Birte's Quilts

It's been quite a while since we had photos from Our Birte in Germany, so I was very happy to receive these. She has to work from now until Christmas so she had to be ready for the holiday season good and early... before I even started... not that I do much though!
This design is Square Dance. A little fiddly in the cutting department and a good puzzle if you're not careful, but it's quite easy. It looks fab in these carefully chosen Christmas fabrics. Well done Birte, your quilts are lovely.

A Quilt Show

What a busy weekend for any quilting enthusiast/addict.
There were quilt shows and exhibitions all over the place, decisions, decisions.... which ones to go to...
On Sunday morning we went to one in Bradley Church and hall, which is over in the direction of Stafford. We had been told about it during the SPQ meeting on Thursday. I only took a few photos, the quilts were in pews which was great for getting very close to them...
but we weren't able to stand back to get them in shot, no matter, I saw plenty to inspire me. The blue and white log cabin quilt was my favourite and I voted for it. It was hand quilted but it was the quilting design that intrigued me.

It's Monday now... back to the duties of normal life which have rather piled up with going out all weekend... sigh!

A Quilt Show

I went to Buxton yesterday, it's lovely to drive over the moors at this time of year and it was the most beautiful sunny day. The quilters there put on a quilt show in a church hall to show off the local talent.
These photos show just a small selection of the quilts and goodies in the show...
There were lots of fabrics to choose from and, impressively, lots of locally designed patterns for sale...
This was a favourite... a lovely way to use hexagons... modern and... errrrrmmmm ... looking for a word ... can't think of one, let's just say, for me, it was different and could possibly tempt me to do a hexagon or two!

There was a selection freshly cut sandwiches, scrumptious cakes, compulsory with a fresh cuppa, so we stayed for lunch!
Put a few tables and chairs with a Kettle Corner in the same room as quilts and you have a perfect recipe for giggles and laughter.
It was a lovely day!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Margaret is only able to join us occasionally, she says it's like going to a spa for the day.... relaxing and enjoying her patchwork & quilting... isn't that a great way of looking at a fabulous fun quilty day... A Spa Day! It's taken her many weeks to complete her Railfence table runner as she only works on it in class but knowing that she's thoroughly enjoyed every minute is just the cherry on the cake!
Maid Marian only just had enough of her Clarice Cliff inspired fabric to make a border, phew! She made a great backing using up a few spare blocks and was able to make a sandwich ready to quilt next time.

Brenda/Barbara made binding for both of her Advent calendars, stitched them on and then used this Brilliant Binding method to join up the ends, it's such an impressive method, have you tried it?
Lynda is working on a different Advent calendar, one of those pre-printed panels, she made all the little pockets last time, the flaps are all done now so this could very well be finished for this year's Advent days??
My Mum (Gwynneth) is working on another quilt... I hope you can keep up! This one will be made with the Churndash block, inspired by Giggly Gillian from Uttoxeter... It's great when we can take inspiration from fellow quilters!
Barbie continues with her applique project.. it is a challenge as the instructions are far from accurate. It's from an Australian magazine and we are very surprised about the inaccuracy... we shall continue though... Hooooray for Sticky Stuff, whatever your favourite brand... don't you love it?
Shirley Lerly was a little puzzled about the corners on the table runner... it doesn't matter really, turn them with this normal method... it still works
Pauline worked on her Big Quilted Panel Bag, well, it was a little smaller than the one in my tutorial, but the method is the same... you can choose any size you like for your very own self.
This is a much better picture of Dotty Maureen's "Funky Chicken". See how he sits inside the pillow, funny feet and all... and the pillow unfolds to reveal a quilt, I guess it's a Quillow?
Dotty continued to work on her Shakespeare In The Park quilt, it's looking lovely... time to add the borders,,, it's quite a big quilt!.


PLEASE take note that we are not able to use Caverswall Village Hall next Friday, 12th November. If it's your favourite day, I'm sorry, but you could come on Wednesday 10th instead???
So Our next Friday meeting will be 19th November

Pat Nicholls At SPQ

Just a quick post to show you what you missed.... As you can see, I was at the back of the room so my Photos are not up to the usual standard, he he he ... I could have blamed the camera! Pat Nicholls was very inspiring. It's good to see 'real' quilts, you know, the ones you could go home and actually make....
This is the same picture but with my zoooooom turned on, clever eh! Both of these quilts are made with the same colours and the same blocks, they're just arranged in a different way....
I love the borders on this quilt, I'm a big fan of a half pieced border, it makes the math a lot easier... no coping strips to calculate and, of course, they look great too... Each of the embroidered blocks was done by Pat's Mother.
Pat made this quilt as part of a friendly challenge and Irene loved it, so I whoooooshed right to the front to get the shot... felt like paparazzi!
As I said, it was a very inspiring lecture, easy on the brain cells!!! Lot's of the professional speakers have us going home with spinning heads, but this one we left with plans... big plans... still spinning ... but in a doo-abubble way!
It is a shame that we didn't have a workshop planned but it's too late now... maybe next time?
The next SPQ meeting will be the Christmas Party, holy moly.. December is round the corner. They don't have a speaker for the Christmas Party though. There will be a few mini-workshops and we have to take scissors and pencils! ooooooher. Anyway, it will be on December 3rd.. don't worry, I will remind you!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

This is Lacey Anne's floor. She pieced the backing telling us that the fabric represented the wall paper that she remembers being in her hallway... the whole idea of this quilt is just fabulous!

