Holiday Stitching?

Four whole days of not needing to go to my very own quilt shop. There's sort of a plan to finish a quilt I've been working on for too long... looking at one side of Quilty Quarters though... it looks like there's some serious tidying up needed before I can play... Can you even remember 'Quilty Quarters'? It's been so long since any blog post included my own stitching...

I have absolutely no idea how the pile of new Art Gallery fabrics got to be on top of all the "Count On It" calendar number mini quilts on top of the ironing board storage unit!
Bernina is on the cutting table because I've been quilting on the Juki beast.
The iron is up there because it no longer fits on the ironing board storage unit!
There's a reason your're not being shown the other side of Quilty Quarters too... it's dangerously close to avalanche status over there! he he

 But first I have a spare room with so many quilts thrown into it that no-one can actually walk on the floor... I've done a few evening quilt talks for WI and ladies groups recently and arriving home late leads to me " storing" quilts without sorting!... so foldy-foldying, tidy-tidying must be done first... chores are more fun when the involve quilts though eh!

Camera Practice

My new camera leaves me pining for the broken one... have a look for your very own self.... grainy pictures. The subject of the photos is spectacular... I know that, he he he... New camera has had it's settings altered now. Will try new settings tomorrow with fingers crossed. I looked around for things to take pictures of.... here you go, it's just a bit like an advert!

Such a beautiful display of colour and perfect light...
 I'm guessing that you'll agree?

I have the full range of King Tut and Superior Rainbow thread. Full range of variegated YLI. Full range of Presencia 100m x 50 weight, 600m x 60 weight lots of 125g cones of piecing thread, 60 weight and I am expecting a new display from Metler, ordered in February and seems to be lost in the post!

Just a few of my Batiks, I love every one!

A selection from the shelves in my shop

More fabrics including the delicious Art Gallery Fabrics...
you can feel the difference!

These shelves change regularly, beautiful and bright this week.

Thank You Frankie And Sporty Sue

A finishes dinosaur quilt, photo sent all the way from Australia... isn't the internet great... My very favourite bestest friend Frankie, lives on the other side of the world and the click of a button is all that's needed for me to see that she has another quilt finished... Frankie used to make one quilt a year, by hand... now she has her very own Bernina.... it's like a production line! I love the footprints!

Sporty Sue is chuffed to bits with her new patchwork chairs...  You can pay a small fortune for chairs like these in the trendy shops but Sporty Sue covered these cushion pads all by her very own self!
I'm finding my self looking at my very own chairs now!!

You will, hopefully, be pleased to know that Mr Postman did deliver my new camera so, if I can figure out how it works... I should get back to photo taking later today. It's Friday Quilt Club where there might be a finished quilt for tooting.... Am I right Joan The Shop?

I'd also like to remind you that My Very Own Patchwork and Quilting Shop is open as normal today, Friday 29th, open tomorrow until 1pm and then it will be closed until Thursday 4th April... whatever will I do with all that free time???

Thank You Wendy

Today's post has photos... thank goodness because the posts were getting very wordy... delivered to my inbox by Wendy, both pictures were taken during our Caverswall Quilt Cave meeting on Wednesday.  Apparently I have spoiled the breakfast coffee time of many ladies who love to read my blog to see what folk have been making... what a great way to start your day! ha ha ha 

Marilla finished her absoluuuutely stunning Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope quilt top. This one has been hand stitched, every inch, even those lovely long border strips. The fabric in the outer borders is the very one that was cut up, stacked and whacked to make those amazing blocks.

Sally also finished her quilt top, see how she used log cabin blocks for the corner stones? Looks fabulous doesn't it. It's quite a large project and Sally has several pieces of fabric left over... not a problem as we played with them... wait 'til you see the brilliant backing we invented!

A Home Is Not A Home...

By Lovely Lyn

“A HOME IS NOT A HOME WITHOUT A QUILT”

A home is not a home without a quilt!

No matter how you love it – no matter how it’s built.

A home is not a home without a quilt!

