Monday 31 August 2015

Quilty Quarters

I made a Tunic Dress!!!
Feeling very proud of my very own self!
I haven't finished the bottom yet as I am pondering making it much shorter to use as a top rather than a dress..
Oh the choices!!
My new tunic has posh pockets...
My seams are all neatly finished and top stitched.
I used Art Gallery fabric, oh boy is it lovely to sew with!!

Back to Quilty Quarters today, I think I will make another!! ha ha ha

Sunday 30 August 2015

Stitching News

Peggy spied the opportunity of spare tables and made a quilt sandwich.
This is another quilt that Peggy will donate to the Donna Louise Children's Hospice. So, over the holiday weekend, let's hope Peggy gets a little stitching time...
I love the fabric choices!!
Di Butterfly is getting ahead for sewing prevention season... This Christmas Nancy Halvorsen panel makes a lovely wall hanging and carefully quilted with metallic thread, as Di is doing... gives it little extra gorgeous-ness! 
Steph arrived for class with her two, very different, gifting quilts almost finished. Both just needed the 'crust' trimming off and binding making. She's already choosing her next project... my goodness this lady is seriously bitten with the quilting bug... hurray!!
Josie had purchased a new book so a new project was to be started. First of all the background needed to be made up of various fabrics, so that meant a little 'shopping'... soon sorted, Josie got to the cutting. Laying each piece onto the wadding is a good way of keeping track of your progress.
All Day Di was in very high spirits all day!
She is cracking on with her fabulous Farmer Joe's Farm Book and, she said so for her very own self... it IS getting easier to be accurate with the Blanket Stitching!
Merrily made a sandwich with the final third of her latest memory quilt. This one is for her Grand-Daughter... Merrily is a perfect advert for the advantages of apartment quilting... she makes huge quilts but never needs to stress about that!
Last week Di Butterfly finished her smaller sized Mat and Ruler Bag, but she whizzed off home before I snapped a photo for you. She had used the opportunity to make three blocks that she'd never made before to make the ruler pocket... a great idea! This week though, I caught this picture of Di's House Boy/Chauffeur as he helped her pack up at home time... Look at that pose....The man's a natural!! ha ha ha

Saturday 29 August 2015

Unaccustomed As I Am... Updated

Unaccustomed as I am... to having any time for my very own self...
I am taking almost a whole week off...
One almost whole week of not going to my very own, fully stocked and wonderful, Patchwork and Quilting Shop.... well... I am going to try not to go there!!!
** update... I will be back in my shop on Friday... but it's still almost a week off**

There's a very convenient Bank Holiday weekend coming up so I am going to make the most of it!!
So, here's the plan...
Saturday 29th August... open as normal.
It's a Sandwich Saturday too, so if you have quilt tops waiting to be 'sorted out' you could book my tables to get them sandwiched.

My shop will then be closed until it opens (ha ha ha I know that sound crackers!)  on Thursday 3rd September when it gets back to normal hours... but I won't be there until Friday!

Just so you know....

Thursday 27 August 2015

Bags!


A huge delivery came... fabrics galore, all Art Gallery and delicious! as usual and a few bargains to boot. Patterns for all sorts of bags, mostly from Lazy Girl Designs... especially another bumper order of the fabulously and fun to make, Bendy Bags.
I made this bag last weekend and BOY am I ever so chuffed with it... gathered fabric sides and a zip 'inserted' both on the outside and the inside, with magnetic poppers and, and, and... I love it... I've been showing it off to all shop visitors...
ooooher such excitement!
See... I showed off my lovely new bag to My Mum Gwynneth...
Straight to the fabric shelves she went... the ones in my very own shop!!
 Lets give out a toot toot toot shall we... it is a fabulous and finished project!!
More of these patterns came in that bumper order too.

Tuesday 25 August 2015

Stitching News

Fruity Rose found a great way to look at the progress she's made on her table/bed runner... She's thrilled to bits... actually, she's 'thrilled to lots', that it looks just like the quilt in the book because that's exactly what she wanted!
I'll just have to mention, as I do, that that's an excellent view of my classroom from the window side!! Don't the carpet tiles look great too?
Just Jan is making Piano Key border strips. After careful measuring she came to the conclusion that the may not be enough to get the whole way round the quilt, so they might end up being half that width... that way they will go twice as far...
Jan is very resourceful!
Susan used one of our Skeleton panels... she was lucky enough to get one last year as they sold out Lick-etty-Split... to make a quilt to go to University this Autumn. How to quilt it? We pondered, practiced, changed minds, suggested and pondered a little more... I think Susan settled on a great idea.
Jean Bean spent her day quilting. We were few in numbers for the morning class so there was enough room for Jean's sandwich to be made... This commissioned, pink, but not to pinky-pink quilt will be ready lick-etty-split.
Just Edna also took advantage of the spare tables to make her deliciously rich and loooong quilt. I think this one is a wall hanging for a bedhead wall... It's a bit of a 'very own' treat for Edna to be quilting such a small project!!!

