Stitching News

Josie loves this book, purchased from my very own shop, of course. She's already started to make some of the units ready for the whole quilt. She's planning to learn lots of new skills.

Luna Twearly has a plan and knows exactly how many more blocks she will make... all Foundation Paper Pieced. The other ladies have been watching her fiddling with paper... they want to have a go too.

Di Butterfly started a new project. It's a small Railfence kind of design and she wants it to be very bright and cheerful... with these fabrics, that's the only way it will look, you can't beat bright and cheerful!

New Sue made a feather sandwich, spent a good while choosing exactly the right threads so she has plenty to do IF she gets any moment to sew, it is sewing prevention season after all!

Stitching News

Jean Hill used the Quilt As You Go method of stripping to make this fabulous Tea Pot Cosy. Along with a Hexagon bowl and a Mug Rug in co-ordination fabrics... What a brilliant gift!! Fabulous and finished and ready for gifting... toot toot toot Jean.

Lynda's Strippy Tote workshops have been very popular. We have three further dates booked for next year and they are also fully signed up for, so she's inventing another project, a Strippy Crossover.... This is Prototype number one, Fabulous, Zipped and Finished, toot toot toot.

Princess Jackie has been burning the midnight oil on this project.
Five minutes after purchasing the fabrics for the plan,
she brought it in to choose the binding!!!

I'm aware that's a slight exaggeration but that's how it felt. I think it was just over a week from start to finish... even including the pieced backing...we quilters are amazing aren't we!!! It will have been bound and gifted by now.

Merry Holidays

Last day for me today
My shop is open from 9:30am
I will be closing at 2pm

Sewing prevention season already started!
See you on the other side xx

Beginner Cushions

Beginner Cushions.

Lovely, small projects to dip your toe into Patchwork and Quilting with very little commitment... Almost everyone takes home a finished project.... and a new addiction!!

What do we make as a Beginners Project?

This small project is great for beginners... dabble in all aspects of patchwork and quilting...

Accurate cutting using a mat, ruler and rotary cutter.

Sewing an accurate quarter inch seam allowance with, hopefully, straight lines.

Good general piecing skills with top tips to help with seam matching.

Good pressing technique… a very important skill.

How to make and a small quilt sandwich.

How to quilt and, if there’s still time left we can turn your project into a lovely cushion with my fabulously easy zip inserting method. 

The workshops start at 10am and we should be finished by 3pm... 

What a lovely way to spend a day... then, if you find you are hooked... and that happens a lot... you can start thinking about what to make next.

Stitching News

Beryl is making a festive effort. She's decided to gift my very favourite, Bendy Bags. This is the first one finished, I think she needs 5 in total. The first one always takes longer with having to follow every detail of the pattern. Bendy Bags are very satisfying to make! Toot toot toot Beryl, it's a fabulous finish.

Luna Twearly was happy to find a few ladies were on holiday from class as it freed up enough tables to spread out her blocks to enable her to make a plan. Many more 6 inch blocks are needed, that was the plan decision!

All Day Di stuck on all the Snowmen details, hats, scarves, buttons etc, with Heat & Bond... the blanket stitching will be done during our Mini retreat, Diane intends to sandwich and quilt it too... let's see how that goes, ha ha ha

New Sue only needs three more beautiful Batik fabric feathers to have enough for her latest project, I think she's keeping this one all for her very own self! That's a novel idea eh, ha ha ha

Jean Bean is playing.... She's decided to stitch lots of quirky little details for her colourful petal-ly things... there's a fabulous plan in Beano's head... we will all see it soon, not too soon. ha

Fabulous And Finished

Kate hand quilted this lovely animal panel with Big Stitch Quilting and number 8 Perle Cotton, from the Presencia Thread Company... perfect for the job! The panel has large dashes, like stitches, printed on so that's what Kate used as a guide. It's a fabulous and finished gifting quilt toot toot toot

A lovely co-ordinating fabric for the back with the same designs... These two pieces of fabric make  a great lick-etty-split project if you need one. Obviously as Kate hand stitched it's taken a bit longer. You should be able to zoom in to see the handwork.