You may have lovely curtains – pretty paper on the wall

You may have threadbare carpets or even none at all -

BUT – A HOME IS NOT A HOME WITHOUT A QUILT

Do you sometimes look and wonder what’s missing from that chair

Or need to hide unsightly daily wear and tear?

Then I think I have the answer –the answer to your prayer

A quilt is what you need to solve your problem there.

A quilt will bring you comfort and warm you when you’re cold

The colours could be simple or even bright and bold

The pattern can be basic and easy like a square

It could have lots of pieces to make you look and stare

BUT – A HOME IS NOT A HOME WITHOUT A QUILT.

Now don’t just stop at one quilt – go for three or four,

Or five or six or seven – or maybe even more.

Have one for your bedroom, have one for your chairs

Perhaps like someone I know she makes them all in pairs!

Put them on your tables as runners just for fun

Hang them on your walls and when you’re finally done

You’ll join with me in saying

A HOME IS NOT A HOME WITHOUT A QUILT

Brenda Barbara To The Rescue

Just because I have no camera doesn't mean we can't have pictures... Brenda Barbara had sent these two pictures to my inbox and now's a perfect time to share them with you.

If you've been following my blog for a couple of months you will remember Brenda making the Flying Geese units for this extremely posh sewing machine cover. She used a Charm pack so there's lots of fabric variety... and so for Brenda's finished Sewing Machine Cover... we shall polish the trumpet and Toot Toot TOOT!

It seems Brenda Barbara is not the only talented lady in the family... her Daughter presented this Quirky Quilters cake for a recent birthday celebration... isn't it just fabulous!!

The Race Is On?

Even though I blame my camera for lots of things, I love it. It's a simple, compact, point and click camera... It has a gazillion different settings but I only use the safest... automatic! OK it does rebel from time to time by taking silly blurred shots and unwanted ceiling pictures... but I am able to forgive it. Disaster struck yesterday... I caught my lovely camera strap on the kitchenette door handle which ripped it out of my hand and dropped it to the floor... it's broken... purchased  back in March 2008 so that I could start this blog. I was very much attached to it. When I got home I had no option but to purchase a replacement, ASAP... on line, the only way I had time for... have you seen how many cameras there are availabubble?? My goodness... I had to call My Lilly for assistance... I asked her to find a camera exactly like the one I broke... she's very good, she found one... I wanted a pretty colour but I wasn't about  to pay an extra £20 just for that option... it's ordered and will be plain silver... now I wait for it to be delivered... I hope they appreciate how fast I need them to get it here... Blogging without pictures? No thank you!

Just before the camera kissed the floor goodnight I had taken a couple of pictures...

Penelope Baskerville was at the workshop on Saturday and she's been stitching at home ever since. It gets a little tricky joining the tiny strips but she did a great job. As you can see, Penelope used clever Mr. Black for the inner border and he turned all the lights on to give an even bigger WOW

Morning Judith also stitched at home, continuing in class, carefully and precisely, she finished and was able to add the first border... it was tricky choosing which colour to use, settling finally on this stunning blue... looks fabulous.

That's all the pictures I have till the new camera arrives... 

The race is on Mr Postman... 

1, 2, 3... Go, 

I'm waiting!!

Stitching News, With Tooting

New Sue finished another quilt... I hope you weren't trying to keep up with her... I should investigate to see whether she has a team of helpful quilty elves! This quilt is another from the book "Two From One Jelly Roll Quilts", Sue's made lots of their quilts and every one has been fabulous.
Toot Toot toot New Sue, a splendid quilt.

New Sue is working her way through the "Count On It" book, available in my very own quilt shop. April and March are a little mixed up this year though so she's had to practice PMS (Pleasing My Self) Sue made a little quilt using flowers for March, in place of the Easter theme and continued with the flower theme for April so... Bunny and Easter Egg have a little quilt all of their very own... great idea eh, Easter can come whenever it wants to in years to come and New Sue will be ready!

