Stitching News

I've got demons in my computer. I'm doing my best to manage it/them, I have Hp people on to it but now my " p " key doesn't work , for goodness sake, it's driving me NUTS!
I have a lot of ictures to share with you too, ha ha ha! well, it made me laugh! Here goes:-

At home, Christabelle it quilting her fabulous Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope quilt. It's a rather large quilt so, in class, she's piecing these very cute Tilda ladies, for the Dreamer Quilt, a free download from Tildas World  it has lots and lots of tiny little bits of fabric to be cut for each one. Look at the hair HST's, teeny!! 

Gail has her faux piped binding stitched and finished already on her baby gifting quilt, so she's just adding a bit more quilting around the applique shapes. There's a lot of thread colour changing involved.

Our Pam brought in her Churn Baby Churn quilt project. She needed a little help understanding the layout as she's made lots of different sized Churn Dash blocks, pleasing her very own self! They will work, just a few little fudging mathemisms will be needed. It makes such a fabulous photo with mine on the wall there in the background, don't you think?

Shirley has finished quilting this lap sized quilt, and very pleased with it she is too with a very snazzy and rather beautiful Batik backing. We spent a while searching for a good binding fabric, with success. Shirley had the binding fabric already, but she's given up the search, it's disappeared. It will turn up now she chose another, it always does. 

Jan was able to make her lovely, Autumnal coloured, Lap Quilt sandwich. Most of these fabrics were left over from other projects so this really is a bonus quilt. Smaller quilt sandwiches can sometimes be made in class, larger ones need a sandwich Saturday, on a Friday! 

This Llama quilt is a larger one, so a sandwich Saturday, on Friday was planned. Cheryl Cheryl arrived bright and early to pin it all as I had most of the day with the tables booked. All sizes are catered for in my very own classroom.

Our Pam was next. This is one of three baby gifting quilts she's making (actually four now!) This design is a pretty simple one for quilting, at least it could be. I think Pam is going to stitch around all those letters though. It will look lovely.

Sarah was delighted to be making this sandwich. She is already deep in the throws of planning her next project, a large one! so she want's this one quilted, done and dusted, lick-etty-split.

Merlot is ready for our trumpets to be used. A fabulous and finished, foundation paper pieced, Animal quilt, and how blooming cute is it!!! I love it, those googly eyes are rather splendid. Toot toot toot toot-etty-toooooot  I placed the book there, just in case you might be tempted?

A closer view, this book is in stock on my inspiring bookshelves, in my wonderful quilt shop. They are all Foundation paper piecing patterns, if that's your thing you will love it. If it's a new to you technique, I could help you get started?

I can't remember who asked me about the Best press ironing spray when I had run out. I just want you to know it's back in stock, lots of flavours!

We will be closing the list for our March 3rd -6th sewing retreat very soon, Wednesday I think. If you found your very own self tempted and wanting to go, you'd better get a wiggle on.

Checkley Sunday Sewday is coming up too, 23rd February, a bit more wiggling is needed for that list too.

I ho*e I haven't missed too many p 's? I've had to co*y and *aste every one!

Stitching News

Just a brief catch up. Lot's of projects are being made. New ones started too. My classroom is a hive of quilt making activity, and chatter!

Farmer Lynda is ready for one of our toot toot toot fanfares for her fabulous and finished Birchenbower Trees quilt. Hours and hours of quilting have kept Lynda very busy for quite a while so she's super chuffed to be able to use her new quilt.

Rose came to make a dinosaur sandwich. This is another of Elizabeth Hartman's patterns but Rose did a bit of PMS (pleasing My Self) and added the colourful borders around each dinosaur, looks great doesn't it.

This is Sarah's work. She has embroidered all the main pictures, ever so neatly. They were all on a pre-printed panel and once they were all stitched, Sarah cut out the blocks and framed them. It's not large enough yet so,

Flying Geese units will be used in the border. 40 were needed in total here they are all trimmed up, they will be sewn together with some appliqued paws. Intriguing eh.

Judy's making a set of table place mats for gifting to a special friend. They will all be identical to this one. Judy's mind is elsewhere, as she's had to put her triangle project on one side to make these mats. 

Jackie was just packing up at the end of her day when I ran into the classroom bit declaring that I needed pictures! The ladies pack up so efficiently and My poor blog is so neglected of late. So Jackie obliged, held her quilt up for a quick piccy, this is a quarter, obviously! Lovely, rich reds.