Princess Jackie's fabulous and finished gifting quilt... This one she calls her paler, pastel version.... It's still pretty colourful don't you think? All quilted and finished in good time. I'm not sure Jackie sleeps at all... she's like a production line!

And for the back a lovely selection of squares making this quilt double sided. Toot toot toot Jackie... yet another beautiful project.

Stitching News

Princess Jackie made a great backing for this quilt top, of course it used up the left-over fabrics. A few of our ladies left class a little early,  so Jackie was able to make a lovely pink and grey sandwich. The quilting design has been selected along with a perfect variegated thread.

Christabelle is never phased by a more complex project. This is a pattern from Anna Maria Horner and it uses reverse applique. The main fabrics Chris chose are Moda digital prints and the colours are amazing, they look painted don't they! Clever use of a glue stick helped Chris's progress.

Gail continued with her quilting, she's really chuffed with this quilt and I can't blame her, such a bright and happy project to work on.... it looks like the Bees agree, ha. The special Little Lady will love it I'm sure!

Evidence of work from Beano!... This is a sample/testing piece... a roundabout with different roads for access to everywhere... Jean's original idea has morphed onto a completely different road... There's a lot of thought and brainpower involved... not to mention the amount of tea!!! Hurrah though... the decisions was made, splendid!!

Stitching News

Kate is making great progress with her Quilt-As-You-Go project... in fact, I think by now it should be aaaaaaalmost finished. (I happen to know there was a planned sewing day yesterday) There's just the remainder of the apartment joining to be sorted, a bit of binding then Boom! It's a huge quilt, this is just one part.

Sporty Sue finished her wonky top... (Wonky blocks of course, the quilt top is perfectly unwonky!) This was a Layer Cake and the pattern's from one of the many books available these days. There's going to be a great backing made this week so a sandwich is imminent.

I really tried to get a photo that would show you all the little details on this Advent Calendar but it looks like I failed... Can you see any shiny bits? It's covered in bling, little tiny sequins etc? It's a fabulous and finished, and positively festive, Wall hanging Toot toot toot Jean of Bling Hill!!!

My Mum Gwynneth has decided to make new place-mats... She's always liked the Card Trick block as she loves how the bits all look like they wrap around each other. 6 blocks to make then a little bit needs to be added to the sides... we want rectangles you see. 

Nuttie was stripping all day.... We have a lot of ladies Stripping in my classroom these days, once they do a bag workshop with Lynda they decide to make more... like sewers cocaine!!!

Our Lynda is making a few smaller quilts to be gifted to charity. She's used an Eye Spy pack (from my very own shop) and was able to make two small quilts from the 30 x 6" squares that the pack includes.. Toot toot toot Lynda, that's a fabulous finish and you are very kind to be gifting it.

Lot's more pictures to come, timing is crucial though... there's a lot of secret sewing happening so I have to keep secrets!!!

Stitching News

Lou Lou started this project quite a while ago... isn't it cute!! She lost heart mid way through piecing it though, as there are few typos on the pattern which made it tricky, so Lou put it away. It's out again now, the errors have been corrected, I was very helpful!!  After a little lesson on 'couching' Lou Lou got on with it and it's now ready to be sandwiched, fabulous.

This is one of Norma's "Cheap fabric Loot = Gifting Quilt, Lick-etty-split thank you" stories, I think this was number two of the four (or five) ... all things considered (ALL of them) I think it turned out quite well... Norma just has to hand stitch the binding, she can do that unaided, ha ha ha

Rose made up this very large cushion with her left over bits from the last quilt... (see previous post) You would never know it was left over bits though would you? It turned out rather splendidly... toot toot toot Rose, a fabulous finish.

Oh no... we just tooted Rose's fabulous and finished cushion and now we look at the photo of the back and see the binding hasn't been finished, Please join me as I rewind the tooting... toot toot toot... ha ha ha... it's the same backwards!!! I am amused.