Sheila has almost finished her spectacular table runner... there's such a lot of work gone into making this quilt, from hand piecing the hexagons to using decorative stitching to quilt it... that happens when there's no pattern... making it up as you go uses more brain power! he he he To add to the fabulous hexagon design Sheila added Faux Piped Binding

Merrily finished her quilt top, sandwiched it and started quilting it. This is one quilt you might not have seen much of here on my blog as Merrily usually packs up as quick as a flash to catch her bus so, generally I miss the shot. It's going to be a bed header,  on the wall behind the pillow part... if it was mine I would want to sleep with my pillow at the feet end so I could go to sleep looking at this work of art, ha ha ha

Tooting A Brand New, Antique Quit?

Helen finished her Hexagon quilt... toot toot toot!
It's not just Helen's Hexagon quilt though, she didn't piece all of those beautiful Hexagons... you would know that if you could see it up close and personal... they're all hand pieced... Helen absolutely doesn't do hand sewing. Lucky for us that her grandmother did.
Helen remembers her Grandmother stitching away when she was still in Primary school, so the hexagon quilt top must be about 30 or so years old, that's the antique bit... A modern antique...

The brand new?... is the backing, wadding and the quilting. Over a year ago, Helen decided to remove the sheeting her grandmother has used  to back this beauty, no wadding of any kind and, to re-sandwich it and free motion quilt all over it.
I hope you can see the lovely quilting... all this quilt needs now is a label telling it's story and it will be finished, good and proper.

A Brilliant Bargello Workshop!

I plan to have another Bargello workshop later in the year, maybe during Autumn... should you find yourself tempted?

Would You Like To See... ?

Would you like to see a few pictures of My Very Own Patchwork And Quilting Shop that I am so very very very proud of?... I would very much like to show them to you...

Can you see the bunting? The best bunting in the world!

I'm leaving the bunting up for another week, wouldn't you like to come over to see it for your very own self?

Another angle... it's difficult to get a picture of the whole shop when it's full of shelves full of beautiful fabric... yeeee hah!!

Some of the beautiful blues... I love my shop!!!

Would you like to help me? I'm trying to choose a picture to use in a very important advert space that I purchased recently... Which one do you think I should use? 1, 2 or 3

Lots Of Catching Up...

Rose is using her new book 'Twist and Turn Bargello Quilts' to make a stunning table runner. The two halves will be mirror image, this is just one half, obviously... The Bargello design never fails to impress does it?... Actually, Rose's quilts never fail to impress!

Giggly Gillian's Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope quilt... Oh My Goodness WOW!!! Gillian's been working on other projects alongside quilting this beauty, so we'd kind of forgotten about it... but when she turned up with it finished, ready to trim the crusts off and add the binding... jaws dropped!

Sandy was a very lucky Mum this last Mothers' Day, two Patchwork and Quilting lessons in My very own classroom... gifted by her very lovely daughter Claire. She said that she thoroughly enjoyed the class!

...and no wonder... Lovely Daughter Claire came along too adding a little extra specialness to the wonderful gift! Great progress was made and the ladies will be back soon to work on their lovely Railfence table runners.

Lovely Lyn had made enough blocks, so she joined them together.... there were so many ways  to set these blocks making rather splendid secondary patterns, are you seeing stars in this setting? Such a simple block with really stunning results.

Foxy Margaret is making her Grandmother's Fan / Dresden Plate blocks and quilting them 'as she goes'. What a great design for using up scraps, it's one I hadn't thought of actually.. a great idea for a workshop?

Wendy's scrappy quilt...
what can I say other than... I LOVE IT!!!

Princess Jackie's absolutely stunning, absolutely fabulous and absolutely huge... Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope quilt top, finished and ready to be sandwiched and quilted... so big we had to take it outside for the photo shoot. Jackie's going to pop over to Caverswall Quilt Cave to pin this one!

My Mum Gwynneth continues to work on these 3D block blocks... ever so tricky to piece with lots of seams to line up on the 'Y' joins... not for the faint hearted but stunning results... isn't it clever how the colour placement works.