Sue needed to get this baby play mat finished rather Lick-etty-Split so she was delighted to see enough table space to be able to make her sandwich. No sooner had the last pin gone in, her Juki was set up and lot's of quilting was done. This was made using an Eye Spy Six Pack.

Cheryl came to choose a perfect backing fabric for this splendid quilt. Elizabeth Hartman strikes again. Her patterns are very popular with my customers. Cheryl will be making a Llama sandwich next week. It's a huge quilt and will, hopefully, be finished in time for gifting to a special couple.

We enjoyed a busy and fun Checkley Sunday Sewday last weekend. It was lovely that it was still light when it was time to go home too. Birds are chirping high in the trees, spring is just around the corner, it's a lovely feeling isn't it. 

The next Checkley Sewday is on Sunday 23rd February. I have a good list of people planning to go. It's the last one for a few months, until June, which feels, and is, a long way off.

4 weeks from today we will be on our first sewing retreat of the year.

Plans need to be made, now-ish! These decisions never get any easier do they!

March Quilting Retreat

It's just over 4 weeks now until we go on our next sewing/quilting retreat. We still have space, should you be interested.

Monday 3rd March - Thursday 6th

At Hillscourt Hotel in the Lickey Hills

£485.00, to include single occupancy accommodation, unless you prefer to share. All meals, with tea & coffee breaks:- Breakfast is a full buffet of almost anything you can think of. Lunch is a lovely hot and cold food buffet.

Evening meals are 3 courses, with plenty of choice.

Most importantly, you'll have unlimited access to the large, and very well lit, sewing room for the 4 days, and nights should you have the stamina!

As it's so close to the retreat time, the full payment will be due when you book your place. £485.00

You can email me angiequilts@gmail.com with questions or call me 07807530441. Or, even better, pop in to my shop, you will love it!

Stitching News

Meagre pickings in the photos again folks. Someone is telling people about my shop because new people keep coming to see it. I don't think I stopped last week. It's supposed to be a wonderful secret, like a real shop, but not too busy 😂. It's actually very exciting helping people to take their first steps on the quilting ladder, soon they will slide down to that glorious dark side won't they!

I pushed the tables together on Friday for a sandwich Saturday! They have to be made, and classes are a bit full so there's  just not enough space for moving tables around. And "No!" I am not going to have a larger shop! no matter how many of you suggest it.

Sue's first large quilt sandwich. She's made lots of beginner cushions and a table topper before so she's feeling quite accomplished and proud of her very own self for finishing this top. We had a chat about quilting designs and she'll be starting that job on Thursday. 

Jackie's rich reds. French General fabrics by Moda are really scrumptious. These are 4" hour glass blocks, aren't they effective all together. This is also Jackie's first larger quilt so we'll see how she gets on with the quilting. I heard a whisper of a King Size next, whoop whoop!

This is Farmer Lynda's Birchenbower Trees quilt, a work in progress. She's absolutely thrilled with it and is spending every spare moment on the quilting, not ordinary quilting, a special kind. I'll show you in more detail when it's tooting time. I'll get close-ups for you!

That's all I have of customer project pictures, shocking isn't it, ha! I will try harder, but ... you know how it goes!

Back in 2016, on a retreat at Alison House in Matlock (Now Oakhill Hotel) I started to make this bag. I've mentioned before how rubbish I am at Bag Making, it's because there's a lot of writing to decipher. I like pictures and videos! I had purchased the pattern when I lived in Portugal and I've been back in the UK since 2009! Anyway, I had made a good amount of progress during the retreat. But then it got banished to a plastic box, along with other projects I don't know how to finish.

Well now,  I have re-found it, that plastic box of PhD's. I have pulled out the bag, I've studied the pattern, a lot! I have worked on it a bit more and, what's more, I think I can finish it!! It's very exciting.

This next Sunday, 26th January, is a Funday Sewday at Checkley Village Hall. I have a good list of ladies, all eager to get back to the luxury of uninterrupted sewing days. If you haven't decided yet you have a couple of days to ponder. But please remember Wednesday 22nd is the last day to book for £20 as I need to buy all the supplies for your lunch.

Stitching News

 My pictures are a bit out of sequence. As am I!!!

