Festival Of Quilts 2015... Road Trip!

It's getting closer... 

The annual pilgrimage to the Festival Of Quilts 2015 at the NEC Birmingham.

Ticket prices have gone up this year, I just checked... 
£14.00 (£13.00 Concession) if you purchase in advance... 
£1.50 admin. fee has to be added.
£10.00 for parking your car. Yup, parking has gone up too 
£14.00 + £1.50 + £10.00 = £25.50 
and let's not forget... plus your fuel!... 
I know you could share expenses with your friends... but
Then there's...
£16.00 on the day/door (£15.00 concession) 
£10 for parking your car...
 £16.00 + £10.00 = £26.00 plus all that fuel! 
That's enough math for a Sunday morning when I could be stitching! ha ha ha

Purchasing tickets for groups is more economical so I have 60 tickets!! 
£12.00 each if you want one or...
I booked transport too...
£23.00 gets you there and... gets you into the show... and brings you home!
IF you book seats on our coach. 
Sunday 9th August. Limited seating. Payment in advance.

Stitching News

Fiona Too has a fabulous and finished cushion.
Perfectly pieced and beautifully quilted
toot toot toot

This is the back of Fiona's cushion...
There's a zip under that beautiful strip of Art Gallery fabric
We love cushions with zips!

Sister Sue also has a fabulous and finished cushion.
Perfectly pieced and beautifully quilted in Dutch Chintz design fabric
toot toot toot

This is the back of Sister Sue's scrumptious cushion... 
There's a zip under that beautiful strip of Moda fabric
It's such an easy way to insert a zip!

Yeng's cushion top has been made with Tilda fabrics
A very pretty cushion it is too.
The quilting was started, it will be finished for homework
Yeng likes a little homework!

Barbara Bew started off making the very popular Quick Table Topper...
but she wanted a star in the main block... so we made an Ohio Star.
Then she wanted to make it a little wider, so we added the little squares at each end of the strips... she says she loves it... but will make it much longer...
we could add borders too... lets see what Barbara gets up to next...

Morning Josie finished quilting her poppies, changing the threads for each part to get the best results... the cushion back has been made too, yes, with a zip!
The base for Josie's cushion is a Lovely cotton/linen mix from Moda.. very special! 

Jeannette Dilly made this cushion to practice some complex piecing. It's a Jen Kingwell pattern and should be hand pieced.... blaaaa! Jeannette doesn't do hand stitching, so we converted the pattern... that sounds grand but we just added seam allowances! ha ha ha Dilly learned a lot with this practice block and now THE REAL blocks will be tackled... those are the chosen fabrics to the right... more as it happens... and it happens pretty quickly with Jeannette! 

I finished quilting my latest project... I love Art Gallery fabric... I think I might have mentioned that before? I have to choose binding fabric now so that I can get it finished but I wanted to show you that I made matching cushions... I love cushions and I love them more with zips!!! ha ha ha ... more orange, I think I've been Tango'd

Quilty Quarters

Molly helped me take arty-farty pictures

I've been playing working hard in my Quilty Quarters over this little mini-break from shop life... though stitching the back of my binding by hand on this quilt has been done whilst luxuriating on my very own, very comfortable sofa... by the big window with the most beautiful daylight, late into the evening... don't you love the long days of summer?
It's a wonder there's room to sit on my sofa actually... it is quite laden with cushions, I love cushions!
So then... this quilt is finished and, although it was not made for gifting or selling... it is sold!
When I saw someone loved it so much, how could I have refused?
It's 100% quality cotton and feels super soft, as always with the beautiful Art Gallery Fabrics...

Machine washabubble and it's OK to tumble dry it so it can be used and used without a worry.
This is the back... two quilts in one really. The fabrics on the back are from all over the place... the pinky-purple setting triangle fabric I remember, is from Fernando Maluhy in Brazil but it would take me forever to remember where all those fabrics came from for the Scrappy Trip Around The World blocks...

Am I allowed to request a toot toot toot, fabulous and finished fanfare for my very own self... Oh yes, Of course I am... will you join me.. toot toot tooot-etty tooot

This afternoon I should be able to grab another hour or two for another session of Juki Beast quilting. I aim to finish this quilt today but I know better than to say it... after several luxurious days of stitching there are things that really need to be done... My lovely little quilt shop opens as normal tomorrow so I will be there, as normal, ha ha ha

Quilty Quarters

If you want a full day of fun... don't even start doing the necessary chores! Once you start on that little list of things you should be doing, the 'free to do whatever I want' time shrinks... faster than you expect!

