Stitching News

 It's a bit mean pickings again for pictures I'm afraid. There are lots of project being worked on so there's a lot of planning, a good amount of mathemisms and much excellent customer service is required. My brain is very well picked this week, I can tell you. Customers pop in and say that, "Can I just pick your brain for a minute?" It's all getting very exciting. I've had several new staters too, poor things don't know what they have let themselves into, ha!

I've had 2 days with the tables pushed together, like for a Sandwich Saturday. Sometimes I can help with more than a bit of pinning you know, Laying out blocks for example

These are Christabelle's Beautiful Batik, Log Cabin blocks. All made with a Moda Batik Jelly Roll and meterage of that moody and rather gorgeous background purple. After this picture Chris moved lots of the blocks around, more than once!

Jan made this Autumn colours sandwich. It was the second time as when she got home from making the first sandwich, she noticed it wasn't quite level, so she unpinned it all. That's the best thing to do, a little annoying but much easier and less time wasted in the end than trying to add wadding later. (Hope Di reads this!!!)

It's only 6 weeks until our next retreat so there is a lot of planning to be done. We have decided to work on a new project, we will all make the same one but in our own fabrics. It should be very interesting. We all purchased the book and cutting up of fabrics has begun. There are large flowers and hearts with big background rectangles, so we started there. You will see the progress as it happens.

One more reminder, 

That it is a Checkley Sunday Funday next weekend 29th January 9.30am to 3.30pm and I really need you to please confirm and pay for your place if you haven't already.

There are lots of names on my list so, fingers crossed, you all remember whether or not you added your very own self to my list.

Thank you.

Stitching News

Sister Susie is so relieved to have finished with sewing her diamonds together. She has enjoyed the challenge but that's it, no more. Here she's adding a flange to the edge of the cushion in readiness for the main border strip.

All Day Di has been busy, she's a new triangle queen, ha! She used to avoid them at all costs and now treated her very own self to a block book full of triangle units. This table runner is the proof.

Shirley finished her quilting on the Twister Wreath. It's a great project, a bit fiddly at times but not difficult at all. Binding was stitched on by the end of class too.

Fiona Too hadn't stitched an inch over sewing prevention season, I don't call it that for nothing you know! A little refresher on how to make these blocks and she was right back on track. 10 minute blocks are super easy.

 

I had a brief WhatsApp message from Di asking which colour thread to use for the quilting, they would all have been great really but the multicoloured King Tut won in the end.

This is Sue's quilt top. She had taken it home in two halves last week and arrived this week thinking she had it finished. It wasn't until I took a photo that we saw it, poor Sue had to unpick and resew, can you see it?

Trouble could be afoot soon. My energy contract for the shop is about to expire. They wrote to me with scary numbers!  I've contacted the supplier to beg for a better deal but my bills will still increase A LOT. 5 times more expensive on Gas and 3 times more expensive on my electricity.

We have to ride that storm, I know we all have no choice!

We'll have to practice getting in and out of the shop door without opening it to let any warmth out and stop the cold getting in!!!

Layer up of you are coming to sew, dress like an onion so you can peel off IF you get warm.

Checkley Sunday Sewday is on 29th January 9.30am to 3.30pm, so it's time to book and pay for your places please.

Stitching News

We are back up and running in my classroom and in my shop and boy did you have me running. I had to do a lot of fabric mathemisms for all the new projects and my brain was smoking! Not really, that wouldn't be a good look in a cotton fabric emporium would it. Needless to say I forgot to get pictures on Monday but here goes with a few from my  Tuesday ladies

Princess Jackie finished the last stitching details on this lovely quilt. Using the Tri-Recs rulers to make extra pointy-pointed triangles so they give the illusion of curves, clever huh?

This is the back, of course using up the extra fabrics and spare blocks and you can see the quilting very clearly from this side. Just fabulous and very finished, toot toot toot.

Angela made this quilt using this pattern from Piece O' Cake designs isn't it lovely! There's a lot of hand stitching because, she loves to hand stitch... and why not! See the border design, there looks to be hundreds of different fabrics there, but Angela assures me that there ore only 5, beautiful Batiks which are excellent for jobs like that. Toot toot toot Angela, a fabulous finish.

Christabelle needed extra table space as she was quilting long, straight, yet curved lines. Again the Tri-Tecs ruler tricked us, ha! When we quilt larger projects we do tend to knock everything else off the surrounding tables, never intentionally though.

Beano shocked us all a bit. She usually needs many classes to come up to speed at the beginning of a New Year, but not this year, I suspect there were new batteries from Santa as she got straight down to work on her quilting. It was almost finished at the end of class too, way to go Beano!

There's a Checkley Sunday Funday coming soon, Sunday 29th January 9.30am to 3.30pm.

I have lots of names on my list as folk booked themselves a place at the last meeting, but there's always room for more. Just contact me via email, angiequilts@gmail.com or phone / WhatsApp 07807530441

This weekend coming it's our first Saturday Sewday in my classroom 10am to 3pm, more or less. You have to book in advance as space is limited, even though Christabelle won't be there knocking your stuff off the table, ha!

