Messenger Bag Workshop

Another Messenger Bag workshop... Saturday 8th June.
10am - 4pm £30.00 plus materials.
This is a free pattern available on the Makower UK website but Carol has added a few zipped pockets to it. Pop over to the  website using this link to get your free instructions or come for a fun day with Carol and learn extra, top tips while you make your very own Messenger Bag.

Stitching News

We're all back now from a wonderful and very relaxing, funny and highly productive retreat at Alison House Hotel, in Cromford Derbyshire. I truly really deeply cannot recommend this hotel highly enough. It was, once again, an absolutely brilliant retreat holiday!!! ABSOLUTELY!!!

Loads of projects were worked on and I did remember, once or twice, get a few pics...

Nuttie finished her Quilt-As-You-Go with apartment joining AND double sided binding. This has been made using shirts rescued from the 'throwing out' pile.

Toot toot toot Nuttie, it's a fabulous, double sided, finished quilt.

Just Edna also needs a loud fanfare for a fabulous and finished gifting quilt.
How cute are those ducks!!!

And this is the back...
Double sided quilts are the best!!
Toot toot toot Edna.

Longport Lynda finished a quilt too...
Toot toot toot Lynda, a fabulous and finished scrappy quilt.
Crumbs with Mile-A-Minute blocks all sashed with white.

PM Pam worked on her long list of Premature baby unit gifting quilts.
There will be two made in this design.

Norma finished joining her beautiful Batik blocks together then cracked on with quilting more of them as she's decided to make the quilt even larger. 

Maggie worked on a Hatched and Patched pattern.
There are lots of tricky bits just because they are so small really...
and some hand sewn parts too.

Nuttie worked on this wall hanging quilt.
It's from Table Please, an Art To Heart book.

Nuttie also had a go with Crumbing...
Then she went round scrounging everyone's scraps!! 

Our next Alison House Sewing Retreat is in September... Fully booked, as usual!

We can't get enough of it!

Stitching News

Carol finished this wonderful quilt top. The applique is a mixture of Moda Flannels and regular cottons plus there are lot's of embroidered embellishments to boot... makes it a very tactile project. The backing has been chosen and a sandwich making session is iminent.

Just for a quick fix... Carol decided to make a Bendy Bag with her pastel Kaffe... and a little zipper pouch made from the left over Bendy Bag triangles... That will only make sense if you've had the pleasure of making a Bendy Bag for your very own self. Toot toot toot Carol two very fast and fabulous finishes

What a palava it was to get this picture. Monday Sheila is making new festive cushions to keep for her very own self... for a rare change!! She wanted to show you the back and the front of the cushions at the very same time... Poor Longport Lynda's hair was all messed up when Sheila nearly fell on top of her... Laugh, oh yes we did! Anyway, toot toot toot Sheila, fabulous and finished and festive.

PM Pam finished yet another quilt. All those Half Square Triangles (HST's) were given to her... they are someone's left over, cut off bits!!! I know... some people throw good stuff out... how very wasteful... of course... not if you know a keen scrappy quilter... like our Pam!! Toot toot toot Pam another fabulous and finished gifting quilt.

An arty-farty picture of Longport Lynda's piles. 12" blocks all in the process of being individually quilted ready for apartment joining, probably whilst we are away on our upcoming retreat. Have I mentioned that to you??? ha ha

Princess Jackie had made lots of Flying Geese units for her borders and she decided to use them side by side, making the chevron pattern... do the colours remind you of those Rhubarb and Custard sweets we used to get years ago?? Well now... would you believe it... we can still buy them now... I just looked on Google... yum

All Day Di finished her quilting on this William Morris gifting quilt , made up her binding and got it all stitched on, it's now ready for hand sewing whilst away on our retreat... she has lots of projects to take, as do most of us.

Harry Potter Quilt

Farmer Lynda made this quilt for a very special person.
He requested a Harry Potter Quilt and boy did Lynda run with the idea!!! Hours on the internet looking for ideas she found a pattern and the seeds were set. As always we decided not to stick too rigidly to the original pattern...

 Harry Potter Quilt back... or front? This is a truly, double sided, fabulous and finished totally toot toot toot-a-bubble project... Well done Lynda, you made a wonderful gift.

Stitching News

Sister Susie finished her wonderful Appliqued Nap Mat... There are two bits to this, I'm hoping you can see... basically it's two quilts of different dimensions, stitched together at one side. One side to nap on and one side to cover the sleeping tot. A brilliant idea from an Art To Heart book. Toot toot toot Susie, a fabulous finished project. 

Sporty Sue has finished all of the quilting on her Giant Kaffe Pinwheel blocks... they NOW measure exactly 18 inches each, they didn't before and it didn't work well at all! Sashing strips in black and white dots, will help Sue join everything together Apartment-ly.

Kate's Lynda enjoyed making her last Quilt-As-You-Go so much that she's already very well into her next one... Pink this time... for a change!! It will be given to a charitable organisation.

Jean Hill has been itching to get onto a new project as she's not in love with the pastel coloured Disappearing 9-Patch one she's trying to finish... She has a new book and wanted to make Ombre Braiding, perfect for a guy... that was the brief. Didn't we do well with those fabric choices!!!

