Sandwiches Galore

Bloomin-ink did we make a lot of sandwiched at Caverswall Village Hall yesterday. Our Quilt Cave is brilliant for making sandwiches, tables galore and helpers on hand... I always take rolls of wadding and often a choice of brands, especially if you request your favourite. I din't get a picture for every one done but you can see they were plentiful and all sizes were pulled, pasted and pinned... 

Lovely Lyn's, number one

Lovely Lyn's, number two

Lovely Lyn's, number three

Michelle My Belle's... King Size

Joan The Shop's, festive

My Wife Beth's,
not strictly a sandwich here but it was later on

Chatty Cathy's fabulous FINISHED sandwich, now it's a quilt...
She just needs to bind it and, after the making of this beauty... that's the easy bit! 

Chatty Cathy's brilliant backing... what a job, but worth it now.

I think it will be the same next week too... seems everyone has come to the sandwich stage at the very same time eh!

Fanfare For A Finish

It's Angela's... made with the Lynne Edwards method of apartment quilting, that's the very same way Joan The Shop is making her blue and red quilt (we haven't seen it for a while because Joan went on another holiday to the NHS hotel! she's back fighting fit now though) Angela helps teach a quilting group in Cheadle Library and took her quilt to show to her group. Lucky for us she passes my very own quilt shop on her way to and from the library. Thank goodness for lovely customers who allow me take photos of their quilts because I didn't get chance any other time during our busy day. This beauty gets a hooty toot toot  because it's fabulous... and finished.

Notes For November

New Sue sent me this picture of her lovely November Calendar Quilt, as yet mine remains unfinished... no surprises there I know but I did make a rather splendid Dresden Plate cushion, wooohooo!!

 I thought I would mention the Staffordshire Patchworkers And Quilters meeting a little bit earlier than usual and it's nothing to do with the fact that I forgot all about taking photos during yesterdays classes... ehem!
No, really... I wanted to talk about it after realising that, although we enter November this week, we just miss having a 'first Thursday' of the month... that pleasure will happen next week on the 7th. I popped over to the SPQ web page to check I had it right... exciting news. They booked  Simon Henry for a workshop “Cut away and turned Appliqué”, it's all hand work and is sure to be a fabulous day... pop over to the SPQ pages for more information... There's another of those splendid Soup And Sew days coming up too, what a treat!

Quilty Quarters

The next two Saturday Workshops are Quilt-As-You-Go with double sided binding followed by a Dresden Plate cushion. I do have a sample of the Quilt-As-You-Go... it's been on our sofas for over ten years having lived in three different countries and 5 different houses... it's quite bedraggled!! ha ha ha 

I decided to make a new sample and after many hours of my favourite activity of rooting, I decided to cut into my gorgeous orange-y-pink-y-yellows... I dug out all the strippy scraps from my strip bin that could play too. Oooooo I love this quilt, happy happy happy colours! The other side is a calm, but fabulous green... The sample quilt is not finished, I haven't decided how big to make it yet... a great advantage of apartment quilting... keep going and adding until you're happy!.. but it's at a perfect stage to be my sample for Saturday so I moved on...

Customers had made a bit of a mess with one of my Charm Packs.. not on purpose mind... they do tend to look a little scruffy on the edges after being flicked through to see the fabrics... this messy Charm Pack followed me home... little tinker fell into my bag... it was perfect for my workshop sample.

I made the cushion with a lovely back side, picture below this, and had enough Charm squares to make another cushion. If you don't use any of the charm pack fabrics on the back side, you can make 4 large cushioned Dresden Plate blocks.

Taa Daa the back side

Taa Daa, the front and I absolutely love it!

Hunters Star Workshop

What a fabulous workshop! Dotty had found lots of ways to make the Hunters Star blocks, and she explained almost all of them. Some were quite complicated, some required special rulers, paper piecing or templates. After drafting patterns to see how the block would turn out the ladies started to cut their fabrics and by the end of the day two methods, both without fancy rulers, templates or paper piecing... had been proclaimed the better of the bunch... 

What an amazing block and what a great day it was... Thank you Dotty.
This workshop will be repeated in the New Year.

Stitching News

Morning Judith took on a challenge with the Baby Dinoz panel by Studio E Fabrics... it has to be, for me at least, one of the most difficult panels to work with. Judith says it did need a lot of tricky mathemisms but boy was it worth it! What a super cute gift for a new little arrival... It's sandwiching and quilting time for Judith now... this quilt needs to be finished lickety-split... 

Michelle My Belle spent her morning free motion quilting followed by an afternoon with the walking foot. She stitched my favourite designs... The "Jig-Saw Nipple" followed by "Points and Bellies" we love "Points and Bellies"!!! As we watched Michelle stitching her sandwich we just know she's going to be an amazing quilter.

Brenda Barbara is making a set of very jolly table place mats to match a table runner she made last year... Isn't it lovely when someone likes a gift so much that they want more!! It's a good job Brenda had made notes while making the table runner though eh!