Stitching News

 Just a little catch up.

One of us had a lovely new Juki DX7 machine during Sewing Prevention Season. She'd played on my shop demo one for a few weeks then realised that she couldn't manage without her very own Juki! So she had to be given time to sew, it would have been rather rude not to really. Deb is super chuffed with her new baby and, as you can see, wasted no time at all in using lots of the decorative stitches and her very favourite, Blanket Stitch.

Christabelle sent this picture of her Log Cabin block progress. She did say she wasn't going to start it until her other quilting was done, she couldn't resist, ha! Wowsers those colours are fabulous. I am reliably informed that other Batik quilt quilting has been started too.

All Day Di is making more pieced blocks to use in a new Beautiful Batik table runner. She's gone triangle mad these days after all those thousands of Half Square Triangles she stitched for her last quilt.

Our PM Pam needs 12 of these Log Cabin blocks for her next quilt. Obviously she has a good 11 months to get this completed as it's a Christmas quilt. She's so happy not to be hiding what she's sewing!

Our Farmer Lynda is making a quilt for her very own self, that's a rarity. A lovely woodland themed sofa throw. We will all need to be snuggling under sofa throws now that energy costs too much. It's Art to keep you warm, win win!

A few days later, this picture arrived, doesn't it look lovely. Lynda needed to concentrate on the orientation of the triangles, On Point settings do need a bit of extra brain power. She did it though, Boom!!

The woodland fabric has the most lovely selvedge on it.

We were all oooh-ing and arrh-ing over it when it arrived.

Lynda loved it too, she's stitched a piece to her quilt top, excellent idea! 

My Classroom will be back in action from tomorrow, I will try to remember the photo snapping for you. We have a few new ladies starting to sew with us so that will be lovely. There can never be too many people on our dark side!

For anyone living closer to home,

 Social Stitching evenings will resume this week. 

I hope you can come, the more the merrier really. 

A Little Catch up.

Welcome 2023, I'm sure it will be another Great Quilting Year!
I thought I'd pop in for a little catch up, hoping you all either happily enjoyed the festivities or are happy it's all done and dusted. I'm the latter.

The first week of my little break whooshed by much too quickly, I actually worked my volunteer job pretty much none stop for several days, that's the 'thing' with bar work though isn't it.
I didn't get into my Quilty Quarters for quite a while. Sewing Prevention Season had a good grip on things.
I've done lots of walking and a fair bit of manic stitching in my Quilty Quarters during this second week though, today I will make a Churndash Sandwich, more on that soon.
My shop needs a good clean up, a bit of a tidy up and change of quilts on display as it was left rather festively festooned. So I'll be popping in and out of my shop for the next few days, getting it all ready.
Opening properly and normally from Saturday 7th January, from 10am until 2pm, though I am happy to stay a bit longer if you call or message to ask me to.

Classes resume on Monday 9th, from the messages I've received, folk are happy about that.

In the meanwhile, here are some lovely piccies for you.

Bev spotted a Layer Cake of scrumptious Moda Flannel fabrics one day while packing up to go home after class. She returned the following week with a picture of a quilt she wanted to make, lick-etty-split! Have you looked through all the free patterns there are availabubble in the Moda Bake Shop? We tweaked the pattern to suit Bev's needs and ideas and off she went. Isn't is a fabulous design! We made a super easy, and fast to do, quilting plan while the sandwich was being made.

A big kiss on the back, made with the left over (bonus) Half Square Triangle units from 'snowballing' the corners of each 10 inch square, no waste on this project. A magnificent quilt made with much love. It's also fabulous and finished, toot toot toot Bev.

This was another last minute marathon, for Our PM Pam. The grey fabric, one with hares and one with swallows, arrived only a few weeks before Sewing Prevention Season but it just spoke to Pam. It whispered "Please make me into a gifting quilt, I will be perfect for your family." Really it did, and Pam heard every word. She dropped and stopped everything and committed to getting it done.

Toot toot toot Our Pam, a fabulous and super fast finish. A perfect family gift.

Last minute sandwich making, just before the shop closed for sewing prevention season actually. This is Christabelle's, it is a big one too. I think the intention was to quilt it over the holiday but we will have to wait to know whether that happened.

Rose isn't in a hurry with this lovely quilt. It's going to be gifted later on, as a Birthday surprise. Here Rose has done all the stabilising stitching so the quilt can have all the crusts trimmed off, the binding can be stitched on then Rose will go back to do a bit more quilting detail. 

One more very loud toot toot toot fanfare for Princess Jackie's, very cute, baby gifting quilt. Lot's of quirky detail added to the applique animal pictures, it's so lovely and finished just in the nick of time. 

There's sure to be one very happy baby when it sees this.

Right, that took me ages to write, this stupid computer is on it's last warning!