 "I'll just do this, that and the other... then I will sew"... Stop it... go sew!! I lost three hours doing things yesterday... and you know what?... they still need doing again today! I did finish quilting the centre part of my quilt though so there's only the two thousand Flying Geese to tame now... Today I will not do chores...

It's a Bank Holiday...
An extra day for the fun of doing as you please.  PMS... Pleasing My (Very Own) Self is exactly the right thing for today...
Right...
I'll just go put the bins out, oh... this needs to be recycled too... What's that... I'll need the Dyson for that now... here it is, oh heck, the washing basket is full... I'll pop a load in.., oooops.., how did that get tipped up, this cupboard is so messy, I'll just....
STOP IT!!!! Go Sew!!

Stitching News

Sporty Sue came to make her Hexagon Sandwich... The idea originally, was this Jelly Roll pattern from Moda Bake Shop, I made one, though I changed and tweaked the design and hand quilted it with Big Stitch Quilting then, I put it on my very own, classroom wall... Sue was inspired to have a go, it is, I promise, quite easy to make. Sue's strips were 2 1/4" wide though. She will also be doing Big Stitch Quilting.. isn't it wonderful to inspire others!

I already posted and requested a toot toot toot fanfare for Christablelle's  perfectly-pink, fabulous and finished kiddy quilt, it will be gifted to a soon to arrive baby ... now Christabelle made a cot bumper to match... oh this lady is very inspirational!! Look at the quilted teddies!! Toot toot toot Chris it's another fabulous finish.

Lou Lou finished two more cushions for her new sofa, toot toot toot, they are finished and fabulous AND have zips!! Lou Lou's going to take a break from making cushions now, otherwise she will need another new sofa for sitting on! ha ha ha

Breaking my rules now, if you don't mind... Barbie has almost finished this quilt, the binding needs hand stitching... but the quilt will be gifted Lick-etty-Split so we probably won't see it again... we could tweet, tweet, tweet for a fabulous, almost finished, quilt I think. tee hee. It's a Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope quilt, and, as you know, we love them!

Jeannette Dilly needs us to tweet tweet tweet too... not quite finished as there are thread ends to be sorted out but it's certainly a fabulous quilt. This fun project will be gifted before Jeannette comes again so we will break the tooting rules for her. 

Jeanette Milly has another fabulous, scrappy, quilt top almost ready to be sandwiched. There'll be another strip of the sashing fabric added to all sides, I guess we can call it the borders eh!
Jeanette is a big fan of multi fabric quilts.

Morning Josie finished her applique poppies. She dithered about stitching those grassy lines... not sure that she was able to do them well enough... she didn't want to spoil things, blaaa... as you can see, she can, and she did, they look great... this cushion will be fabulous!

Jeannette Dilly is quilting this large, and fabulous, quilt... one stage at a time...
 or should I say one star at a time... and there are lots of stars!
 Look at the next picture, you will be amazed...

In the planning stage, this quilt was going to be sent to a Long Arm quilter but, after a little confidence boost given by my very own self (you could call it interfering?) The plan was to quilt it on Jeannette's Juki HZL f600, with threads that would show up the rather fabulous design on the back... looking great eh?

Brenda Barbara used her Bonus Half Square Triangles to make this panel for the quilt backing. There were more than enough to get a good, wide panel. Next, the left over fabrics were trimmed and squared to size, they will be stitched to either side of the chevron panel... this way, Brenda only needed to purchase one WOF to make a huge pieced backing... I'll show you when it's done.

Farmer Lynda is making a tote bag using a pattern from a magazine. She carefully marked out her quilting lines, stitched them, then trimmed all sides... like making a quilt, just like a quilt, but it's a tote bag... I'll show you when it's finished, not If it gets finished... am I right Lynda? he he he

Quilty Quarters

 I spent more quality hours in my Quilty Quarters yesterday. The large family of Flying Geese makes the border on this quilt. I'm a big fan of thin inner borders, I think they are almost essential but this time they wouldn't work with the mathemisms... Everything on this quilt top is two inches, even the four inches! ha ha ha... so adding a half inch border would have thrown out the pattern... I tried two inch wide inner border strips... yuk!...didn't like it, no matter what colour I experimented with. This quilt top will not be for everyone, the fabrics are 'different' the colour choices are 'different' too... Yellow, brown, pink and turquoise?
It doesn't matter... I love it! ha

Now then... I'll be honest, I don't love the back... I made the Scrappy Trip Around The World blocks quite a long time ago and put then in a neat pile in a cupboard not knowing what I wanted to do with them. Whilst rooooting through my stash yesterday for a good fabric for the back of my 'Different' quilt, I found them again. I still didn't love them and that meant they had to either be the backing of a quilt or go back in the cupboard... the rest is history now... here's the decision!...There's a sandwich making saturday in my very own quilt shop this weekend... and there's a time slot or two not booked for using my tables... so, I will get this quilt sandwiched and ready for my long weekend of stitching. yeeeeha!

