Stairways And Stitching News

I was, in the end, able to grab an hour or so of  stitching time. I had lots of other things to do ahead of playing with fabric. One of which was visiting and delivering the Girly Girl quilt to it's new owner... Sheila should never again, from this day forward... suffer a cold lap!
I also popped into Caverswall Village Hall to give back my keys and to see how the Caverswall Quilters are getting on... There's going to be another one of those fun Linus Stitching days and you are all invited to go... more info here

I did finish my latest quilt top (pictured), it's based on the Layer Cake pattern for Stairway To Heaven from Moda Bake Shop. I made it a little bit smaller, with me running out of that important fabric! 8 blocks by 10 blocks. Each finished block measures a very accurate 6 1/2", so the quilt top at this stage measures 52" x 65". I like the previous two quilts I made, without borders, but I haven't decided about this one yet... I'm hoping to sandwich it soon, I feel the urge to quilt it so that I can start on another idea!!! not sure what's going on here... but it seems, I'm on a roll!!

Stitching Progress

 My Mum Gwynneth and I, my very good self, both snook down for another secret sewing day in my very own, closed, quilt shop. It's like an extremely fabulous sewing studio and it's such a treat to play there. Mum continued with work on her lovely robin appliqué. She's mastered turning all sorts of tricky angles with her zig-zag stitch... thank goodness for her knee-lift! You can see here she's using my light box, an added extra to one of the counters. My Dad made it for me way back when we first opened and it's proving to be very useful. It's quite large and on a counter that's higher than the tables, so it's easy on the old back ache.

I started another quilt... the one I gave you the link to yesterday, from the Moda Bake Shop site. I didn't use a Layer cake though... that would have been easier... but I can't keep helping myself to things in my lovely shop that you might like to purchase some time now can I... he he he. I had some of these delicious Art Gallery Fabrics left from making the gifting lap quilt so, as I love love love them... I used them again. Progress was slow because I was being creative at each step... that means that I kept cutting the wrong sizes!! Then, just as it was coming together I realised that I had run out of one fabric...only the most important one!! The one that makes the zig-zag lines through out the whole darn thing! I have a plan, don't worry... but some unpicking needs to be done now... I can't go to my shop for another whole day of sewing, I have to get it ready for opening up tomorrow and, believe me, I have made a good old mess!... but surely I can sneak a couple of hours... I'm off to work on that right now... shower time!

Stitching News and Quilty Quarters

Ooooh, you see this??
I said it would be possible to make this quilt in only a couple of days...

 I went to play sewing in my very own shop yesterday... to quilt my awaiting quilt sandwich. A soggy, wet Bank Holiday Monday was perfect for a day of stitching. My Mum Gwynneth came to play as did Jenny Barlaston... it was a fun day. I completed the quilting, made and stitched on the binding ready for hand sewing... with my lovely new hands... I could very well wear them out at this rate!! After one evening, plus the one hour this morning, of sewing at the speed of light... the binding is finished. 

Toot toot toot.... another fabulous and finished quilt made by me, my very own self...

I already posted this picture but I wanted to put the two lap quilts together so that you could see that both are exactly the same but, at the same time, they are completely different. The only difference  is that they are made with different fabrics. The brighter awesome-orange quilt is made with delicious Art Gallery Fabrics. I chose 8 fabrics and cut the 30 x 10" squares from them. This Perfectly Pastel Girly Girl quilt was made with 30 x 10" squares from a Moda Layer Cake... I love both quilts and both are for gifting!

As for progress in Quilty Quarters?
 It is what it is!!
A little bit of progress is better than none at all!!!

My Mum Gwynneth is determined to perfect her machine appliqué skills... she purchased this pattern from the Festival Of Quilts a couple of weekends ago. It's a tricky one with all those pointy points on the Holly and the Ivy leaves but practice makes perfect!... we are all sure of that!

Jenny was working on top secret workshop samples so I didn't take photos yet. She has made another Foldy Fun project though, ready to inspire you for the upcoming workshop in October... details here
Are you wondering what I might make today.... have you seen this?

