Bank Holiday, Wednesday

I have now tidied my shop ready for opening again and the return to 'normal'.. once all the windows were cleaned etc... I went back to my sewing, this could be classed as an addiction!! ha. Quilting doesn't actually make much mess, unlike Patchwork.

After not very long I realised that I need to draw the lines that I want to quilt... seems I can't sew/quilt in straight lines without guidelines... actually, I don't seem able to draw straight lines either... oh I had to unpick several stitches but I stayed calm... though why I decided on this design? 5 diamonds per coloured bit, tisk!

After completing only one diamond, with it's 5 circuits, I came home to Quilty Quarters and quilted a much simpler design on this Black and Cream Six Pack quilt. I love stitching shadow quilting and I can follow the seam lines... I didn't finish all of the quilting...

And I only hand stitched this much binding on my red and cream Six Pack quilt...
No holiday time left though.... production will just have to slow down.
No holidays left until Christmas now, eeek!!
Wait a minute... I lie to you... we have a retreat in October!!!

My very own Patchwork and Quilting shop in opening again today. I've had a fun few days.
Classes resume on Monday...
See you later?

Bank Holiday Stitching, Tuesday.

As I said I would... As soon as I could, I went down to my very own, very well stocked, Patchwork and Quilting Shop to finish pinning my large quilt sandwich... I thought I should show you my wonderful backing fabric... pattern matched and all... I bet you can't pick out my join... but I place no dosh on that bet, ha!

I forgot to show you this from Saturday Stitching... though technically it wasn't all Saturday sewing as I had started quilting it on Tuesday and managed to do a bit of stitching here and there between customers over the week... but I did finish quilting it on Saturday, while my Lilly was knitting stitches. The binding is on, I did that yesterday, after finishing the large sandwich, and I'm hand stitching it to the back in short bursts. The quilt has been made using one of my new Six Packs 

I had things to sort out in the afternoon yesterday, like food shopping.. ha!
but as soon as I was able I got back to my machine... I drew guidelines and stitched loads of rows of quilting... I had decided to quilt diagonal lines like the little Twin, easy and very like-a-bubble, so in the end it was another good and  productive day. 
It's actually my last day off today and I'm determined to spend it chained to my sewing machines... fun fun fun! Retirement is a tempting thought... I've still got loads of projects to finish.

Bank Holiday Stitching, Monday

So, first thing on Monday was to make the larger twin sandwich and... of course I went down to my very own quilt shop to use the tables! Oooops, I realised what a mess I had made on Saturday too. I decided not to use the perfect piece of backing fabric from my very own stash though as I found an even more perfect piece in my fabulous selection in the shop!! ha ha.... so I get to keep my bit for another 10 years!! ha ha ha

I bet you know what happened next... after finishing the blue sandwich... I didn't go home... I thought I should tidy up my mess from Saturday... but, what was the point of that when I would only make it all messy again so, I decided to finish the border piecing for this giant... took a few hours. Do you like it?

How about this angle?

And if you are missing my shop, here's another view...
The mess is over on the other side!

I don't think you can see the mess over by the window tables, so just look at my quilt top! I went home for a spot of lunch at this point. Then had a little rummage in my very own fabric stash. Chose some weird fabric for my backing and went back to my very own shop to make a large backing. Well blow me down if I didn't find a fabulous Amy Butler fabric that was perfect for the backing!!! ha ha ha Oh I spent 4 hours pattern matching it too. The sandwich had to be left half pinned, I had run out of time... so guess where I am going in a few minutes!

Once that large and rather fabulous quilt sandwich is pinned, I will set it to one side, which means hang it over the banister... because I want to quilt the small quilt first... even though this was actually the largest quilt yesterday!

Bank Holiday Stitching, Sunday.

I played in Quilty Quarters on Sunday. Finally got all the border bits stitched to this top... which has been a tricky and rather mathemistic project due to some twit cutting just about everything to the wrong sizes... I wonder who she is? ha!

And because that "Twit" had cut sooooo many different (not wrong, but different) sized pieces of fabric there was enough to make a little quilt... Yes, that much/many wrong mathemisms!!!

I decided to quilt the smaller of the non-identical twins first... well, who wouldn't! I had a bit of a rummage in my Bits Of Batting/Wadding Box and found a long piece large enough to cut through and join to make a perfect fit and a further rummage in my very own little fabric stash found me a great and co-ordinating piece for the backing and binding. To stop myself going down to my very own shop again, to make my sandwich, I used the office carpet plastic mat thing that allows me to skid my chair around... worked perfectly!

I chose such a simple design, easy to mark and stitching from side to side so there were no ends to tie off...  that it was all quilted and fabulous, lick-etty-split.

So, quilting done,  I got the binding made, pressed in half and machine stitched on then hand stitched it to the back while listening to the radio... It's a very small quilt so it didn't take much more than 30 minutes... A good day's production?