Deb was asked to make this baby play mat after her daughter had gifted one to a friend. It's dangerous allowing people to look at your quilts! Deb rose to the challenge though. Luckily, she was able to purchase one of my pre-cut "Eye Spy Six Packs" so that was a chunk of the work saved. 30 x 6 inch squares, all different designs, winner! The top is soon to be sandwiched.

Sue's top is finished. She had managed to find a little stitchy time during the festive break so was able to finish all the 9 inch border blocks. She's delighted with the look, and rightly so. The backing has been prepared and a sandwich will be made next Friday... a Sandwich Saturday but on a Friday!! If you need to use all the tables to make a sandwich, it's the only way.

I also had a baby gifting quilt to make over the festive break, (it is now finished) I was making a sandwich and remembered to take a piccy. "Eye Spy" play mats are a perfect gift for a baby. A practical gift to be loved, peed on, pooed on, snacked on, picnicked on, possetted and puked on and then absolutely washed to death, they can be tumble dried, as baby get older, they make great dens too.

Stitching News

After my post confessing my Crochet addiction, it seems quite a few have you have been up to crochet shenanigans too. Thank you for the encouraging tips. I am back to my patchwork now though, should I dabble in a new crochet project it will be tackled a bit at a time, in an evening and definitely not a whole entire, non-stop day! 

Back in 2024, that sounds ages ago doesn't it.

Princess Jackie finished her wonderful festive quilt. She had started it originally to be gifted. As the project got larger and more adorable, she decided she might have to keep it. I think lots of us do that. All those hours spent bonding with the gorgeous fabrics. The sorting, choosing, cutting, sewing, trimming, a bit of unpicking too, a wonderful process. But I'm happy to say that Jackie did find the courage and the quilt was gifted.

This is the quilt back, Jackie's chosen style of using lots of smaller pieces of fabric. It makes for a double sided quilt and, I am told, it reduces the left over fabric stash, but that could be just a rumor. Toot toot toot Jackie, the fanfare is a bit late really, your quilt is absolutely fabulous and truly finished.

Gail's gifting quilt. Ever so cute. We tried lots of fabrics for the border but came back to this neutral one. The cunning plan was to add those little corner squares so that there was no need to have a join on any of the sides, a brilliant idea that looks like it was planned all along. That's it, the top is finished. The sandwich was made last week, I am a bit behind, ha!

Our Pam has thoroughly enjoyed making this Log Cabin quilt top. She had seen a photo of someones' finished quilt on social media and had fallen for it. This was back in August. Pam tried, in vane, to find the picture of the quilt again, to show to me as she wanted to make one. She had mostly remembered that it was green and cream Log Cabin blocks. I think Pam hit her very own brief, don't you? There's a green border to add. But Pam has already started three other baby quilts, so goodness knows when this top will be finished. (yes Our Pam, I am talking to you xx)

Here you go. This is one of Pam's 3 baby quilts. She's found it a bit frustrating making a baby quilt using neutral fabrics. She had wanted to make a brightly coloured, cute, applique one you see. Lots of people are asking for neutral tones in their baby quilts these days, seems it's a thing. This is quilt number 2, it is already a sandwich, pinned last week actually. The brief for Quilt number 3 is "as bright and girly as Pam chooses" Ooooh, yes! Pam was excited to get onto that one, and she has.  

Quilty Quarters & Fun

That was a bit of a first week back to normal! I didn't expect to be busy really, what with the weather being so tricky and stopping many folk from getting out safely. It seems some trusty customers were so eager to get back into their sewing routine, that no weather would keep them away from my classroom. It was fun and new projects have been started. More on those later.

I thought I would catch up on my very own stuff. I don't have pictures of all the things I made, some have been gifted and I forgot to snap photos. A couple of 'things' have gone to the shop already, I can take photos of those another day, if I think on.

Mug Bags!

When we go on our Sewing Retreats or to Checkley Sunday Fundays, we need/like to take our very own mugs. Christabelle started making mug bags as gifts for her friends a couple of years ago and I pinched her idea. I purchased my very own pattern online and I found that I love making them and I love gifting them even more. They are so cute. The pattern is easy to follow it's this one . Once you have made one or two it's easy to customize them making them a bit more special for gifting, and I do. I wish I'd have taken pictures of them all now, some are fantastic, even if I do say so myself.