Quilty Quarters

Good morning all... I would like to start this post with a small request... I'd like please,to ask you to give a large and loud, Toot Toot Toot fanfare for my very own, fabulous and finished, Girly, Gifting quilt... What a lovely feeling to make something from beginning to end in just over a week... though it could have been made in a few days.
I used 30 squares from a Moda Printemps Layer Cake and it's super easy to do... I will be writing up the instructions soon.
I need to make a little label and stitch it on before it can be delivered to it's lovely new owner... I love this quilt! It's not my usual cup of tea but, I do. I will gift it, I really will gift it, I am trying ever so hard... I WILL gift it! ha ha ha

My never-ending, calendar quilts are coming along very nicely. I have made an awful mess in Quilty Quarters... I've done a lot of rooting to find the right fabrics you see. I've decided to make all the little tops first, I am going to finish... yes FINISH! all of the appliqué work first. I can set up my machine with one colour and do all the stitching on all the pictures in that one colour before I change thread and repeat... I figured I would motor through with this method... Once that's done I will quilt them the same way... like a little production line.

The trouble is... I didn't feel like doing any more blanket stitch yesterday. I wanted to piece another quilt... I need to make another little lap quilt to gift to someone else... Boy am I being generous these days!! ha ha ha
My stuff was all set up for applique in my quilty quarters... you know what I did??

I went down to my very own little quilt shop to play... from choosing fabrics to sandwich all in 5 hours! I will be quilting this today... I better get going...

Quilty Quarters, Remember these?

As we approach the long weekend, I find my very own self confined to barracks for a few days once again. This though, should be the last time because I have decided that enough is enough... It's 12 months since my first operation and all the other stuff that started... I am hoping that this last dose of radiation will see the end to it all... never mind my glass being half full... mine should start to flow over the top now, I am very optimistic!

My Mum Gwynneth is minding my little quilt shop while I stay away from people... if you see a glow in the sky it is probably from my house... not because it is shiny clean though, oooooh no...

Can you guess what I'm doing with all this time forced upon me??

Hand Quilting? Yes... both hands work now so I decided to give it a go.
I'm doing Big Stitch Quilting with Perle cotton. It's been about ten years since I was able to hand stitch so I am a little rusty...
Theoretically, the more I do, the neater it gets

This is what I did with the Layer Cake that Jenny and I cut up last week.
If you remember we made a quilt top on Thursday but I undid it on Friday to chop the pieces up again... This Layer Cake is Printemps from Moda. I took all the strong red squares out  as I wanted it to be very girly. T'will be gifted soon... There's binding to be hand stitched before it's finished... no problems, I can do that now!!

Remember this? All the Flying Geese borders are stitched now. I left it for a while trying to decide what to do in my corners but after seeing all the quilts at the Festival Of Quilts with square corner stones, I decided to stick to the geese... flying off the edge of the quilt. I am not sure what I want to do with this now so, I set it on one side while I have a little think. I might keep it as is, a good size for a wall hanging.

Oh please don't tell me that you remember these, ha ha ha
When the Count On It book first arrived in my very own little quilt shop, I set to and decided to make a Whole Year Calendar for display. I made all the numbers and December.... January and February followed on beautifully. I ran out of time for March. Made April and May... and I even completed June... skipped July and August for reasons mentioned earlier. Cut out September and October and stuck them to the background. I do have November traced onto my sticky stuff, good preparation! All this happened over two years.. he he he, I am only 7 months behind schedule, oh... plus those two years!

The long weekend is approaching. My Very own quilt shop will be closed from tomorrow, Saturday 23rd. Until Thursday 28th. No classes until Monday 1st September but the classroom is still open should you want to socially sew Thursday or Friday next week. Sandwich Saturday for 30th, so that's what we can consider as being back to normal I guess. Right... Quilty Quarters, here I come again...
Blogging may be sparse over the next few days but if I do anything worth a picture, I will share.