Bank Holiday Stitching, Saturday

Saturday... I couldn't resist. The shop was closed and I took full advantage of that. I used the big table situation to decide about these borders... I have been pondering ideas but there's nothing like seeing the top laid out and playing with your bits... so to speak! ha... My Lilly and I stitched the day away, though she was actually knitting her stitches... a great start to my little holiday. Very relaxing!

A Bank Holiday LONG Weekend!

Angie's Patchwork and Quilting Shop, 
3 Queen Street, 
Cheadle in Staffordshire, 
ST10 1BQ...
Well worth a visit!...  

But not until Thursday 31st August because it will be closed until then.
Yeeeeha for Bank Holiday bridges!! It's going to happen like this...
Saturday 26th August closed = one side of bridge,
Sunday 27th Closed, always closed on Sundays though.
Bank Holiday Monday 28th... closed,
Tuesday 29th August, closed = the other side of bridge,
and, as you already know, we're always close on Wednesdays... 
See that?
Just two bridge days makes a total of 5 days... 
Almost a week for me to rest and relax, not watch the clock and maybe do a little stitching for my very own self!!

I hope you have a great Bank Holiday looooong weekend tooooo!

Stitching News

Sporty Sue's tripping around the world in 4 separate journeys, all joined together by the very clever little suggestion of a border. It is a huge quilt... every square started as a 3" cut strip... If that doesn't make sense? Why not try a trip? It has the Wow factor eh... 

Judy, who likes to make it up as she goes along, is very happy with her Flying Geese pillow. The original idea and design was nothing like this but that doesn't matter a tot. Judy loves it. It's not quite finished, there's a little hand stitching to be completed on the binding.

While Judy was working on the geese for the front, Our Carol was 'inventing' Faux Piped Cushion Flaps for the back of her cushion.... Judy wanted a Faux Piped Cushion Flap too... so she made her very own. PMS (Pleasing My Self) Always to be encouraged!!

Princess Jackie has had her Hidden Wells strip sets finished for several weeks but had put them to one side for a while... so many projects on the go you see. Now she cut into the strips and chopped up the squares so progress is happening!

Queenie continues adding little flowers to her borders... it's tricky appliqueing the petals and leaves with the border attached to the large quilt centre... if only she had completed the borders' applique before stitching them to the quilt... she knows for next time though... he he he

Gail was so happy to have a different project to play with.
It's time for all of us to be completing our festive projects really...
It's September next week!!!"
Once this delightful Stocking was done all but the hand stitching,
Gail went back to her 'other' blocks.

Rose is now an expert with the Foundation Paper Piecing.
She had decided to make all the easy blocks first... good plan.
Now she's ready to tackle the trickier designs.

New Sue also made the 'easier blocks' first. Now she's doing the trickier leaves... a few hiccups in the beginning, caused by PMS on the cutting sizes (Pleasing Your Very Own Self on Cutting sizes doesn't really end up with success... Don't ask me how I know... More on that later) but once that was sorted Sue was on a leafy roll.

And a fabulous finish next. New Sue made it and it's hand quilted.
A perfect 22" cushion all ready for gifting...
Toot toot toot Sue, a fabulous and Finished, and very useful, cushion.

Jean Bean is enjoying being accurate... Tiny little Log Cabin blocks need to be accurate... don't you think... unless your plan is to be liberated that is.
Can you see that fluffy thing? Jean calls it Hairy Maclary... it's her thread catcher... creepy little thing it is too! 

Taadaaa WoW, WoW, Wow!
Jackie's beautiful blocks all sewn together... Wow
I have no suitable words.
She's working on the borders now.... Wow

New... Six Packs

I've had a brainwave... Don't roll your eyes, it's a good brainwave!

For all the years that I have been stocking and selling fabrics and notions... and surprisingly that's now totting up to over 8 years, I have never been a huge fan of the pre-cuts... I have liked a few, but not many... whether they be Jelly/Strip Rolls, Layer Cakes or Charm-ish packs... lots of companies call them different things but, at the end of the day... I still aren't a big fan of them... even though I know a lot of you love them. 

I don't carry many in my stock any more. I find most packs have a few fabrics in them that I don't really like or fabric colours or designs that I would prefer not to put together... this is my personal opinion and you can have your very own, that's fine.

I usually have a few Charm Packs in my shop, Moda ones. Some people like to make a quick project and the stitching together of 42 x precut 5" squares is perfect for that job... or is it? 

The resulting quilt, with the addition of a 4 or 5 inch border is still a little small in a practical way... a size just for the smallest laps! ha ha ha. 

Two Charm packs stitched together, plus a border or two however, makes for a fairly decent sized Lap quilt or Sofa throw though for any sized knee/lap.