There's a Wearable Sewing workshop with Carol on Saturday 30th, are you dressmaking??? Need help with the fit or the pattern??
Sunday 1st December is the last Sunday Funday of the year 2019. Chef says he's happy to take last minute bookings for lunch... Just saying!

Tooting For Lady Lidl

All Day Di, also known as Lady Lidl these days, is extremely happy with her very own self... this is the second Unicorn project that she has made using an Elizabeth Hartman pattern. She was very much more confident this time... Do exactly as the pattern tells you and it will all work out fine.

Di made this large Unicorn Cushion for gifting to a very special little lady. All left over strips used for the back and a covered zip has been skillfully included too. Toot toot toot Di, a fabulous and finished project!

Sunday Funday 1st December

I just received the menu plan from our chef at Feast With Friends for our Sunday Funday on 1st December at Checkley Village Hall...

Breakfast bars

Tea and coffee (available all day)

***

Scrumptious Hot Chocolate with optional Rum splash

***

Turkey And Mushroom Pie

Potatoes And Greens

***

Followed by

Baked Cheesecake With Fruit

9:30am to 4:30pm  £20.00 per person (payable on booking)

I'm confirming numbers on Monday evening, so don't delay...
Please remember to bring your own mug.

Kate's Gifting Quilt

A blue and grey beauty, made by Kate... it's another huge quilt to which my photo doesn't do any justice. We have investigated and the problem... it seems to be that I have too many fabrics filling all the spaces where we used to take photos!!! ha ha ha, what a fabulous problem to have eh!!...  Kate pieced her project with the help of the 60 degree triangle ruler and a lot of patient pinning. We did our best for the pic, three ladies holding it up and draping it over tables... if you zoom in a bit you will see that Kate had it Long Arm Quilted by Amanda in Stone..

A fabulous backing happened... and I do really mean 'happened' We had a plan and Kate cut the fabrics. She prepared the centre, proceeded to sew the fabrics for our 'plan'... my mathemisms had a small issue, we still don't know what it was but other bits were added and we came up with this... Kate loves it and that's all that matters. Toot toot toot, a fabulous and finished gifting quilt.

Fabulous And Finished

Princess Jackie has one of her quilts all ready for gifting. I think you will agree that it's a fabulous finish? Most of the applique detail has been 'stuffed'... by that I mean it has had the faux Trapunto treatment, so very tactile!!!

Lots of Jackie's fabric stash used up on the backing too, we do love to play with our backings!! This is a heavy quilt, mostly because of the Trapunto... toot toot toot Jackie, another fabulous and finished gifting quilt. 

Rose is super happy with the results of this project. Made with Moda William Morris design Charm packs and skilfully co-ordinated solid fabrics... mostly Art Gallery. It's a great mix of traditional meets modern on the Railfence me thinks!!

And just look how fabulous the backing is!
Perfectly co-ordinating with the front side and you can see that Rose quilted with variegated King Tut Thread... I love it. Toot toot toot Rose.

Cute or what? New Sue made this one... all those lovely expressions, wonky and quirky and super fun... lots of detail and beautifully made. This pattern is from the Happy Quilts book, a favourite with my customers. Toot toot toot Sue, woof woof woof too! Not sure why I don't have a backing picture for you though, sorry.

Edna's Tooting Time

Just Edna's commission quilt!! It's good and ready for a Fabulous and Finished Fanfare, so... Toot toot toot.... It is absolutely enormous and I could barely get it in a photo inside my shop. I've taken a couple of angles for you to get the idea 

It's mostly made with Beautiful Batik fabric and a picture of a free pattern called Oink A Doodle Moo  I can't find the pattern online for you but the link will show you the quilt picture. Anyway, we didn't use the pattern really, except for it's look. The method Edna used saved a lot of work and over a metre of wasted fabric. Using the Tri-Recs ruler also helped the accuracy... as you can see, I hope

Obviously this is the back, perfectly co-ordinated with that fabulous front. You can see Edna quilted it all by her very own self (in her rather smart new sewing room) The quilt has now been received by it's new owners and Edna reports that they were thrilled to bits with their new quilt... and no wonder eh!