Sister Sue and Fiona Too want to start a joint project next so we had a little play with possible fabric placement and colours. Unfortunately (for me as the shop owner) but happily (for them) they have enough fabrics in their stash to make this gifting quilt. ha ha ha

Beryl finished the first part of her Twister Wreath project... then she made up the template and used it cut it all up again...She twisted each new block just a tad and now has the beginnings her wreath table topper... Now she can sew it all back up!!

Just to remind you... 
It's nearly retreat time again!!!....
My shop will not be open, that's like being closed...
on 
Friday 24th May, 
Saturday 25th May and 
Bank Holiday Monday, 27th May.

Stitching News

Jean Bean made another block for her Hound dog gifting quilt... very cute indeedy... each block will have a different fabric background and, would you believe it... these blocks will be quilted individually then joined together apartmently... bang on trend!

Gail's football pitch is finished... mowed and trimmed, so it's ball time. Hand pieced Hexagons stitched to the black background... they look really effective don't they... each ball will be 'trapuntoed' and will be a different size, to give a bit of scale... quite arty farty!

Rose finished all the blanket stitch applique on several herds of Elephants, as you can see she has saved all the end tying off for a job with the TV. That's a lot of ends!

A bit blurred, silly perfect purple camera must have twitched! New Sue finished the top of her table runner. Apparently it is a free pattern from Kaffe's website... very tricky and Sue will not be making it ever again... ha! All in beautiful Batik fabrics, lovely. It's sandwich time.

All Day Di spent a lovely day quilting her William Morris Gifting Quilt. She was quite amazed just how much sewing she got done really. She says it's because she was concentrating and not listening to the jabberings of a fellow quilter! ha ha ha

Jenny Bean came for a stitchy playday... She works on several projects all at the very same time, how strange (not!)  These blocks have been rescued from a deceased quilters' estate. They are all beautifully stitched by hand, even the quilting... so Jenny is going to join them all together appartmently, then donate the finished quilt to a worthwhile Charity, lovely.

The classroom has been very busy of late. Every project inspires someone else... like those friendship cakes... do you remember them? You give a little bit of the mixture to a friend and they make it into a  new mixture to bake a cake... after gifting a bit of that mixture to another friend, or a neighbour if you have run out of friends... ha ha ha

Stitching News

Starting off with a fanfare for Just Edna's fabulous and finished quilt. Made with beautiful Batik fabrics... she started with a Jelly Roll then added many more from my wonderful selection.... Each block was quilted then joined together without sashing strips... yet another wonderful method to help us quilt very large projects 

This is the back of Just Edna's Batik Beauty
You can see the free form design, the quilting on each block, the joining and the general wonderfulness... toot toot toot Just Edna. A triumph! 

Annbacan also elected to quilt each of her Crumb and Mile-A-Minute blocks individually... she has stitched them all into rows with the addition of the sashing so now the strips are getting longer... a little more tricky and more accuracy is needed... just a few more pins sorts that out though...

This is the back of Annbacan's project... completely different!! She's had a lot of fun working her way through a patchwork Block Party book 501 blocks. but she hasn't quite made them all.... with a bit of free form 'Pleasing her very own self.'

Another one... Norma's Batik Beauty.... I know!!! They are all at it.... talk about liberating!!! Almost all the quilters who come to my classes are smitten with this quilting of blocks individually and joining together afterwards... 

Normas quilt is huge already but she decided to make extra batik blocks to make it even larger... I told you... they have been liberated! Norma will be making another large Batik quilt just as soon as this one is complete

Lou Lou didn't like Batik fabrics at all when she first joined us... She always chose a more subtle palate .... Boom!!! Boy does she loves them now... she's been infected with the Batik Bug... these fishy blocks are from the very popular Happy Quilts book. The blocks won't be in this order... I just did that for a quick picture. I love this project... It's on my To Do list ( verrrrrrry long list!)

Crumbs And Mile-A-Minute Workshop

Stitching News

Jean Bean started a fun new project, Hound Dogs... it's from the book 'Happy Quilts', a book stuffed full of fun projects... There must be a new baby being baked, Jean loves to gift little quilts.

Rose must be in factory marathon mode... she's stitching 3 projects at one very same time... The elephants make up to little wall hangings... they will be perfect little quilts, for gifting of course.

Gail is getting to the exciting bit now... all weather Grass trimming... if only it was that easy! the borders will make this look just like a real football stadium.... at least, that's the plan. 

Pam also started another new project. The back of this one will be the front... this is the the front, it will be used as the back... Winnie the Pooh fabric is so hard to cut up, so she will not do it!... Confused?? 

Beryl was making the base for her Twister Wreath table topper. All the junctions need to be lined up for it to work... and now they do! Next job is to chop it all up again! 

Sister Susie has done fabulous quilting on the Nap Mat. Can you see the large Blanket Stitching on the flowers... that is Juki Machine stitching... looks very hand done me thinks. The binding is on and the pillow pocket is complete... there might be a finish next week?

All Day Di is making this Lap Quilt for gifting to a very special lady.William Morris fabric is perfect for the occasion. Will Di gift it? My goodness does she ever love this quilt enough to make that decision very tricky!!

Taa Daa... Jean Hill held up her fabulous and finished quilt... with much relief I have to say! It's well deserving of a toot toot toot fanfare. Made up as she went along after being inspired by my Beautiful Batiks and a picture found in Tinterweb.

Krafty Karen had a tricky job with a bit of fussy cutting.... she's done her best to get a smart animal in the centre of each square... those edges are Bias cut... Karen knows to be careful though, so we won't worry will we.