Stitching News

Meryl's been working on these strips for a few classes. She started with the tulips, which she paper pieced the strips sets were added... don't be wondering why the quilt is a funny shape though... once the quilting is complete, Meryl will be cutting out a jacket back pattern, of course there are two side bits too.

Ann Baker is making this kiddy quilt as a 'back to basics' experiment. She wanted to perfect her cutting and piecing skills, the Railfence design is great for just that. It's almost finished now and will be donated to a good cause via Krafty Karen and Arty Janet.

Chatty Cathy made a sandwich of this quilt panel, she has two of them to play with. They'll be great quilting practice for Cathy and, once she has the both of them finished... she'll be ready for any colour of new baby as one will have pink binding and the other will be done with blue.

Diane added all of the sashing strips and the inner borders to her baby play mat, I didn't say or think quilt! My photo doesn't really do it any justice, it's actually quite bright, the flash must have washed it out... I blame the camera, not the user, ha! This play mat has so many cute characters to look at... like an I Spy game.

Tooting For Chatty Cathy

All of the quilts made from the Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope workshops have been amazing, it's no wonder I've needed to do many of the them... there's another coming up in February. This absolutely fabulous quilt has been made by our Chatty Cathy (believe me, this name is spot on perfect for Cathy!

She made it for her granddaughter who had a lot of input with the colour choices, who would have thought that bright orange and hot pink would look so great together? Cathy quilted her centre in 4 separate pieces and the borders were quilted and added separately, Apartment Quilting style.
Toot toot toot Chatty Cathy, it's a wonderful quilt, well done you!

Stitching News

Rose added borders to her latest quilt top and was ready to make her backing.  You know how we love to piece that backing to use up any left over bits don't you... well, Rose had all these bits left over for her backing... which will now be made into a cushion... ha ha ha, She likes the design so much it just had to be cushion-ed? See what you started PM Pam?

Krafty Karen and Early Sue have got piles! On the right  is Sue's super stacker box with 'addable' sections and her finished blocks made with 10" circles. On the right it's Karen's pizza bases, not really, there are 112 x 10" circles of wadding, 90  x 10" circles of back fabric and 90  x 10" circles of  various purple fabrics... a days work!

Princess Jackie spent the morning stripping, woooohooo... cutting all the strips ready to be stitched into 'strip sets' to make a Bargello Quilt a la Quiltville. This is one of my most favourite quilts to make you know! 

Lovely Lyn wanted to make a mini Bargello quilt, to see whether she would like to make a giant one. She used Batik fabrics, what a treat! I won't be offering prizes for guessing that this little quilt will, in fact, be made into a rather luxurious and extremely scrumptious cushion.

Oh Boy Did We Toot!

Princess Jackie finished her most splendid appliqué quilt, pattern from here. The way Jackie has fussy cut her fabrics is absolutely fabulous. She quilted with free motion designs echoing the butterflies and adding swirly bits... the colours are very much brighter than in this picture... we love it! Toot Toot Toot Jackie!

Tooting now for Lovely Lyn who's been busy over the festive season...  She also fixed her darning foot to the machine and 'went for it'... that's what you have to do... aim and fire basically. Lyns quilting is brilliant and she's feeling very pleased with herself. I'm very proud of both Lyn and Jackie  for 'Going For It'... it really is the only way. Lovely Lyn made all of the blocks for this quilt from a Charm Pack and a metre of background fabric.

Toot Toot Toot for New Sue's latest finish, a spine tingling Bargello... well they do send a little shiver of excitement through the body when you first 'clap eyes' on them. Sue's granddaughter chose the fabrics... obviously a talented young lady... Poor thing was gifted the quilt in one hand and had to give it back with her other because Sue had been asked to bring the finished quilt to class so that we could  oooh and ahhhh over it! he he he... It's back on her bed now though. 

Just The One

This is not a good start to the New Year New Promise thing... more like 'Back to normal' ... I had decided to remember to take more photographs in order to feed my blog with inspiration... which was destined to failure from the onset as I remember nothing these days, and here I prove it...

Afternoon Judith's

One little snapshot of Afternoon Judith's Ohio Star block that's going to be made into a cushion, she's going to make two actually... I wonder whether Judith is going to try to take the Cushion Queen title from PM Pam? See how one of my lovely new carpet tiles frames the block beautifully!

All the ladies were very happy to be back in My Very Own Classroom. There was delightful chatter and story swapping about the festive season along with the giggles and laughter that seem to always accompany our days. So much so that the camera was forgotten... 

A Man Came Into My Shop...

So... This guy came into my shop carrying quite a large, yellow, bedraggled looking carrier bag, not by the handles, but in that 'guy' way, you know how they do it... with the top scrunched up in his hand...

"Hello" said I

"Hello" said he, looking a little uncomfortable as he gazed at my classroom full of ladies who had been chattering and laughing as he entered... but were now looking on quietly excited and eager to see... well, we could see through the bag that there were a lot of Hexagons in it.

