Stitching News

Fiona Too was being extremely thrifty...  She spent careful time trimming her wadding without cutting her backing fabric, then trimmed the overhanging backing fabric to be the same width all the way around... then spent ages double folding and pinning it over on the front... It's much easier to buy a bit more fabric for a 'normal' binding and after all this work, Fiona agreed. ha ha ha

Enid has stepped outside of the box with her quilting...
It looks great too... I hope you can see it in my picture
Oh boy how I love her fabric choices.

This is Jean Bean making a sandwich... right at the end of the day there were just enough tables to pin it ... though in two halves... The quilting design and thread colour has been decided and stitching will commence tomorrow... Unless we have another Manic Monday in her shop.

Half Square Triangles

I've got Ditsy Floral Six Packs ready in my very own shop... each one with 30 different 6" Squares.

I decided not to simply sew the squares together... like I have done with the other Six Packs I have. Floral fabrics look great with denim blue so... I cut blue 6" squares and made up 60 HST's Half Square Triangles.... then I set about trying to decide which setting to use

Needles to say... I have a second Ditsy Floral Six Pack home with me... to make into more HST's because I want the quilt to be even larger... I know, I know... I did say never again! 

Pineapple Blossom

The first block of the workshop day takes a little longer to complete, what with all the Top Tips to learn. It's all pretty basic stuff that's easy once you know how... any why.

But after that first testing block... the rest are easy-peasy, with real Lemon Squeezy

Farmer Lynda was quilting her second 24" Pineapple Blossom Cushion front during class. It's coming along a treat and she's extremely happy about that. 

And now a fanfare of toot toot tooting is required for Crystal's project...
 Not only had she made a fabulous and finished Pineapple Blossom cushion, She also made us a wonderful Madeira cake to help us celebrate her very own, brand new and rather wonderful, Juki HZL G220 sewing machine. 

This is the fabulous and finished and perfectly quilted backing for Chrystal's cushion, using up all the leftover Batik beauties from making the front... nifty-thrifty!

I will be repeating this workshop early in the new year should you fancy a delightful day all to your very own self!

Catch Up...

Toot toot toot!.. Lynn's first fabulous and finished quilt.
Also, her first Jelly Roll project... with strips sewn together and then chopped up to make the very popular Rail Fence design. Appliqueing those little Festive squares to the border is a great idea!
 

Queen Jackie finished all 16 of her six inch Pineapple Blossom blocks, so that's the 24" cushion top ready for quilting. Jackie is piecing all of the Bonus HST (Half Square Triangles) for her cushion back... influenced by my very own thriftiness!

Princess Jackie had the luxury of empty tables for a change and used every one to help place the fabulous Hidden Wells blocks in the right order, which helped... mostly! ha ha ha

Jenny Bean wanted to learn how to make Cathedral Windows... They're very popular at the moment... So, as we offer great customer service, We helped her get to grips with just enough to make a cushion sized project. Everything is easy once you know how!

Susan had downloaded this bag pattern from T'Internet. There are some very tricky methods involved and unusual technics... it doesn't phase Susan though... she's quite a Smarty-Pants in the bag pattern department so all was fine. Toot toot toot Susan, It's a beautiful Batik, Fabulous Finish!

More tooting now for Luna Twirly...
A fabulous and finished gifting set of placemats with a co-ordinating table runner. Perfectly stitched with some quite quirky quilting designs... of course, now we all want to have a go!

Apologies for the rubbish photo quality here... there was sunshine ... really, sun was shining and it's bleached out the beautiful colours for Brenda Barbara's Batik and beautiful Pineapple Blossom cushion... It's a Fabulous and finished tootable 24" cushion.

The back of Brenda Barbara's cushion used up all of the Bonus Half Square Triangles and all of the left over strips... we love to play with left overs. Toot toot toot BB!

Wow... this is the back of Sporty Sue's Tripping Around The World quilt
She finally finished trippy quilting and got right down to trimming the crusts off... there are a lot of crusts on a whole world!!! A fabulous backing, no?

Christine also finished a little quilt top... Made from a Fat Quarter gift pack from Who knows where... this will be a lovely lap quilt once it's finished... Sandwich time now though. 

Susan made more Bendy Bags... I warn you... they are so much fun to make!! Those little Sweet Pea Pods are made from the two triangles we cut away in order to bend the zip... which is a very satisfying thing to do! Toot toot toot Susan, A fabulous zippy family!!!

Gail announced that she was stitching the last row of blocks to her huge quilt... much to her relief. Border decisions have been discussed and much pondering will be done ready for the next sewing session.

It's been a very time demanding week in my very own world, not just the fabulous Patchwork and Quilting world.
No apologies though... Life does go on... it is just a blog after all...
And I'm not even going to mention all the sewing supplies and fabrics that came to find it's very own way into my already full to bursting emporium!!! ha ha ha

Stitching News

Fran Cupcake is having a ball... she is squeal-ie-squeal happy with her latest pleasure from her new book Making Luna Lapin... The book is adorable and full of clothing projects... Fran has decided to make everything... Pajamas the lot

Not what a lady should do but I lifted the skirts!!!
How cute are those bloomers and every detail on the wonderful coat!!