I hope you have remembered that there's a Bank Holiday on Monday and that my lovely little yet very well stocked, quilt shop will be closed for one luxurious extra day.
So
Saturday 23 open as usual
Monday 25 closed
Tuesday 26 closed
Wednesday 27 closed... but then we are always closed on Wednesdays!
Thursday 28 back to normal...
I love long Bank Holiday weekends...
What will you do with yours?

Stitching News With Tooting

Let's give a very loud toot toot toot fanfare for Gail's fabulous and finished Bento Box quilt. Quilted skillfully on her very own domestic sewing machine... which happens to be a Juki HZL f600... It's a huge quilt and is now ready for a special label to be added before it will be gifted.

Another blast on the tooting trumpet, this time for Christabelle with her fabulous and finished, extremely pink and perfect, kiddy quilt... toot toot toot Chris, and wow I love your Prairie Points! This quilt will be gifted very soon.

Fruity Rose wanted to use spring like colours for her Twister Heart cushion.... don't you love it when a plan comes together!! Rose says this is exactly the way she planned it to look. Toot toot toot Rose... love it!

This is the back of Rose's cushion... We're no going to start tooting for zips just yet... I wanted to show you that the covered zip backings are so easy to do that almost every cushion made in my very own classroom has one!

Brenda Barbara took full advantage of having spare tables nearby to add borders to her very wonderful quilt top. It's quite a big quilt made with lovely, large, 14 inch, blocks... I feel a sandwich session is imminent.

Barbara Bew started a new project. Armed with a piece of her curtain  fabric to co-ordinate with , she chose the fabrics for a Quick Table Topper... but we changed it a bit... there will be an Ohio Star in the centre and the runner will be wider and longer... 
hmmm, actually we changed it quite a lot! ha ha ha

Crumbs & Mile-A-Minute Workshop

Such a fun, relaxing and very productive day, as always!!

I Have Project Envy!

Last week I received my shipment of Jen Kingwell patterns and books... I have a pitty-patting heart for these patterns, I love them!! As, it seems, do some of my customers... order number two is ready to be sent off! These lovely little blocks belong to New Sue... she couldn't wait to get started. Jen's patterns are perfect for scraps and oddments of fabric, in a recent interview, Jen says she is a scrappy quilter. If you don't have many scarps, a great idea is to purchase a Layer Cake or equivalent... that would give you 40 or so different fabrics to start with... That's exactly what Sue did, tempted by my Layer Cake clearance sale... oh man, now I have project envy!!! I don't have time to get started on my Jen Kingwell quilt... 
My first pattern choice is the Gypsy Wife ... Oh my... pitty patty-pitty-patty, can you hear it?? 
If you think that your scraps are too tiny for a specific design or pattern, there's always a Crumb Quilt, then there's the Mile-A-Minute quilt, quilts from Strings.... fun can be had with scraps and today, 8 lovely ladies will see it for their very own selves!!... rest assured there will be pictures for you!!

Stitching News

Lady Judith's latest quilt top is almost ready... She's going to personalise it by adding an applique name across the wider bit near the top, Like All Day Di did on hers... isn't it great to inspire others?... there's always a little inspiration in my classroom!

Just Jan spent her afternoon quilting her pretty, cottage-y quilt with her walking foot. Following the patchwork design was tricky though, deciding which way to go next at almost every junction? Jan decided that it will be easier to use a large tacking stitch to map out the route... so that was going to be done, at home.

Annbacan has a bumper commission project... yup, both meanings of 'a bumper'! A cot bumper, a quilted rocking chair cushion, rocking chair quilt and pocketed back, a quilted moses basket set and and and, the list goes on... this little quilt is almost done... tick number one on the list!

Princess Jackie had purchased this Jelly Roll a long time ago and decided to get it used... another lovely customer inspired by my very own and rather fabulous-o Strippy Hexagon quilt... Jackie is going to quilt hers with Big Stitch Quilting too... my new Perle Cotton selection is fabulous for that job

Giggly Gillian says that she really enjoys making the little Twister Heart quilts. She's making gifting cushions with them, with zipped backs of course... one cushion is for her sister and the other one will be gifted to her very own self!
I like her style, he he he