My Mum (Gwynneth) wanted to make a round, Christmassy table centre and didn't know how, so she played with fabrics, adding bits here and there, and invented this... it is all ready to be gifted... brilliant, and inspiring.

Foxy Margaret finished her quilting on the Railfence quilt, prepared the binding, trimmed the edges and stitched the binding in place... by machine, the hand stitching will be done at home... we then moved on to her...

cat quilt, Margaret is very pleased with her applique cats. We calculated widths for the inner border and for the main border, cut them to size then.... we ran out of time... as usual! 5 hours just aren't enough... ha ha ha

Two in one photo here, Gilly (left) was adding coping strips to her blocks, very technical stuff... and Chris was playing with the Bernina Stitch Regulator (BSR) using mode 2 this week, which she found very much easier. She completed quilting the whole piece of her giant Mat & Ruler bag in only a few hours with an all over design this time, no stopping and starting... no ends to tie off either! Fabulous

Joan The Shop is itching to get the 6" daiziez finished, she has just received a shipment of racing car fabric and she can't wait to attack it with her rotary cutter!!!

Helen continued to free motion quilt her stars, she loves free motion quilting, actually, it is her favourite thing to do.

Dotty Maureen was quilting her funky chicken, it's very cute and she's chuffed to bits with how it's turning out. The chicken sits inside a cushion, shaped like a bed but it opens out to be a play mat/quilt... so clever.

Diane made 4 Log Cabin blocks last week, they were to be the front of a bag... This week she decided to only use one block for the front and the back and she wanted to set them on point. After had a quick 'How To' moment with setting triangles she set to work...

Irene continued quilting her baby quilt, it will be finished it no time now... she's planning a very special project to be started in the new year... ooooooo, can't wait.

Arty Beryl.... what can I say.... She is an artist. These are only two of her many projects, all her own designing she is sooooooo good at it...

she uses just about every decorative stitch on her new Janome machine, she uses all kinds of fabrics and lots of different threads, her projects make us all ooooh and ahhhhh!

Last, but no way least, My Mum finished her Log Cabin Quilt, well, all but the label that is. She's started a new lap quilt now, Churndash blocks, I wonder whether she has finished them yet? It's been almost 24 hours , so it's possible... ha ha ha

We meet agian at Caverswall Village Hall on Friday (tomorrow) 5th November, 10am - 3pm, almost all day.... even so.... 5 hours just isn't enough!!! ha ha ha

Uttoxeter Quilt Class

Jenni spent the day cutting out all the pieces to make this quilt, Catch a Spinning Star. The pieces are very small and there are lots of them... it's too late to turn back now so Jenni is rising to the challange.

Giggly Gillian has quilted all four quarters of her project and we did succeed in joining them together. There's quite a lot of hand stitching to be done as homework now... borders next time?
Messy Maureen joined us for the day, she finished off her Advent calendar and had even thought of covering a coat hanger with Christmas ribbon, to hang it from.
Once that was finished she decided to make one of the Applique Christmas tree wall hangings that have been so popular with the ladies, she is a rebel though... Messy Maureen is using dusky pink and minty green... !
AJ (Angela that's not me) finished quilting one half of her Pineapple Blossom quilt and made a good start on the secnd half, she will also add borders using the Apartment quilting method.
This is one of Lizzy's heart blocks, number six actually, and she was so chuffed as every bit was "spot on, perfect!", seam allowances only need to be one thread too big or too small for things not to match up perfectly and she was determined not to be beaten by these blocks... Well worth the effort!

I'm going to a lecture on 'The History Of Linen' at Caverswall Village Hall on Tuesday 16th November at 2pm, so there will not be a meeting on that date but we will meet for Quilt Class on the 9th & 23rd November.

Staffordshire Patchworkers & Quilters

I almost forgot to remind you that it is the first Thursday of a month this week so there will be a meeting of SPQ in Stone.
This months speaker is Pat Nicholls. This lady is a founder member of the Quilt Guild Of The British Isles and she's coming all the way from Somerset to talk to us.
I hope you can come to listen to Pat, she'll be bringing quilts to show us too.
The evening starts at 7pm with tea/coffee and biscuits (made by a couple of very lovely ladies) The SPQ bits and bobs, important announcements and 'show & tell' start at 7:30pm with the speaker programme starting at 8pm.... All this for only £4.
I hope you can make it.