Catching Up

I seem to be doing that a lot lately don't I? Catching up. No apologies though, having fun is obviously disruptive. I'll try to get organised before the next retreat, which is only 5 weeks away, then I'll be back to square one and trying to catch up again. 
There are a few photos, so here goes: -

Christabelle came to make a lovely quilt sandwich. It was another Sandwich Saturday, on a Friday. This is a free pattern from Tildas World called Daydreamer. Not the easiest piecing you will ever encounter, it says on the pattern "Difficulty rating *** " but Chris is always up for a challenge, it paid off didn't it.

Sharon Leek finished her Stained glass Window quilt. It's been on her 'To Doo' list for a while and she is super chuffed with it. What a lovely bright projects it is. Those beautiful Batiks are perfect against the black sashing. Sharon quilted this during our July retreat. Toot toot toot, it's  totally toot-able, fabulous and, best of all, finished! Though she might very well add a bit more quilting.

A requested workshop.
A few ladies wanted to learn about triangles and, if there was time, a bit of applique, so I booked them in on a Friday, that's what Fridays in my classroom are for at the moment, special requests and sandwich Saturdays. Lots of top tips were noted whilst all sorts of making triangle methods were practiced. From the simple and traditional way of cutting squares in half and sewing them together, to lots of other ways we've learned over the years. People are very clever thinking up different ways of achieving the same thing, like the No Waste Flying Geese (this one is my favourite method)

 Here are a few of their results, all in blue fabrics from my home stash. One day they will run out!

I think the ladies enjoyed the workshop. They went home looking happy, and tired!

You'll be thinking that you've seen this sandwich before, and you have. It belonged to Princess Jackie. She had done quite a lot of quilting on the original sandwich but she wasn't happy with it. It was riding and not staying put. So, she un-stitched it all and came to a Sandwich Saturday, yes... on Friday! to remake her hexagon sandwich. This time Jackie will quilt with Big Stitch quilting, by hand, using Perle Cotton #8. It will be beautiful and it will keep her knees warm while she stitches!

Shop Closed

 My shop is closed now for a few days, open again on Tuesday 26th August. 

This is why!

The next retreat will be from 6th to 9th of October.

This time in the Hawkstone Park Hotel, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

I'll be taking further names and deposits when I get back from the Lickey Hills retreat, all sewn up, content, happy and ready to get planning this next one!

Back soon x

Stitching News

Another long break in between posts, but I have been busy. This time I have been knitting instead of turning my computer on. I won't put pictures of my knitting though, this is a quilting blog. I might treat you to a finished jumper picture or two though. Just know, I undo a lot of my stitches, ha! I just got to the bit where I have to sew the raglans together? so I've put it down, just like procrastinating really. I might need YouTube later. 
I've only taken a few photos recently. My shop seems to have attracted a lot of new customers so I haven't had many opportunities for remembering photo taking. I always give excellent customer service you see, I cant just say, "hang on a minute missis, I need to take pictures", not when there is serious quilt planning in progress.

Chistabelle, very kindly, sent a photo of her finished gifting cushion. It's a very different colour way to  usual Tilda projects, isn't it, very lovely though. The pattern is from the book 'Quilts From Tilda's Studio' and once you own a book you can please your very own self on fabric and colour choices. There's a bit of excellent Free-Motion quilting to see, if you zoom in a bit. It's Fabulous and finished Christabelle, toot toot toot.

Cheryl Cheryl has a few relatively free days that she wants to use for quilting, so came to make up a quick sandwich. Beautiful and bright, don't you think. The pattern is called Churn Baby Churn. That's the linky thing if you'd like to click on it. There's a large Churndash block on the back, you will see that when tooting day arrives.

Joanna, very proudly, held up her first ever, large quilt, standing on my photo step! It's probably the same feeling as being on a medal podium at the Olympics!! There's walking foot quilting to stabilize the quilt then Joanna hand quilted around the, hand appliqued hearts with Big Stitch quilting, using Perle Cotton #8 and a lovely, sharp, John James, Chenille needle (Auto correct want to write senile needle, ha ha ha) Toot toot toot Jo.

 

This is Gail's first completed block. She's been asked to make a Stained Glass Window quilt, so she's going for it. Using beautiful Batik fabrics makes for a very bright quilt, especially with all the back sashing highlighting the colours. The 'thing' with Batik fabric though, which is very useful, normally is that you neither have a definite right, nor wrong side. It's a very long story, in brief though,  a couple of bits got turned over so they didn't fit properly, not until we had spent hours re-gigging! So the very fact that Gail has one complete block, and sent me photo evidence, is rather splendid indeed.

Just a little reminder that I'm off on another Quilting/Sewing retreat soon so My Lovely Shop will be closed for a few days. 
Open as normal for now, then closed from Wednesday 20th until Tuesday 26th of August.

You could still join us on the retreat, there's plenty of space.