Stitching News

Let's start with a fabulous and finished fanfare for New Sue...
This is a very quick quilt to make if you're ever needing on in a hurry.
It's a pattern for a Layer Cake but Sue used a pile of gifted to her fabrics
and cut her very own 10" squares...

This is the back of Sue's Hexagon quilt...
I wanted you to see her fabulous free-motion quilting. Toot Toot toot Sue,
Now here's the thing... This quilt is a keeper!
It's not being given away to anyone!! 

Giggly Gillian has her  lovely daisies stitched on to the pieced background. This cushion is going to have a zip in the back... so Gillian put it away until she can summon up the courage to purchase one of my zips...  No, that wasn't it at all... she wanted to finish her grand daughter's cuddle quilt first.

Toot toot toot.... Joan The Shop finished her Large Reversible Bag. The one she started at the workshop on Saturday, she only had about ten minutes more stitching to do... It's fabulous and finished and already full of bits and bobs

Fran Cup Cake is making a Hexagon quilt from a Moda Jelly Roll.
After sewing all the strips together, she cut them up again using her shiny new 60 degree triangle ruler... then sewed them all together again into half Hexagons... more progress as it happens. Fran want's to keep this project for working on is class.

Christabelle has designed another lovely quilt. Bears and honey pots... it's so very, very cute. This little quilt will be good for any colour of baby too as we don't know whether the new arrival will be pink or blue...
quite a cunning plan Christabelle!

Just Edna's Big One

Just Edna had a bit of a shock on Monday... She finished the piano key borders on her quilt top and trimmed them all perfectly in line... Happy lady.
She finished the large pieced backing, even happier lady... and then began to pack her project away... She tried to make a booking to come for a Sandwich Saturday... We have lots of our regular ladies away on their jolly holidays so... there was room for sandwiching TODAY... even for sandwiching a 2.80 metre square Log Cabin quilt!! Oh heck, thought Enda!

Poor Edna... she found she had her pins in her bag so there was no excuse to be found... we pushed the tables together and helped Edna make her giant sandwich... It's a good job I sell extra wide wadding... 3 metres wide in fact, that's 120" in old money. This quilt weighs about ten tons... poor Edna now has the job of quilting this beauty, she'll have muscles like Popeye when she's done! ha ha ha

Large Reversible Bag Workshop

Stitching News

It's not quite tooting time for Barbie, but she's almost there.
She was wearing her new glasses at Friday Quilt Club this week, the ones she requested especially for her stitching. Those silly glasses helped Barbie see lots of little leaves that had not been stitched around and a few petals that missed the blanket stitching... just as she thought she was on the home straight! Barbie wants it 'right' so she will be going over every flower wearing those new glasses... they work a little too well!

Yesterday, I showed you a picture of a quilt top that Jenny and I made with a Moda Layer Cake. Today I am showing you that I sat, with help from My Mum Gwynneth, and undid the whole thing. By Friday's end I had these blocks laid out... but this is not how I stitched them together...
more on this little project as it happens. Are you curious?

Skeleton Sandwich Anyone?

It was one of those days when lots of my regular Thursday ladies were not able to come, for one reason and another... including a broken hip, holidays, hospitalization, sitting on grand children and illness... a plethora of good excuses! So I took bookings for afternoon sandwiching... what a coincidence to get two skeleton quilts! Rose sandwiched her rather stunning Fund Raiser quilt too but I missed pictures of that...

Morning Judith's making her quilt for gifting to a sixteen year old fellow.
 She used guitar and music themed fabrics in the backing and borders.
I am sure he will love it.

PM Pam's Skeleton, also for gifting.
Pam found more skeleton fabric that glows in the dark for her backing.
We all popped into my loo with the lights off to have a good giggle about it
... easily amused eh! 

Morning Judith finished both of her wild life cushions with zips so...
lets give a fabulous and finished fanfare... toot toot toot.
The elephant design is an original by Christabelle,
who was happy to lend it to Judith...
 What a lovely and very generous lady.