He said "Stephanie Iceland send me to show you this..." I thought straight away that it was a bag full of Hexagons that someone didn't want and remembered immediately about a talk we had had at SPQ, quite a while ago, when Ann Germey was the guest speaker and she had told us that she was involved in a rescue group for unwanted Hexagon projects and, when the guy leaves them with me, I would send them to her some how... but oh no... look what came out of the bag...

It's a quilt top and it's enormous, no musty smell at all, in fantastic condition. All the papers have been removed. No stitching coming apart or any signs of wear and tear on the fabrics... nothing that made it look old at all... there's needle cord and thicker cotton in it along with thinner cottons... it felt lovely.

"We've had a think" said the guy, "it was done by The Wife's great grandmother and the wife is in her 70's, so I'm reckoning it's at least 150 years old", now beaming with pride... "I want to sleep under it but The Wife doesn't want it on the bed like this, so I want to get it finished"... well... the discussion, questions and ideas just flowed from our mouths... you can imagine can't you.

All the time I'm thinking...'please, please-please don't ask me to do it for you!!!!' 

I headed it off by telling him that the best idea would be for me to make a few enquiries, take a picture and blog about the quilt to see if we can't find someone who would be able to help him... 

"That's great" he said, packing the lovely quilt top back into the carrier bag 

"I live next door to Stephanie Iceland, that's how to contact me." and he was gone...

So, that's what I am doing now. Asking if anyone can help... 

I've asked him to write down everything he knows about the quilt, even about one of their relations who had used it as a dust cover while she was decorating and left it with a few tiny blobs of paint!! and anything he knows about the lady that made it, he says he will.

The guy would like to know, as the family always lived in Tean, Stoke-O-Trent, whether any of the fabrics could have been produced by Tean Hall Mill?

Does anyone know what would be the best thing to do with the top in order to finish it so that 'The Wife' will let 'The Guy' put it on their bed to be slept under.

I told him about Ann Germey and her expertise with Hexagon quilts, does anyone know whether she rescues quilts, finishes them and allows them to go back to their owners? If not... do you know of anyone else that could help?

Let's see what happens... angiequilts@gmail.com  

Catching Up

My very own Quilt Shop opened up in a 'back to normal' way on Thursday 3rd... wow... talk about hitting the ground running....folks are so happy to be on this side of the 'Sewing Prevention' season! ha ha ha. The phone never stopped ringing all morning with enquiries about workshops and classes... they want to come have fun with us... 

Here's a few pictures... not a lot of time for taking pictures!

Sheila's been busy making her fussy cut hexagons.. there were enough to start plotting the layout... I have to say, and I'm sure you will agree, it's looking quite fabulous

Brenda Barbara finished her festive stitchy stuff  so was able to take her Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope  quilt sandwich from the banister and get it under her Bernina Baby sewing needle... I'm sure Brenda was just waiting for inspiration to hit, not procrastinating at all... no matter now... it's been started!

Jenny Barlaston worked away on this little romantic wall hanging... she volunteered to teach 'something' to a craft group about three months ago... someone must have pinched the three months though... the class is next week! ha ha ha... she'll be ready in time, I'm sure.

This quilt sandwich was finished just in the nick of time... we don't have quite as much table space as there is at Caverswall Quilt Cave, so everyone has to move over a smidgen. Charm Packs don't half make lovely little quilts don't they...

Diane's cute on... there must be something in the air that has her making a neutral baby quilt, with extremely cute fabrics, ready and waiting, 'just in case'... actually it's a very good idea to make a baby quilt or two for 'just in case'... the smaller quilts are great fun to work on.

 Sporty (Late) Sue had us drooling at Quilt Club. She's finished her stunning blocks... my goodness my picture doesn't even begin to show you how fabulous this project is... those blocks are all made from a single Jelly Roll, a Batik Jelly Roll no less! obviously not the blue background fabric... that's yardage of one of Moda's Bella Solids.

Gail loved the quilt that Jean Bean made for her grandson Alfi recently so, fully inspired, she appliquéd AVA for her Granddaughter... what a lucky name to appliqué... no need to worry about mirror imaging eh! See the clock.... Gail finished just in the nick of time!... 

What a lovely wall there in the background of Gails quilt... in My Very Own Quilt Shop....I love it... makes it look like a real shop!

Happy New Year

I would like to wish you all a fun, happy, healthy and energized 2013... 
Wealthy? Wealthy would be good too so, I wish you that as well... I actually wish that for every year... you never know who's listening do you? ha ha ha. 
I wish you lovely, long, happy stitchy hours and buckets full of inspired, crafty ideas, not that my buckets aren't still overflowing from the year we just left! ha ha... I said that last year too... I'd like to take this opportunity to wish my very own self some snippets of stitchy time... I gather it's all about time management? hmmmm I obviously fail in that area... I am starting off well though, up early as usual, it's now 6am, shower time, dinner for tonight is almost done... maybe I will sew, sew, sew!