Stitching News

Christabelle's gorgeous baby gifting quilt with all of the personal details added to make it extra special. Luckily for us, there was just enough time to bring it in so that we could give a toot toot toot fanfare for this fabulous finish

New Sue is quilting her Tilda fabric quilt at home on her larger sewing machine, of course. In Class, With the left over pieces of fabric she's making this lovely cushion top. On the left there are the components of the cushion backing.

As she promised she would, Gail is quilting. She started by ditch hopping the Snails Trail units. Gail recommends this activity for toning up any Bingo-Wings you might have collected! She is though, sure that there are many more Snail Trail blocks than when she started, convinced they are multiplying.

Christabelle continues tackling the Foundation Paper Pieced blocks for the New York Beauty. Obviously this block will be trimmed to size later, all the blocks in the book are made with a bit of 'fudging' room, always a good idea.

Jackie's blocks are all complete so she's started to join them all together. It's so clever how the Tri-Recs rulers make curves with straight bits. With the fabrics Jackie chose the circles show up a treat don't they. Each block is only 6 inches so the pieces are quite small.

 

Stitching News

Lots of projects being worked on in my very own classroom.  Many sandwiches have been made too. It's a sign the weather is changing when the gardeners get back to their indoors hobbies. Not that Quilt making is a 'hobby' of mine, it's way more than that. Last Saturday, a lady asked me what I do with all of my quilts, I just said, "I love them!"

Rose was excited to show us her Log Cabin quilt top. Made with 2 1/2" strips so the blocks are 12" finished, they made an enormous top. We are funny, we know how large blocks are, we know the finished measurement too, the pattern says it all. But we still remain surprised when we actually see how large the project is.

Farmer Lynda sent this photo of her finished Pirate gifting quilt. She's added many personalised details. She is gifting it to her guest bedroom, for when little Isaac stays over. What a great idea, make a quilt and gift it, but keep it!! Isn't it fabulous and well deserving of a toot toot toot fanfare

Shirley works in a very methodical way. Sometimes we catch ourselves fascinated, just watching her work. These strips are laid out mathematically to be sewn together in 3's, randomly. We (I) don't all have that much patience but if it works for you, go for it.

Tadaaaaah Bev finished her backing, hooooray.  The window tables in my classroom were not being used so she was able to make an Autumn sandwich. Don't you love how the Cathedral-ly window-y bits make those circles?

Judy has returned to making her Christmas tree project. That clock is ticking and the darker nights don't half roll in fast to remind us to crack on. Judy says Kirsty's Christmas has nothing on Judy's Christmas!

Jan is using the same book that Rose used for the Log Cabin blocks. There are a lot of different ways to set out the blocks and each layout is so lovely. Jan chose the Barn Raising lay out. You can see there are a few more rows to be added to the bottom, then we can say, gosh it's huge!!! ha ha ha

Next weekend we have our last Checkley Funday Sewday of this year.
That's Sunday 29th October. 9.30am to 3.30pm.
It's £20.00 when you pay in advance and £25.00 to pay on the day.
Refreshments are included and I provide a lovely, healthy lunch too.
You will need to book before Wednesday this week so I can cater for the right number.

And, while I am here, We still have spaces on the November retreat, should you be interested.

Sandwich News

Christabelle made her flower sandwich. In length it was larger than all of my tables pushed together so was pinned in two lots. Very easy to do, especially with good quality wadding as it all stays together really well.

Not sure what happened with the colours in this picture. My phone did an update and, you already know, I am a technical numptie! But you get the idea how lovely Chris's quilt is. It's going to give Chris a good workout as she quilts it!

This is also Chris's. A beautiful, girly things sandwich. The pictorial fabrics are from the most gorgeous range called About A Girl. It would be wonderful if they reprinted this fabric, we all loved it. Hatched And Patched produce such cute things, like a book, which Chris now owns!

