, I'm quite safe showing it to you.

Stitching News, With Tooting

Giggly Gillian finished her beautiful lap quilt... toot toot toot for a finish!
She made it to gift to one of her sisters and is actually going to let her have it!!!
Gillian will make another for her very own self, so she says.
The pattern's from an old quilting magazine, don't you just love looking through your saved magazines... oh how those quilt pictures inspire!

Gillian attended Dotty's Hunter's Star workshop recently and, now that the 'Sister Quilt' is finished, she's going to continue to make more blocks, inspired by the quilt Stephanie Iceland made... how wonderful it is to inspire!

More inspiration here too... Princess Jackie made a very seasonal apron from the same book Cynthia used, I showed Cynthia modelling her apron for you in an earlier post... those Art To Heart books do it every time... one project made encourages several more to be made, thank goodness for inspiration!

Jean Bean finished her quilting, trimmed off the sandwich crusts then almost jumped for joy!! The binding is already made and ready to be stitched on. Jean has her next project lined up and fabrics purchased... she's excited to start something new but she stuck with this beauty and she will till the very last stitch, sheer determination! Sometimes you might feel you have bitten off more than you can chew... just remember you can eat an elephant, one bite at a time...
The full beauty of Jean Bean's quilt will be revealed very soon.