Peggy had purchased one of our Eye Spy packs that have been, and still are, very popular. 30 six inch squares of different novely fabrics. After playing with the 6" squares to decide on their placement, Peggy stitched them together... in a completely different order! Don't tell me you never did that!!!

Stitching News

Whoooohoooooo...Wendy finished the Halloween Pumpkin, Jack-O-Lantern.
There's a serious amount of work involved in making this wall hanging, It's amazing what can be made with the twister template isn't it...what a fabulous quilt for this time of year... It's hanging on the wall in my very own shop if you would like a closer looky. Thank you for making it Wendy .

Jean Bean followed through on her threats to make a beautiful quilt sandwich... Here it is... done and dusted. Time to settle down to the quilting now... there's already a plan of action so Jean can get straight to it.

My Wife Beth is making a Big Quilted Panel Bag (tutorial for which can be found on a tab at the top of this blog)... except hers will be a big quilted train and rail track bag... with a clever little pocket for each engine.

Little Annette made this quilt top with the Ten Minute Block which has been a favourite round here for quite a while now... great for a fast finish and it looks amazing.

Gilly had volunteered to show some of the ladies how to make a rather lovely tree skirt so we had a very industrious little corner in our quilt cave... this circle of carefully cut segments makes up the border... the results will be revealed soon as Gilly gave the ladies homework! he he he

Stitching News

Christabelle's Kaleidoscope blocks are now done. There was a case of a missing triangle, which never did turn up, so Chris had to cut a new one... you would never know which  block it happened to though as it was all done with precision cutting... very precise indeed. 

PM Pam continues to add to her lovely cushion portfolio... this one whipped up, quilted and cushion finished in less than a day... fabulous quilting design too, inspired by an article in the new Love Quilting Magazine.

No stopping Pam now... we don't call her the Cushion Queen for nothing.
Here's another cushion top in progress from, what will be, a full set.

Then there's Pam's Christmas Tree Skirts. This is the first one completely finished and ready to be gifted, I think there will be at least four more. I was telling Pam how she should be carrying a tree round with her so that we could all see the real effect! ha ha ha

Lady Judith had finished appliquéing all of the words on her quilt backing so was able to make a sandwich. The little cross-stitch nursery rhyme blocks were stitched by Lady Judith's Sister-In-Law... so very neat!!

On the left are a few of Christabelle's memory quilt blocks and on the right are Lady Judith's Pineapple Blossom blocks... these ladies all have several projects going on all at the very same time... Can you keep up... I know I find it tricky

These pictures were taken during the afternoon session in my classroom when we had a little calm time... There was a lot gong on during the morning too, alas everyone forgot to remind me about picture taking... see that? I passed the blame quite smartly eh! ha ha ha

PM Pam Finished More Projects

Toot toot toot... a  fanfare for finished projects...
PM Pam finished two more of her beautiful little festive projects... The Foldy Fun Christmas Ornament, which she started only last week in Jenny's workshop... look at that lovely little fancy tree pot. It's a real mini quilt by it's very own self! The embellishments are quite lovely, a perfect finishing touch...

... and the ever so popular Hexagon Tree, also the result of a workshop that was tutored by our lovely Jenny Barlaston.

Hexagon projects are so 'IN' right now... seems everyone is making hexagons of all sizes... I have a good selection of the pre-cut papers in my shop... I know you can draw them and cut them out for your very own self, I have lots of templates too... and I am aware most of you do it that way... but when you  could skip that paper preparing part and can get straight to the stitching fun... oooooh the temptation!!

Mrs Lady From Derby

We've had visitors... Mrs Lady and Mr Man From Derby... it's always fun when they pop in to visit at My Very Own Patchwork And Quilting Shop. As usual they were armed with finished projects to show to us and, of course, I remembered my little camera... but only three times, there was more but I'm easily distracted!

The Railfence design... a winner every time. There's a 3D thing going on with this colour way... Do you see it? This project is extra special as it's a quillow... all of the lap quilt folds into a little pocket on the back so it can double up as a cushion/pillow... don't tell PM Pam... you know what will happen there don't you!! he he he

Kaleidoscope blocks, stunning every time, don't you think?
This project isn't strictly a quilt as it has no wadding... It wasn't needed because it's going to be used as a table cover... I'm wondering what happened to the other 4 blocks now?

Taa Daa Mr Man From Derby was an exhibit all by his very own self!!!
He had requested a waistcoat and Mrs Lady happily made one for him... A patchwork beauty, complete with fancy stitching and a buckle on the back... He looked splendid and we were ALL allowed to stroke the fabrics!!! woooohooo what a giggle we had.

Tote Bag Workshop

Everyone went home with a fabulous, perfectly pieced, quilted, with pockets AND finished tote bag... look at the clock there, just before 4pm...
Thanks to excellent teaching and brilliant instruction from New Sue.
Plans are afoot for another workshop and details will be posted soon. 

 I have had requests, only very few mind, for kits to accompany our workshops...just look at the bags the ladies made... every one extra special, different and individual... If we had made kits, they would all have been quite similar and even the same... where's the fun in that. We can help you choose your fabrics if you need us to... Which one is your particular cup of tea... I bet you have a hard time choosing!