Susan's quilt just about fit on the tables. What a bright beauty it is too. We discussed a few quilting options, quite a few actually, then had a powwow about thread colours. One more happy customer

New Sue made the first sandwich of the day. It's Tilda fabrics. The placement of which very cleverly makes a lattice design. It's a detail you don't really notice in real life but show up brilliantly in my picture, even with my phone updates, ha! 

Fabulous & Finished

It's crazy how we managed to be in the middle of October already. Night's are drawing in faster than I would like and it's so dark in a morning, I really don't like it! Just so you know, ha!

Shops have been full of Halloween paraphernalia since August, alongside Christmassy things which seem to get earlier ever year. 

I have a few of these cute Moda fabric panels left in my very own shop.

Lick-etty-split (a few weeks ago to be fair) Deb had her Halloween panel sandwiched. She's quilted lots of the details to make them pop. Yesterday she got the last bits quilted, trimmed the crusts off and got the binding on, all by machine as she has no time to hand sew the binding to the back. Isn't it fabulous!! Toot toot toot Deb. A Fabulous and finished, perfectly timed, nod to Halloween. One coming soon, near you!

 

Stitching News

After my last post I bet you think I lost the plot a bit. I was only replacing two Ikea Billy shelving units for the Ivar ones, to match the rest of my shop. But they are a tad larger so legs from the table were in the way and had to be removed. That couldn't be done without tipping the table up to remove the base. If you have been in my shop you will know how that was going to be complicated. I have stuff everywhere!! Anyway, we did succeed, the shelving looks great and I gained at least 3 inches of extra fabric space, ha! You will see how good it looks next time you are in.

Back to stitching news,

Norma's strips were all stitched together so we sewed them into tubes. That's a normal thing to do for  Bargello style designs. Next, we cut them up again making thinner tubes. Unpicked a few bits, cut a few bits in half and came up with this. I do hope you followed all that!

Mary had made A beginner cushion and wanted a slightly larger project to build her skills The only request was that it be easy. Railfence blocks aren't too tricky, they are great practice for anyone and make a great project for confidence building. Just stripping, pressing and chopping up again, does that sound familiar?

Di has all three of her tree blocks made so it was Tomte time. All the little bits were cut to exact sizes and labelled first of all, a very necessary chore and a little time consuming, but very satisfying...

There it is, a Tomte hat! Of so cute, More next time, there might be a nose!

Shirley finished her Gnome table runner, with Faux Piped Binding and doesn't it just look perfect. The gnome patterns are from a lovely book and the centre star block was added as an extra. Toot toot toot Shirley, a fabulous and finished table runner.

Bev had a little tutorial about triangles. Why we used Quarter Square Triangles for the sides and Half Square Triangles for the corners, it's not rocket science, it's smart patchworking! By the end of class Bev was sandwich ready.

The Sunday Sewday list is slowly growing. There's time to book yet as it's still 2 weeks away.

There's a little buzz staring about what we will take on the next sewing retreat at the end of November too. I think Pam is after the prize for the most projects, ha! Nothing new there, ha ha ha

Up To No Good

Good grief, how quickly a 30 minute job can turn into disaster!
Just cut this bit off.
Oh, we will have to cut that bit off now. That works, but the holes aren't level.
That sticks out too far, lift it, push it, undo it, move that one.
You will have to move that one now! Where's the saw gone, ouch! Level it up a bit. Crawl under it then. It's not going to work Mum!
No... we can't stop now we gone too far with it. Cut that bit off then?

Things are improving slowly, I think 

Stitching News

I know I said we don't do Sandwiches on Saturdays, but, sometimes I can fit them in, so I do. It's my shop so I make the rules, ha!

Hooray hooray, Gail came to make her Shakespeare In The Park Sandwich! I thought we would never get this beauty finished and here it is, on the home straight. Gail says she will not put it in her garage, she is going to quilt it!

Christabelle is ready to sandwich her flower garden quilt top too. That little golden yellow inner border is just perfect against the rich green outer border. I wonder whether the turquoise fluffy looking fabric will be added to all the borders or just to the bottom? 