Sunday 23 August 2015

Stitching News With Tooting

Our first Fabulous and finished fanfare will be toot toot tooted for Brenda Barbara's quilt. I'm hoping you notice the binding with the striped fabric cupping those corners... how very artsy-fartsy is that!! I love it.
Brenda is donating this lovely quilt to a fundraising event.
The second Toot toot toot is for Lady Judith's fabulous and finished, super sized quilt... I can't believe she's finished it actually...
I'm thinking Judith never slept a wink for two weeks...
This is the back of Lady Judith's quilt... you can see she quilted diagonally first of all then added a few hearts and kisses... perfect for a wedding gift, isn't it. Congratulations for finishing your quilt marathon just in time Judith... She took it straight to the Post Office for it's special delivery!
My Mum Gwynneth has finished all of the embellishing quilting on her lovely wall hanging leaves and flowers. Now she can add the backing fabric and do the more simpler-er quilting... and believe me... that is a relief to her! ha ha ha
Lou Lou made her border design plans...
There's going to be two inner borders, one blue and one yellow... then a million little 4-Patch units will be joining them. Here Lou Lou is pinning her first border AFTER measuring it through the centre of her quilt top!
PM Pam needed to spread out her blocks, for a few reasons...
1... to see how the 'On-Point' setting will work.
2... to get a good, even spread of lights, mediums and darks
3... to show us how fabulous and easy this design is
and 4.... to make me want one too!!!

Thursday 20 August 2015

Stitching News

Let's start with a Toot toot toot fanfare for Rose's fabulous and finished gifting quilt... It's the Jen Kingwell pattern "What Colour Is An Elephant"... Rose added a few extra details of her own... what a lovely, lovely quilt... I absolutely love it and it's hanging in my shop for two weeks if you would like to see it for your very own self.
I had to take a picture of the back of Rose's quilt so that you could see the fabulous quilting she stitched... Using fusible, tear away stabiliser (available in my very own shop don't you know!!) Rose drew her pictures, pressed the stabiliser in place, stitched on the stabiliser then tore it away... genius!!
Princess Jackie, our first prize winning applique quilter is taxing her very own self with a bit of tricky piecing... getting the seams on angles to match up can be frustrating but, she did it... top tips were available of course!!
Giggly Gillian wanted to make a quick and girly, gifting quilt. 20cm of 5 different fabrics makes a great little quilt top in a 5 by 7 setting with 6" blocks... easy, girly and lovely..., just the ticket! This quilt could be finished Lick-etty-split!...
After changing plans a bit last week, Gail is on a roll with her little Churndash blocks, they are all finished... Gail was "thanking goodness" about that, whoever he is? Setting the blocks On-Point helped Gail get to the right size for her kiddy quilt.
We had a new lady join us, Mary... she's been a shop customer for a while and she wanted to learn how to make our fabulous quilted bottle bags... great for gifting a bottle of anything! She makes Apricot Brandy... ooooh how lovely! She learned lots of top tips making this beauty.
Jean Bean is working on her commission quilt. She's made this one Lick-etty-split... as you can see she'd already adding her famous flange!! There are loads of customers adding Jean's flange to their projects... just because they love saying the word flange!! ha ha ha

Tuesday 18 August 2015

Stitching News

Farmer Lynda's elephant is done... there's a sunshine to be blanket stitched and a few tufts of grass are already stuck in place... it's looking really good.
Opposite you can see Sister Susie is quilting her applique cushion
Fiona Too was also stitching applique...
It seems everyone on this group of tables was concentrating on applique...
They were soooo quiet! Usually they're a chatty bunch... quite funny!
All Day Di has the front page of her Farmer Joe's Farm Book almost finished now. My Mum Gwynneth says that the front page is the most tricky one to do, so it will be plain sailing for Di from here forward
Our Sheila finished her little Mat and Ruler bag... it's been made for the 12" x 18" size mat. Di Butterfly made one too... Don't worry, Sheila will not be balancing an iron on the top there!! Toot toot toot Sheila, a fabulous finish.
Just Edna was making Festive Placemats. What a great idea to use decorative stitches like that and what a great idea for gifting!! all of the bindings were stitched on lick-etty-split and Edna moved on to her lovely, rich red project.
Susan came to play! She's been stitching up a storm recently... this is a bottle bag... great for gifting bottles... what a clever way to make the handle?... very effective and making a simple bottle into an even more special present.
Sandwich Wraps! I love them...
No need for cling film if you're a friend of Susan...
These fabulous stitched wrappers will keep your 'butties' fresh all day long.
All these were made in only a couple of hours... toot toot toot
Also from Susan... a Bendy Bag!
Proof that they can be made in an hour.
It's fabulous and finished ... toot toot toot.
Bendy Bag patterns are back in stock too!


