Patchwork Projects...

We had a wonderful day, none of us were ready to go home when we had to. This Patchwork Party had room and tables for twenty stitchers... and twenty came along. The next two, April and June, are fully booked but you can join on the reserve list if you want to. It's not a class, so you would need to be an independant stitcher... it's a day of uninterrupted stitching time, that's uninterrupted except to drink tea and coffee and eat posh biscuits, chat, sherry, lunch, cake..., laugh... always laughter!
Here are some pictures of the projects being worked on during our February Sewing Sunday Patchwork Party...

My Sewing Sundays are proving very popular, it's tricky to get a place to come now
but I have a cunning plan...
Have you considered hiring your local village hall and inviting people to stitch with you... That's all I did and look what happened.
You don't have to provide lunch as we quilters love to travel with a packed lunch.
It's a wonderful way to spend a day... and that rhymes!

Stitching News

Brenda Duck had finished stitching her backing together and, as most ladies played safe and chose to stay home while Doris passed through, there was space enough to make a quick sandwich. Brenda is going to quilt with diagonal lines... in my quirky way... I will show you once shes done.

Annbacan needed to lay out her family hands to choose placement for the sashing and corner stone fabrics... It all got pinned to a bed sheet so that she can't possibly mix them up as she sews... but, after only a little stitching I heard her say... "Two reds together? How's that happened" ha ha ha

Monday Sheila made a quilt sandwich with her Hidden Wells quilt. This will take pride of place on Sheila's sofa... once she has quilted it of course. She chose a fabulous variegated thread which will be used on the bobbin as well... smart!

As our BOM (Block of the month) comes to an end, the ladies are starting to lay out the blocks. Most have decided to quilt each block individually and to join them 'appartment-y' so we were choosing backing and sashing fabrics, Norma chose the lovely blue... it happened to be from my Temptation Trolley!

Spying opportunity to lay out blocks, Annbacan also chose her backing and sashing fabrics ... I think it's safe to say that all the ladies got a little excited about finishing the project... Sheila too but I missed the opportunity to snap a picture 

Caravanning season it almost here... All Day Di will be first to leave us for a few weeks and she needed a new project to play with while she's away on her jollies... we took a very long time to choose the perfect fabrics for Di... we do that a lot... you need to love what you're making!!!

Today is Sunday Sewing- Patchwork Party Day... 

20 ladies are joining me this time... 

Who would have thought that so many would want to spend a day with me in a village hall with other like minded people... laughing and chatting and stitching and snipping?

And I had a waiting list of people that we just couldn't fit in!!!...

Yeeeha... I better go get my stuff ready!

Mug?... yes, I need to remember to pack my mug! ha ha ha

Stitching News

New Sue held up this fabulous quilt top and we all thought it was finished... but no... there were vines and leaves and little flowers to be added to the borders.... it was all done by the end of the day and boy did it look great. 

Rose's Hare quilt is also coming along and nearing completion. Another absolutely beautiful top with rich batik beauties, not all from my very own shop but lots are. All appliqued with King Tut variegated thread, Rose's favourite!

A Finished Quilt Top...

It turned out a little larger than Brenda Duck intended... that happens a lot doesn't it!... but now she is chuffed to bits with it. We chose such a beautiful Art Gallery fabric for the main border... and teamed with the lovely, lighter inner border, the whole ensemble is perfect... sandwich time!

Hidden Welling

Stitching News With Tooting

PM Pam finished her gifting quilt for the little tiddler belonging to the Ashbourne footballing family, I bet they will love this play mat style and size of quilt. Little footballs quilted in the green football print fabric, goalpost netting represented in the black strips... it has it all..

And Pam appliqued "Up'ard" so there's no mistaking this family for "Down'ards"!!! he he he.. An absolutely fabulous finish with such a fun story... Toot toot toot Pam.

Janet is a new addition to our quilting family... This is one side of her beginner cushion, beautifully quilted on her very own and brand new Juki

And this is the back with a zip installed with my super easy method... under that there flap. Brilliant... toot toot toot Janet for your fabulous and finished project.

LouLou found her very own self feeling quite inspired by Rose's heart cushion, the one in the previous post. Lick-etty-split the fabric was chosen, the designing was decided and all this stitching was done in the one class... just to sandwich and quilt the cushion front now... the zip is there in the back already for a speedy finish.

Margaret spent her class time quilting wavy lines on her Winnie The Pooh quilt. She had drawn lines to follow as it's a long way across a quilt when you stitch it diagonally, have you noticed that? I guess it's the math of it all but the length of the diagonal always amazes me.

Just Edna continued with her Double Wedding Ring arcs... she has the system well sorted now. The Add-A-Quarter Ruler is a brilliant tool... especially when you stick it to a piece of cardboard... Do you know about that method? We love it.