Another Top ready to be sandwiched. This one belongs to Susan. It's been made with a beautiful Batik Jelly Roll, which was gifted to her, with the addition of a gorgeous Moda Grunge for the background. Wait until you see the backing Susan chose, Wowsers!!!

Trumpets up now.... Susan has been busy quilting. I think this pattern was an internet find, those little pink bows are quite charming. All Kaffe Fassett  fabrics, except the bows, which I believe were also gifted. Toot toot toot Susan, a fabulous finish!

This is also Susan's. I'm pretty sure this quilt design was designed for using with Jelly Rolls but, obviously, we can cut our very own 2 1/2" strips. It's a really lovely quilt and well worthy of a Toot toot toot fanfare for another fabulous finish.

Stitching News

 We've been making sandwiches on Fridays for a change. Sandwich Saturdays are tricky now that we have Saturday Sewdays especially set up for working girls, and Our Norma. Sewing with a few Like minded people is very good for your inner self, don't you think?

Shirley's Autumn Colour sandwich. It looks 3D because of the clever pattern. Can you believe she still has fabrics left from the Autumnal 6" strip pack I made up? There might be a cushion to co-ordinate with this lap quilt, one day.

Jan's Tilda sandwich. While she was piecing the blocks she had felt slight disappointment because the stars didn't show up very well with her fabric choice. Once they had the wadding behind them Jan was delighted with how well they pop.

 Saturday, Norma had all the tables to her very own self, and boy did she make good use of them, as we all would have done! I helped her cut up the Fat Quarters ready for her next project, to be started at Checkley Sunday Sewday, while she prepped and stitched bindings on the 2 quilts she had collected from Amanda in Stone

Good News

Firstly, thank you very much for tolerating my very annoying situation without a card machine. You have all been brilliant with cash and setting up bank transfers etc.
Lots of fabric has been purchased "On Tick".
Do you remember 'tick'? To purchase something on credit. "Tick" is short for "ticket," a note showing one's debt (now an uncommon practice). Primarily heard in UK. 
Thinking out loud, As Old things are now called Vintage, I think I've invented Vintage Tick!!!
The great news is that on Saturday afternoon a new and upgraded card machine arrived, one that works, at least it worked once on Saturday afternoon. I had to call the technical people again as it was not connecting. But we are SORTED NOW!!!

I've had a big job on in my shop too. Organising and moving stuff ready for the arrival of this

My new Aurifil thread stand, which is due to arrive near the end of this week all the way from Italy. It's very exciting isn't it. 
I'm still organising shelf (and floor) space and cutting millions of Fat Quarters of all the new fabrics that arrived over a week ago, so my shop is in a little disarray, but I know you are definitely getting used to that!! 

Christmas corner is proving very popular at the moment, we really need to crack on with those festive projects if we want them finished on time. Especially Advent Calendars!!

There's one last Checkley Sunday Funday Sewday for this year.
Sunday 30th October. 9.30am to 3.30pm. It's £20.00 if paid in advance, per person which includes all refreshments and a light lunch. The cost is £25.00 to pay on the day.

Lastly, There are still a few places left for our November Sewing retreat in Lickey Hills. That's arriving Monday lunchtime 27th November and swing until lunchtime Thursday on 30th.
You can call or email me at angiequilts@gmail.com should you require further information.

I think that's it for my housekeeping post. I'll try to get a quilty post ready next.

Please Take Note

Just a brief Update,

I have negotiated for hours and hours and, hopefully, have resolved the issue but I am still waiting for another new card machine to arrive.
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I AM VERY SORRY, and irritated, to inform you all that my card machine problems have not been resolved.

Almost 2 weeks ago it stopped connecting to the GPRS and the supplier's latest solution is for me to pay more monthly fees to upgrade to another model! Not sure who that helps!!

You can still pay for any purchases with cash or with a bank transfer.

I am really sorry for any and all inconvenience.