Monday 17 August 2015

Tooting For Princess Jackie

Toot toot toot-etty-toot... A fanfare for another fabulous finished quilt made by our first prize winning quilt maker, Princess Jackie. It's quite a simple patchwork design with a focus print block alternated with a brightly coloured, 9-patch block...
but those borders....
They were Jackie-fied!!... Using the little bird design from the focus fabric for the corner stones. Little flowers and leaves along a Ric-Rac stem... every one beautifully stuck and stitched with matching threads and then a little embroidery stitching to add a little more Jackie-ness
And, as you probably would expect... the back of the quilt is quite lovely too.
Once again, beautiful work... We love it!
All fabrics were from my very own little shop too!

Friday 14 August 2015

Stitching News

Christabelle spent her afternoon class doing free-motion doodling on her farmyard blocks... meandering around all those trees, creatures, flowers and tractors...
very clever and great practice.
As requested, here's the book (not a magazine at all... silly me) that Just Edna used to make her wonderful, and extremely huge, wedding gifting quilt...
Which happens to be on my very own classroom wall, should you wish to come along to see it for your very own self.
This is Just Edna's practice block for her next gifting project... as it turned out to be fabulous and accurate, it was promoted to be the first block of the bed-head wall hanging, not the practice block.
Lady Judith borrowed one of the Juki machines as she thought she had broken her very own Janome... it wasn't broken but there was a little thread jam.. all sorted now. Judith is quilting with diagonal lines... much easier for large quilts.
Jean Bean is making a commission quilt... and it needs to be made lick-etty-split... Setting the About A Girl blocks on point by adding triangles to each side works really well doesn't it! This project needs to be pink, very pink-y-pink!
Gail had decided that she didn't want to make any more 6 inch Churndash blocks... but she still wanted a good size of quilt. Setting her blocks On-Point sorted out that dilemma... and doesn't it look great too?
PM Pam decided to start a new project. It's another from the Jen Kingwell book, Quilt Lovely. The pattern is meant for using up lots of fabric scraps and Pam hadn't brought any with her... so we chose fabrics with large designs on them so that each small piece was very different from the next.

Thursday 13 August 2015

Stitching News

Peggy is making good progress with her Log Cabin blocks. This is a great way to show off novelty fabrics and you only need 6 blocks and border to make a kiddy play mat sized project that looks like a quilt!
Di Butterfly is making a Mat and Ruler Bag following the instructions in my free tutorial... she changed the measurements though as this bag will be for her smaller mat, I think it's 12" x 18". Three perfectly pieced 6" blocks make up the ruler pocket.
Brenda Barbara finished her wallhanging/lap  size quilt top... isn't it great! Brenda will be donating this quilt to a fundraising event. Just at the end of class Brenda was able to make a sandwich so she can crack on with the quilting.
Farmer Lynda is in love with her elephant project... and no wonder!!
There's a little more blanket stitching to be done then it will be sandwich time. The original pattern required the elephant to be built from many patched fabrics but Lynda pleased her very own self and used just the one... love it!
All Day Di is making great progress on her Farmer Joe's Quiet book...
which, by the way, is back in stock along with a few new Kids Quilts patterns.
She says she's enjoying the sticky stuff and blanket stitch way of doing applique...
most of all of us do too.
Our Sheila made another Bendy Bag... this one will be used as an emergency sewing kit for a young fellow off to University... what a great idea...
Sheila had attended the two Sue's Sewing Bee workshops recently so she had all the skills to aid the production of the little sewing accessories.
By the way again... Bendy Bags are back in stock!!
Sister Susie also enjoyed the stick stuff and blanket stitch applique method for making this cushion panel. She made a sandwich, but you could have guessed that from the picture!! All pinned and ready for quilting.
Sam came to learn the basics of patchwork and quilting. She did a great job and is ready to add borders next time. These fabrics are from Sam's very own stash... she's been collecting for a while!
Lou Lou had to make important decisions... to be square? or not to be square?... eventually she decided to make three more fabulous Churndash blocks, one more row gives a rectangle... Not to be square won!!
Me, my very own self, made some new mug coasters for my classroom...
the old ones are there on the right at the bottom...
my goodness they were looking tired.
I'm always picking them up to use to test sewing machine stitches...
 they are most handy for that job! ha ha ha
Oh yes, they are fabulous and they are finished toot toot toot! ha ha ha
Brenda Duck popped in to purchase a few things, including fabric.
She's doing great with her health issues and wanted us to know that!
Fabulous news... Brenda also thought we would like to know that she's been stitching away at home... toot toot toot Brenda, two fabulous and finished projects!
Lady Judith made her massive quilt sandwich on Saturday...
It's so large that we had to pin it in two stages...
so much for only making small quilts from now on eh...
Now to quilt it!