Helen has been having fun stitching Crumbs and Mile-A-Minute blocks...
 they are wonderful with rich colours and quirky little prints
There are more to make.

Christal finished her beautiful Batik Pineapple Blossom blocks.
There is a cushion front... it has been sandwiched and the quilting commenced... You can just see all the Bonus Half Square Triangles on the left there... Christal used them on her fabulous cushion backing

Brenda Barbara also finished her Pineapple Blossom cushion front and spent some time playing with the left over fabrics for the back... more on that next week. I know it is a rubbish picture... there was a lot of sunshine for a few minutes!!

I'm still cutting my Six Packs...This one is a Blue and White version...
There was a small queue of quilters waiting for this one.
It has 14 different fabrics and 3 x 6" squares of each one... totaling 42 in all.
I will be preparing Batik Beauties Six Packs next.

Cathedral Windows Workshop

We enjoyed a lovely day... nothing quite like a little social stitching while the rain batters the world outside. I didn't get pictures of all the projects as my wonderful shop got super busy nearer to the end of the day...  coincidently... that's when the rain subsided, not stopped, just subsided!
We will schedule another Cathedral Windows workshop in the new year, just so you know.

It's our September Sunday Sewing, Patchwork Party today...
9am to 5pm of seriously-stitchy fun and frivolity... with a fabulous catered lunch... Life Is Good!!!

Let's Catch Up...

Sporty Sue finished her wonderful Trip Around The World top and made a sandwich just before the Bank Holiday Week(end) She's been busily quilting it... It's a long way around the world you know!! each circuit getting a lot longer than the last

Luna is making Christmas gifts. A lovely table mat and runner set all expertly quilted and perfectly co-ordinated... A Charm Pack will help with that! Don't you love that striped fabric?? I know I do. I collect stripy fabric in my shop so you can have lots to choose from. And lets not mention my spots!! Toot toot toot Luna, Four Fabulous Finishes!

Christie started piecing Pineapple Blocks on the Thursday and thoroughly enjoyed making them. She was so impressed with her very own self that she popped back on the Friday to buy another amazing kit of fabrics to make another load of fabulous Pineapple Blocks... exactly the same, but completely different.

And while Christie was choosing her next fabric kit, I got out my perfectly purple camera to get a shot of Christies Fabulous and Finished beginner cushion... toot toot toot... 

Just Edna has laboured over all of the arcs for this quilt... winced over the Melons and all of the pins too. She was dreading putting all the blocks together... but, after a few top tips had been devoured... she got it done Lick-etty-split. Edna amazed her very own self with the speed of putting at all together. Isn't it fabulous!!! The backing is ready for the sandwich too.

LouLou arrived on a mission... A gifting pillow was needed and it was needed now!! She knew exactly what the plan was, had all the fabrics chosen from her very own stash, which has been created from my very own shop stash! She got it finished in the one day, complete with a zipped back. Toot toot toot LouLou, it is an amazingly Fast and Fabulous Finish!!!

Susan's gifting chest (as in drawer) is empty. She likes to have a few handmade and useful things in her chest... like a very own gift shop, open all days and open all hours. It's not empty any more... there are new Bendy Bags!! toot toot toot Susan, Fabulous and finished Bendy Bags, my favourite!

Lynn popped into my shop for the first time. Declared how fabulous it is (and we all agreed!!!) Got her very own self all excited... booked a class for the very same afternoon and went home happy. She returned with piles! Piles and piles of fabrics and stitched blocks that she had been playing with... but didn't know where to go from there. Oh my... she went home with a quilt top!

Princess Jackie was working on her Hidden Wells project. She is an award wining, first prize actually, applique quilt maker and is determined to bring her piecing skills up to the same level... I must admit, she's already cracked it! Just look at those fabrics and colours! All from my very own shop!!! so I am really helping... he he he

There you go, all up to date with the few pictures I have. Except for one lady with one special project... I will do a separate post for that... A-M-A-Zing!

We have a Sunday Sewing Patchwork Party this weekend. You might not believe it is possible but we are all very excited about it... we love to have a great, full, long day to socially sew while other people sort out our refreshments and lunch!!! ha ha ha

Temptation!

First off... this is not my picture... I stole it from here but it lead me to a full day of stitching! Customers can make the most wonderful things with my fabrics and this is a perfect example, don't you think? When I saw how fabulous the striped fabric looks on Sophie's Buttercup Bag handle strap, I went off on a creative tangent... It's all Sophie's fault and I told her so!

I've had a plan to do a Stained Glass sort of workshop for a while now. I have made a few Stained Glass style of quilts in the past and I love them, so when I saw this fabric on a Rep.Visit Choosing day a while ago... the bright uneven stripes on the black background... well... I had to order an extra large bolt of it didn't I... And then Sophie used my fabric and then... I saw the handles and then...

Boom!!!
Not quite enough time to finish the experiment...
but I love it!

Cathedral Windows Workshop

Next Saturday the 9th September, there is a workshop.
Cathedral Windows.
It's a method suitable for stitching completely by hand or by sewing with your machine... or Mix it up and use both hand and sewing machine...