Friday, 16 April 2021

Stitching News

 Thank you for the pictures once again ladies. I took some pictures with my perfect purple camera, which thought it had retired, ha ha ha

Another turtle sandwich, this belongs to Our Pam. We've seen this quilt made in a few different colourways now and, I have to say, they are all fab-u-lous!  The beautiful Moda Grunge background is perfect for a turtle pond.

This sandwich also belongs to Our Pam. She works on the 9-Patch units in between other projects... a great idea, it keeps a tiny-teeny-weeny bit of control of those scraps and gives a little break between the more "concentration needed" designs.

"concentration needed" designs... 
Like this one that Farmer Lynda is working on

There's a dinosaur... which wasn't easy at all... but then it wasn't tricky either! 
depended on which part Lynda was sewing when you asked her... 
She sent the photo with this 
"OMG, I did it!" ha ha ha

There are leaves that were also "tricky... not too tricky".
Great hoots of pleasure with each block finished!
We will watch the progress as it happens.

Fiona Too is now designing her very own projects. 
You can't beat a personalized gift and it's toot toot toot time 
A fabulous Unique and finished project

The back of the cushion perfectly co-ordinated and very clever indeedy...  the design carried through from the front with a fabulous hidden zip in the bush! toot toot toot

This was the last kit left in my very own shop for the Bugs quilt, called 'Buzzin' Around'
 I'm making it. A free pattern from the Andover fabric folk, how very kind, thank you very much.
I need a gifting quilt... watch this space, work has already started!

Saturday, 10 April 2021

Cats On The Fence

I've had A LOT of fabric delivered during this last week or so. It all got ordered when the government gave me the grant payment. I went a bit mad, spent the lot on ordering threads and fabrics ready for the normal life to come back.
This range is Katie's Cats, a Makower collection. It's a lovely, bright and colourful range... I'm hoping you agree that it's very want-able-need-able! I decided to make a quilt knowing exactly the right design. Licketty-Split, I had cut just enough of each fabric and left my shop for a sewing spell in my Quilty Quarters. 
After a bit of paper and pencil calculating, I got it all beautifully pressed using Best Press (a highly recommended potion that I have just been introduced to) and all the strips were accurately cut. 6 strips of the larger cats and 10 of each of the other 5 fabrics. 
Strip sets, 10 of each... that's a lot of accurate stitching in straight lines!
A good firm pressing of all the seams to one side... 
and then cut into blocks ready for the Railfence design
which way would the blocks look best on my rails?
Hearty rails?
Stripe-y rails?
I actually liked the hearty rails better but...
The stripe-y rails won this time. I should have cut the heart fabric wider to have hearty rails, too late now! And it still looks great, even if I do say so myself! The Railfence design is a really easy one so I was done with the top quite quickly.
 The sandwich was made in my shop on tables pushed together... like in the good old days! See that join in the strips? That's me being thrifty! It won't be noticed in the grand scheme.
Quilting with bright and colourful thread. I used my walking foot for the stripy Railfence design then put the darning foot on, dropped those feed-dogs and free motioned quilted the rest with hearts and curly-whirly loops 
You should be able to see the quilting if you zoom in a bit.
The larger cats fabric had one big heart, all slightly different shaped hearts as I didn't want to be faffing with drawing them first!
Back to my shop to choose the binding, Pink with purple dots was perfect.

A rubbish photo but it's finished. toot toot toot  I've called it "Cats On The Fence"
How so? Cat fabric and a Railfence quilt design? Genius, ha ha ha
Measuring 49" x 70"  that's 1.25m x 1.80m
I'll try to take a better photo when I can find someone to hold the quilt up for me.
Needless to say, I had to write up the instructions for a few customers, very simple notes though. Pattern writing can be too wordy for me. I will be cutting kits next week for the ladies to make their very own Cat's On The Rails quilts. I hope they will share photos with us when the quilts are done.

Thursday, 1 April 2021

Ugly Bird House Quilt

That's it then, apart from stitching the label on, the Ugly Birdhouse Quilt is finished. It's been finished for a while but I couldn't make it look good in any photos I took. Mainly because no-one could to hold it up for me, darn the Covid!
We are allowed to visit people in the garden from this week, even quilts need to visit people don't they, ha! A cunning plan was hatched by my very good self to go visiting and get good quilt pictures!! and to see my Lilly and her babies, of course, ooops!

My Lilly ordered sunshine so we could gather in her garden.
Of course she helped me take pictures of the quilt. 

There were two little helpers...
Both babies just had birthdays so we need a feet photo
It's a new tradition!! 

Not that little man wanted to stand still! 
Faye asked me to pick her up so she could look over the top,
Alas, I didn't have enough hands.

The back... with feet, lots of quilts have feet!
Toot toot toot Nangie, it's a fabulous and finished Ugly fabric quilt. 
Guess who wants to keep it?
I'll hang it in my shop for a while first, now that it's done, I love it!