Saturday Stitching

This Railfence table runner belongs to Lesley, a very new addict in our quilting world. She had popped into My Very Own Quilt Shop during a Stack-n-Whack workshop, seen what the ladies were up to and booked herself in for a beginner morning class... it was time to start packing up after the morning session but... she called home, checked everything was OK and... then stayed for the rest of the day... that's how come she got so much done!

Afternoon Judith wasn't able to come to Monday class so she made up time with a Saturday session... boy are we flexibubble!!! Judith had done a lot of blanket stitch as homework and there were plenty more shapes to be stuck on and blanket stitched around their edges. The thing in the centre of this quilt top is supposed to be a dragonfly but it's just too much like a butterfly not to be called a butterfly! Judith purchased two border fabrics so, there's a chance this quilt could be finished for our Monday Class... I do hope that bottom frog gets his pupils soon, he's a little scary like that!!! ha ha ha

Friday Quilt Club

 All of the photos in this post were taken by Helen. There just wasn't a moment for me to remember to pick up the camera (roughly translated... I forgot!) Joan The Shop added sashing and corner stones to one of her Kaleidoscope Stack -n-Whack quilt tops, she's about to start pinning again to make more blocks for the other two quilts in the set.

 Late Sue had finished the centre of her Chunky Churndash quilt at home, it's looking really lovely (no picture Helen?) so she spent the day making up 9-Patch blocks for the borders. Sue started by making up strip sets for chopping up, there's a lot of fabrics to be mixed in to this border.

 Hilary made this rather gorgeous bed scarf at home and came to Quilt Club to get a little advice for the quilting. Her silly machine decided it didn't want to make stitches of even length, which was rather annoying, so we plugged in a Juki HZL-210 for her... a great mid-range machine available in My Very Own Classroom! Hilary almost finished her quilting!

 Helen must have started some new blocks at Quilt Club, this would be the start of them. Helen uses the Sewline Glue Pen ... now there's a handy thing for your sewing box... it's helped me out of some pretty tricky pinning situations when pins just can't get it right. It's water soluble too... Helen swears by it!

Dotty Maureen worked on her Halloween Quilt. She needed strip sets to make up 9-Patch blocks. This is a simple quilt... after the Double Wedding Ring one she just marathon-ed, I think anything would seem easy! The 9-Patch blocks will have Snowball blocks in between them, with pictures of witches, black cats and brooms, even a bat or two!

Thursday Stitching

 Brenda Barbara's Keleidoscope Stack-n-Whack blocks... she's getting some amazing results isn't she... These blocks can be a little tricky to put together, the bias seams need to treated carefully. A few 'Top Tips' and Brenda was much happier with the way the blocks were turning out.

 Ann had appliqued her colourful balls to the border strips by hand, needle turn... so we were able to zig-zag stitch the wadding in place and lightly quilt the borders. Miles of binding was made with only 2 joins... the red fabric is/was a sheet so each strip was good and long. Ann has loads of hand stitching to keep her busy at home. Next week she will start a new project, she'll need 100 x 9" blocks all in black and purple-y purple, dramatic eh!

Geoff came for our afternoon session. It's quite obvious that he's playing PMS isn't it (Pleasing My Self) He chose the picture to make as a wall hanging quilt then came to My Very Own Quilt Shop to ask how to, well... art quilts aren't something I know much about so, we are making it up as we go along... it's not turning out too bad at all is it... yesterday Geoff was making the Flying Geese blocks for the borders... we used this method, it's very cool indeed.

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Dotty Maureen is back from her travels. The plaid Double Wedding Ring quilt was finished just in the nick of time and gifted last wekend. So, Dotty is free to start a new project without the sound of the ticking clock! I think, by the fabrics, she has until the end of October for this one... super modern Dotty with the technology!

Foxy Margaret finished all of the quilting and braiding on her table mats.. they all finished at different sizes though... you know.. she doesn't give a hoot!!! All four of them are being bound and Foxy will add a fancy stitch or two do decorate the edges.

Kraft Karen had one last more practice with her free motion quilting then took a deep breath and moved on to her quilt... her stitching was so good and straight that we all thought she had used her walking foot! She's shadowing the triangular swirls of the patchwork... looking very good indeed.