After sandwiches, we chopped up a Moda Printemps Layer Cake 
Only so that Jenny could show me something interesting... 
We had a lovely afternoon stitching away!

New Sue's A Winner

Back in August of 2013, New Sue made and gifted this fabulous Jelly Roll sail boat quilt, to a special friend.

The special friend was so impressed with Sue's work that she entered it into a local craft show. New Sue won lots of stuff. A first prize with a winners' cup, a splendid rosette and a 'sustificate' of merit... Wow, Sue... What a winner!! Maybe, I'm presuming really... do you think those coins are the prize money? ha ha ha

Stitching New

Jeannette Dilly returned with even more stunning blocks made up. She's stitching on her very own, brand new, Juki HZL F600, a superb machine with a great 1/4" button... or foot... whichever is best for you. Dilly says her accuracy has improved A LOT, that makes her happy happy happy!

Monday Sheila wanted to add a little Ric-Rac to her project... she couldn't decide which colour she wanted... we have 11 to choose from... but if you can't decide which you want... you can buy them all, pay for ten and get the  eleventh one free... how generous am I?? ha ha ha... you'll save 40 pence

Susan is still on summer leave from work so was able to fit in another play date with us... look what she's been working on... cute-etty-cute. She makes lovely projects and does beautiful stitching. All of those lovely fabrics were purchased in my very own, quite lovely, little quilt shop.

Just Jan is making a Persian Rug quilt. It's her very own design, I've seen the doodles and crossings out on paper! She started with making up the centre in fabric... the rest will be planned as it is needed... first on paper then, of course in fabric... quite a talented lady it seems, we will see the progress as it happens.

PM Pam purchased this little pillow kit at the festival Of Quilts. 
Seems we all love a little kit! It was every so fast to make up. Longport Lynda already owns the Sizzix Die for these lovely little pussys so, no doubt we will be seeing more of them.

Quilts For Sale... There's a tab at the top of this blog with quilts we have for sale.
Mum makes them up to order in between making samples for my lovely shop.
This is an Eye Spy style quilt. We also sell the packs of 30 x 6" squares, the ones in the centre there.

This little kiddie quilt is made from a new panel we received recently
As well as this finished quilt, we're making up kits for you to purchase, they include backing and wadding so you can make your very own little kiddie quilt.

We have packs of these fabrics too. 30 x 6" squares... those you see in the centre there. They are all from one of Nancy Halvorsen's delicious collections. Mum made piano key borders this time but there are lots of other options... lots... and lots. Wait 'til you see what we put on the back!!

Stitching News

Sporty Sue added the final 2 borders to her delicious sampler quilt.
She's thoroughly enjoyed making the blocks and has learned a trick or two along the way. Sandwich time is fast approaching for Sue 

Auntie June was so excited when it came to her very first sandwich time, with her Railfence kiddy quilt... She was able to use her brand new walking foot on her very own, band new, Juki HZL 210 for the very first time too... every step of the way this lady got deeper and deeper, she's here now... on the dark side!!! welcome June!!! ha ha ha

This is a special quilt brought in by a customer needing wadding and backing fabric. Those beautiful floral blocks are all Cross Stitched... neat, neat, neat... my goodness they were! It is her first quilt and is being made to be gifted... lovely.

A toot toot toot now for Morning Judith. One cushion fabulous and finished, though here it is cushion-less. Judith enjoys making pictorial quilted doo-dahs. Doo-dahs... a word that  includes everything I think!
Patchwork and Quilting... not just for covering beds!

Merrily ran up this little peg bag up, lick-etty-split at home. Toot toot toot for the finish Merrily... beautiful and very neat stitching, pattern from a magazine, as you can see by the artistic staging for my photo! ha ha 

Kate used her Simon Henry workshop sample to make a most fabulous tote bag... what a brilliant idea!! I would never have thought of doing that, would you? I have a few samples tucked away somewhere... it might be time to go rooting!

I am so very behind with things, enjoying a weekend at the Festival of Quilts made all the jobs back up... those blooming fairies didn't come to do it Cathy!