So... back to my brainwave...

I decided to trial Six Packs... Each pack containing 42 x 6 inch squares of fabric. 21 designs and two of each of them. 

I have been cutting and cutting and arranging and packing for days.

I cut red and cream Six Packs first of all... it was so funny, while I was cutting the squares, customers were pre-ordering Six Packs so that got me to thinking... 

"This might be a good idea after all"

Having sold out of the red and cream ones in the first day. I decided to cut more.

I am racing to make the packs up into quilts to show how fabulous they can look... 

Red and Cream Six Pack sandwich

Black and Cream Six Pack sandwich

I also have Blue with Cream Six Packs ready.

I have Eye Spy Six Packs... at the moment they are 30 piece packs, I have a cunning plan in mind for those packs in the future as well.
So, that is my most recent shop news... but today is Sunday... I usually allow myself a bit of quality time in my very own Quilty Quarters... so I am off to do just that...
Have a great Sunday won't you?

Fabulous And Finished

This was the first photo retrieved from the perfect purple camera
Rose's Hare's made using beautiful Batik fabric and a pattern from Monkey Buttons but not following it exactly... PMS (pleasing My Self) Rose loves the idea of 'winging it'... and 'Wing It' she does... It is one of those projects that looks great in a picture but in real life it is even more fabulous

Wow look at the back... Never any waste when we play with the backing for our quilts... Also you can see that Rose did a little Free-Wheeling for her quilting, some stitching done using the walking foot too. Toot toot toot Rose, your quilt is truly amazing!!! Uttoxeter Quilt show?

Fran Cupcake battled her way through the instructions for the Changing mat and bag pattern from ByAnnie... a full Changing Station. Is wasn't easy... but then lots of things are not easy when you don't know how aren't they? All the supplies are available in my very own shop too!

This is the bag and mat opened out, obviously! Zips and mesh pockets so you can see everything you packed and everything you forgot! ha ha ha. Fran says she learned lots of great and useful tricks and tips and methods while making the Changing Station so she will most definitely make more. Toot toot toot Fran, a fabulous finish.

Merrily's amazing quilt, a lovely story. In brief though... This is a very personal quilt.
All of the white bits were made from her daughter's wedding dress... Both ladies had made the dress many years ago and, as many people probably do, the dress was used for the one wonderful day then stored way. Daughter was inspired one day and she and Merrily came up with the idea of cutting it up to make this amazing quilt. All of the blocks mean something to the family, scottish connections etc. I hope they write the information in great detail to be kept with the quilt, it's all so very interesting and, when we are all just dust.... new quilters will want to read it.
Toot toot toot Merrily... what an amazing project!

My customers make the most amazing projects...
It makes me feel so very proud to know that my wonderful little Patchwork & Quilting shop can help so many of them with all these fabulous ideas!!!
Toot toot toot for my fabulous... but never finished little fabric Shop! ha ha ha

Festival Of Quilts 2017

Finally, I have had time to look at the pictures I took during our pilgrimage to the Festival Of Quilts. I don't really take too many photos because I want to enjoy being there and really look at the wonderful things with my very own eyes. I find if the camera takes the front seat I miss too much detail. I might not remember everything I see, but the moment was wonderful at the time... and I remember that I saw wonderful things... that's enough to get me back there every year!
So, here are some I did want to remember so the camera came out of my bag...

Not a quilt but information I want to follow up on.

The coach is already booked for next year!! yeeeeeha!

Stitching News

This will be a bit brief because it's Festival Of Quilts, Pilgrimage day!!! 

The coach will be picking us up at 9am (with a few ladies already on it as they got on at the coach's source in The Meir!! 

The first sandwich of the day was my very own, it's a shop sample. I made this quilt to show all the fabrics that are included in our new 6" square packs. 6 x 7 block setting will make a very good sized lap quilt/ sofa throw with the addition of a 1" cut inner border and 4 1/2" cut outer border. The quilt will need 1.30m WOF length for the backing. I only have 3 packs of this colour way left already (I will cut more though) as customers were ordering them as I was cutting the squares. I've also got 6" square packs in blues and creamy lovelies, well I will have on Monday as I didn't quite get them finished yesterday...  because I had to look after customers... hoooray!

Margo will hand quilt her huge sampler quilt.

Norma will machine quilt her beautiful Batik, Hidden Wells 

Sporty Sue needed one more fabric strip of fabric for her inner border treatment and we got to see how it's coming along... Thank you Mr. Knott for being so helpful!

Just Edna has started to join her melons... the first few were tricky but Edna soon 'Got It' and each one took a little less time, and more pins! We are all watching Edna's process...

Alison popped in to show us her two Handy Tote bags. She attended Sue's workshop a couple of weeks ago and is so please that she's going for a third Tote! Toot toot toot Alison, fabulous and finished times two!