I finally managed to get a photo of Maggi's kaleidoscope blocks, aren't they fabulous!! I love green anyway and this just shouts Summery!!! that's a historical word from the days when we used to have a thing called Summer... he he he

Helen's finished enough of her Heirloom quilt blocks to see what a finished corner will look like... she's so thrilled with it all... three more corners to complete... but that won't take too long now... the momentum is staying right up there at full speed!

Wendy spent the day making hour glass blocks and four patch blocks then trimming. She was laughing because she finally understands the lines on her ruler and how they can help with the trimming and accuracy... sometimes the penny needs a good old shake to drop into place eh... not that we shook Wendy!

Chris The Foot spent her day piecing a backing for her Chunky Churndash quilt top. She wanted to use up the two extra blocks that she had left over and a few of the fabrics that she was happy not to keep in her stash. Success means she WILL be making a sandwich next week!

Tuesday Classroom

 Giggly Gillian was most relieved to be stitching the binding to this project. She said that she couldn't wait to get on with her Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope blocks... I don't know how she managed to resist them, but she has. This binding is Faux Piped variety... absolutely stunning with the bright green highlight.

New Sue learned a few top tips today. Not adding sashing between blocks with pointy points means that (if you want, we still have PMS, Pleasing My Self and if you don't care about pointy points... I don't mind at all!!)... that, you have to be very precise with the points matching up because they actually need to kiss each other... Sue got all the rows together with the setting triangles and corner triangles in place, I bet this will be ready for sandwich making next week.

Princess Jackie had done a lot of quilting at home... She had purchased her very own walking foot  from My Very Own Quilt Shop last week, so... there was no excuse really. She wasn't keen on doing the quilting, so she says... but now she's really pleased with the results and said she had actually enjoyed doing it.

Rose (who brought us the most beautiful, light scones with strawberry conserve, not jam, with a pot of clotted cream... oh boy were they ever delicious!!) errrrm... where was I... oh yes! Roses tableS... we quilters don't half like to spread jam and clotted cream.. oh no... I mean don't half like spreading out over spare tables, ha ha ha. This is Roses new project made from a Jelly Roll and a metre or two of background fabric, it's very clever... look at the two blocks here, they look different, even though they are the same... cool eh! Rose had been to a workshop at the Uttoxeter Quilt Show this last Spring, see the purple-y block.. that was her class sample.

PM Pam's Quilt

Toot, Toot, Toot for PM Pam...
She finished another quilt. This is a kiddie play mat, about 50" square. She's done a brilliant job on it... the bright, sunshiny yellow lights up the colours brilliantly... finished off with a most reddy-red binding that's just perfect and zingy... oh heck... I need a new word...

I can't quite get over what I mean... it's so much brighter than my photo shows... it's a happy happy quilt...well, it makes me very happy looking at it! and now a view of the back... just look at the quilting, it shows up very well doesn't it. It's all been done with Pam's walking foot, those curves are perfect... I love it Pam, can you tell??? he he he

Monday Classroom

 For homework Cynthia had carefully cut out all of the 6" squares needed to make a lap quilt with the 10 Minute Block method. See the floral fabric at the top on the right, that was the focus fabric when Cynth was choosing the others, very bright and summery. She got quite a few blocks put together during the morning so she has hand stitching for homework.

 Penelope Baskerville finished her Railfence Table Runner but I forgot to take a picture of it (Sorry Pen) She purchased this rather gorgeous fabric to make a Mat & Ruler Bag, now then... Penelope has only been to class about seven times, maybe eight. When she arrived on the first day, she didn't even know how you made the needle go up and down on a sewing machine... look at this picture closely... she's doing fabulous free-motion quilting already... and she breaths while she's stitching!!...

PM Pam pieced the backing fabrics and made a sandwich with this beautiful quilt she's making for her grand daughter, it's a big one... just before doing this, she pieced another backing for a big play mat and sandwiched that too... there's going to be a lot of quilting done over the next few days... who needs sleep anyway?

Staffordshire Patchworkers and Quilters

As we're entering a brand new month I thought I'd remind you that there must be a first Thursday coming up this week. That means there's a meeting of SPQ (Staffordshire Patchworkers & Quilters). Here's a link to their programme page so you can see what's going on. Remember to take your very own mug so you can have a cup of tea or coffee to dunk biscuits into!!

Another note worthy event is the up coming September Saturday Soup, Sewing and Sixties day, this is the linky to that it sounds like a great fun day, all for only £5.00 !!!!! Can I go Mum, can I, pleeeeease can I?