Oh my goodness... how lovely Rose's Hares are looking... she's carefully choosing just the perfect colour of thread, often variegated and mostly King Tut (I have every colour availabubble in my very own shop you know) for each piece of Batik fabric and all that extra effort is really paying off.

PM Pam wanted to start something new... But What? hmmmm
Spring is just around the corner and quite a few projects are flower based in my classroom at the moment... Pam joined the Spring-iness and started these fabulous flower applique blocks

I told you... Spring-iness is in the air!
I posted this pattern on my Facebook page very recently... The Tuesday ladies decided to make it as a group project but New Sue got all excited and made a speedy start on it... all the Half Square Triangles are made and these appliques are well on the way.... isn't it wonderful to feel so excited about a project!

Stitching News

Toot toot toot time... Rose has two fabulous finishes to share with you.  Made for gifting to a very special new home owner, these lovely large cushions will be loved and make any house feel very home-y 

Those hearts say it all don't they? Two very different cushions made with luscious reds and lovely Linen... Perfect, fabulous and finished... with covered zips on the backs! toot toot toot Rose.

Sporty Sue is also making a very large cushion. Making 16, six inch finished Pineapple Blossom blocks gives a fabulous 24" square cushion... scrummy! Sue got a secondary pattern of linked chains.. can you see that? Or is it just me?

All Day Di made this Quick Table Topper for a little 'light relief'
Her calendar Mini quilts are almost finished so she wanted a 'quickie' to run up during her class... and this is most definitely a Quickie!

Stitching News

Monday Sheila finished her Liberated Hidden Wells quilt top. She used Festive themed fabrics and it turned out great. Such a clever method... but you do have to use your 'noggin'. (or little pieces of paper to label as you go... if you can't find your 'Noggin') We have a workshop coming soon for this design... it will be on Saturday 18th February

I've shared many, many Top Tips with Just Edna while she's been making the units for her Double Wedding Ring quilt. Together we have worked out a few tricky piecing dilemmas... oh it is coming along a treat now... guess what? After a million years of Not wanting to ever, ever make a Double Wedding Ring quilt.... I had to put one on my to do list!!! 

Monday Sheila wanted a Nautical Table Runner. We make this design with Charm Packs quite often... you must have seen a few examples recently as I have posted pictures for you... Sheila cut her squares from Meterage (yardage) It's a very, very long table!! Photo bombed by Jean Bean's impatient hands wanting to use the iron!! She is on a creative roll and just couldn't wait for us to fiddle-y-faff about, ha ha ha

Janet slid down our slippery slope... we must welcome her to the 'dark side'... this fun and creative place that we love... She has treated her very own self to a new Juki, DX7... such a fabulous machine... so now she can sew at home too! She's quilting her beginner cushion project as the first job.

Annbacan is making a family quilt. Members of her family have been asked to draw around a hand and to send it to her... she traces them and uses sticky stuff to applique them to the background blocks... more on this as it happens... what a lovely idea though.

Lady Judith is making six inch Pineapple Blossom blocks. She needs 16 in total to make the 24" cushion... the one that is displayed in my very own shop... Judith is using this absolutely beautiful Poppy fabric... new in my shop... it's from Moda

I do hope you are impressed by the shear quantity of pictures in this post... ha ha ha... not to mention that I blogged for a few days in a row!!! What's going on eh....

Stitching News

Josie has been wanting to have a go with her 60 degree triangle for a while. A few months ago she played with scraps to understand how it works and what would be needed in the accuracy and pinning department... she put herself off!!! ha ha, but... in class last week, she committed, she purchased, she cut, stitched and cut again... and she's feeling confident and happy.

Our Sheila is hand piecing. She's using beautiful Batik fabrics with solid black fabric which is making all those lovely, scrumptious Batik colours 'pop'. Did you know how easy it is to undo a hand pieced seam? Sheila knows!! ha ha ha The triangles just have to be the right way up!

 Luna Lena is making a tote bag. She's using In R Form as the wadding and she's decided to stitch around the pin cushion Strawberries to give them definition, ALL of them!... and it works, they pop up lovelilly! I wonder whether she will quilt around all of the other sewing notions?

Farmer Lynda is making a large Quick Table Topper. When it came to the edge trimming she was amazed with her very own self... all the edges were straight... Of course we knew they would be. She spent the rest of the class quilting this.

Brenda Duck chose to make a quilt like one on my classroom wall.
It's the one called Tutti Fruiti, there's a picture on my right side bar.
I came up with the simple plan of action...
Braking the project down to two basic blocks... to make it look easy
Which it is... sometimes we make the thinking hard work don't we?

See now...Two weeks later and Brenda Duck is making great progress
You know how to eat an elephant don't you?
One bite at a time!!