I don't find making 'Things' very easy at all. Quilts, yes, I am very confident with patchwork and quilting. Flat, 2D quilts don't have to fit perfectly on knees, sofas and beds, usually! 3D sewing taxes me rather. But lookie what I made. A very useful boxy thing. I used In R Form so it stands up really well. I sell this pattern in my shop and I will definitely be making more.

I am learning crochet. It's very portable and I can snuggle up on my sofa (or this rather special, recently acquired, John Lewis Snuggle Chair) whilst hooking, or knitting. I have to keep watching little YouTube tutorials though. My memory doesn't seem to save anything not quilted! I was very pleased with my very own self at this point, it was going up at the sides, so clever...

A few hours later, good progress but with my fingers aching and my bottom going numb and the big light on as it was going dark outside! I just couldn't leave it alone. It's like a Jigsaw heroin to me, instant addiction!

It's a good job it was holiday season as this is all I did in one whole day. 

Feeling very pleased with myself, but rather stiff I staged this picture for you. On my John Lewis Snuggle Chair. The Left Hookery pattern was quite easy to follow. There is a video showing how to get started too. The next day, I could hardly move my fingers, suffering for art!!! I did enjoy it though.

Faux Piped Binding

Have you ever tried this kind of binding? It's very effective. You need 1 1/2" wide strips of the main colour, grey on mine, and 1 3/4" strips of the fabric you want to use for the piping, obviously the pink fabric on mine.

After making both strips long enough to go the whole distance around the quilt (and the joins do need to be sewn diagonally, like you do with normal binding) you sew the two strips together, lengthwise.

Then press the seam allowance towards the accent colour.
Next, and this is a very important bit, carefully fold the binding over ensuring you fold the seam allowance in half, that's what gives the plumpity appearance to the the binding (I wrote plumpity, maybe it should be plump-ity-ness ?) 
I've looked online and found that there are loads of video tutorials to make Faux Piped Binding. None of them do this tacking bit and you will see (if you do go to watch any) that lots look more like binding with a flat flange.

I like to tack the whole way along the binding to stop it, the faux bit, from going flat, the seam allowance will want to stay flat so you have to show it who is the boss!

 You can see I used a bright turquoise thread to tack mine, which also helps when it comes to unpicking those large stitches after it's all stitched down.

You will need to sew the binding to the back of the quilt rather that to the front, as we usually do. Check first that you won't have any joins landing on the corners, if you do have joins hitting corners, that's a nightmare you won't like!
Once the binding is stitched in place and the ends carefully joined together, press the binding from the back side to make a good crisp seam, this will help a lot when you pull it over to the front.

You really need to use your Walking Foot with all the layers.

Having just told you that, it is very tricky to sew your binding right in the ditch of the piping with a walking foot, only because of the width of the foot's plate. See how you go.
If it's too tricky, try your zipper foot as you need to get up close to the piping really. 

This zipper foot, in my photo, is a Walking Foot!!! I kid you not... the Juki UX8 has a built in Walking foot that can be used with lots of different feet, even the Quarter inch one. (I know it's extravagant and pretty pricey) but it makes the BEST faux Piping with the most accurate and wonderful finish.

I'm not brilliant at describing stuff like this but, if you want to pop in to my shop, I can go through it again and give you a little sample to guide you. I keep all the left over bits exactly for that purpose. Alternatively come for a little lesson?

If there's a small group interested, we could make a sample together, like a workshop. I'm sure I could cope with that, ha! 

Here We Are Then, 2025!

Sewing Prevention Season should be in your rear view mirror by now. I say should be because it's still here in my world! I enjoyed having the break, not watching the clock is rather wonderful. Not knowing what day it is is a bit weird though. I believe today is Saturday! Snow is in our weather forecast from tonight, fingers tightly crossed it comes because that means we might get to sew a little something.

I just needed to pop this little post to let you know that I'm trying to gear up for Tuesday 7th, when life gets back to a sort of stitchy normal, weather permitting!
I do have a few photos taken during the last few classes of 2024, so I'll be back soon to show those off.

There's a Checkley Sunday Funday on 26th January, which is only 3 weeks away so it is time to be booking your place, if you haven't already.

Happy New Year to you all, lets hope it's a good stitchy one.