Story Time

You'll never believe what happened... I'm far from superstitious but blooming heck... what a day!

There was a deep frost yesterday morning, Friday 13th January, so I asked my son to pop out to start up the Big, Shiny, White Van to thaw out the windows, I find driving so much easier when I can see through them!
That was the first mistake...
I always leave the last minute things ready for when I leave home ie. everything is placed by the Big Shiny White Van keys so I don't forget anything, see the problem? He took the Big, Shiny, White Van keys from their pot... so I didn't get to pick up important handbag with purse and mobile phone that were with them... I happily jumped into lovely, warm, Big, Shiny, White Van and left home. 

Oh dear, almost arriving at Caverswall Quilt Cave, I realised what had happened... but surely I can get through a day without my phone and don't really need my handbag/purse as not going shopping... No Problem then? 

Arrive at Hall, set up Table Top Shop, 4 different waddings on the side, set up tables, cables, irons, boards, etc... keeping very warm with all the effort... 

Done and ready for ladies... notice I am a little chilly...

Oh Man! heating hadn't come on... see where this is going?... 

Can't call caretaker.. no phone, Mum's phone! Yes, use Mum's!! 

No phone numbers... all in my phone. I rang all possible numbers placed around Caverswall Village Hall, Artist teacher, Craft Class teacher, bookings lady, Chairman, committee members... trying to find someone with the caretaker's mobile phone number... 20 minutes later, succeeded, 8 calls, but had used up Mum's credit, wooops. 

"Keep your coats on Ladies, we have a small problem but I am on the case!!"

Heating sorted out by Caretaker eventually arriving 30 minutes later... phew!! Warming up...

The ladies set about their stitching, beautiful projects, must be photo time... no bag... No Camera! Small panic saved by Maddie. I got to use her camera and she would send photos later... Brilliant! Click, click, click... 

"Are you sure this is taking pictures Maddie?" 

" Oh yes, just keep clicking, it's a great camera but doesn't make much noise when you're taking pictures"

"OK, but you are sure?"

"I'm sure"

Have you guessed? 

The rest of the day ran very smoothly. Cosy and warm, beautiful projects, lots of chatter and laughter... fabulous, as usual.

I received a telephone call whilst I was out walking Madam with 4 legs at about 7pm... Maddie's husband telling me that he was just about to send the photos, but he hadn't found one single photo to send to me, the camera was completely empty! ooooooooooooh... I knew it... I thought it wasn't making the right noises... nothing I could do about it. I'll just write a whole big story about my Friday 13th January and the folks who pop over to my blog to see inspiring photos from Caverswall Quilt Cave can roll their eyes and quickly move on to a more successful blog! ha ha ha

Note to self... Thaw out the Big Shiny White Van yourself!

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Wow we were busy today... you must be getting used to how it works by now... the more folks that come to Quilt Cave the busier I am so, the fewer photos get taken... you'll have to come along if you don't want to miss anything!
This first picture is of Joan The Shop. She is quilting a PhD that she started in 2010. Joan found it very uncomfortable pushing and pulling the quilt through the little machine hole to quilt with a walking foot so she could only do it for short sessions... she's just discovered that it's possible to stitch fairly straight lines using her darning foot, no need to turn the quilt at all... and she's on a roll... Go Joan!!!

Krafty Karen added a half inch, dark but bright, green inner border to her Churndash lap quilt which looked fabulous, I would even go as far as to say it was perfect. After that she added a slightly wider border of mottled beige which will have another green strip added after that... it's going to be stunning... can you believe this quilt is being made for Karen's dog? Lucky dog!

Foxy Margaret came with a box of scraps wanting to make up pinwheel blocks and some others that she was inventing as she stitched. Lots of the Half Square Triangles (HST's) are left over form the Katherine Guerrier workshop we had way back in June 2011. Margaret makes fabulous scrappy quilts.

Helen finished all the complicated stitching and fancy bits (that's a technical jargon you know) the piping etc on her second triangular corner... now it's time to start her favourite bit... cross hatch, you know the one with over 300 little ends to tie off and thread in... I'm sure she will tell us all about it!! he he he

Late Sue spent the day joining her Pineapple Blossom blocks together and just had enough time to join all but the last row. We auditioned a few fabrics trying to help Sue choose a border fabric, actually she chose the butterfly fabric instantly, what took a little time was finding the right colour for the inner border... we like to think of that strip as the seasoning, like salt and pepper... fine without it but fantastic with a little sprinkle!

My Mum (Gwynneth) has finished making her leaf blocks and started to add the Log Cabin style border strips, each block has three 1" strips added to only two sides and all the colours are mixed up... quite a challenge if you're not used to scrappy.


 One of the great things about our Quilt Cave meetings is that if you usually tend to come on a Friday but you have some life thing in the way, you just come along and join in on a Wednesday and visa versa... that's what happened today, some Friday ladies came to play... what ever the reason, we don't like to miss our quilty, stitchy fun days... and with 2 days to choose from at Caverswall, we don't have to. Switching days is very acceptabubble!
We meet again on Friday 13th January... don't be fooling yourself that it will be quiet, some of the Wednesday ladies will be joining us because they couldn't make it today!

Uttoxeter Quilt Class

It didn't take us long to settle back to work as if we'd never been away...  all the ladies were very keen to get cracking with their projects.
I'm happy to tell you that Giggly Gillian was so thrilled with the quilting I did for her that she couldn't help herself and gave me a big hug! Fabulous reward eh... She wasted no time.. it was trimmed up, binding fabric was purchased from Table Top Shop, wadding in the van. This is a huge quilt so there was along trail of binding to be made.

Lizzy's Churndash blocks are finished so she was cutting and piecing the sashings with the blocks to make rows. The colours are beautiful, I don't think you can tell by my picture though, the background cream has a hint of pink and a hint of green, it's perfect with the batiks. Lizzy said she would like to quilt this double size quilt in two halves to make the size easier to manage, great idea.

Marisabel worked on her disappearing 4-patch blocks for most of the day. She is very keen to learn all the tricks and little fudge-inesses that help with accuracy, pointy points, perfect junctions etc... She does a good job already. Marisable has some wonderful fabric combinations in her blocks. Later she switched to her sample of Cathedral Windows for a 'How To' refresher.

Messy Maureen started a new project. She chose it from a book in which the centre was a beautiful appliquéd orchid. I was ready to teach her how to do that... oh no... no need for the applique any more, Maureen had found this oriental shiny fabric and wanted to use that instead... PMS!! We borrowed a large metal service tray from the hotel and soon had the job sorted... to make a perfect circle, you can rotary cut round a hotel tray you know! ha

We meet again next week, 17th January. 10am - 3pm as usual.

Quilty Quarters

This quilt belongs to Giggly Gillian. It's a pattern from a magazine she bought whilst on holiday last year. The pattern shows the quilt with curly whirly quilting done on a long arm machine. A lot of magazines do that don't they... It can make us think we have to use the services of a long arm quilter, which can be costly and most have long waiting lists. Gillian hasn't got to grips with free motion quilting, she's not too interested in doing so either, which is fine, PMS (Pleasing My Self) is what we promote. She started the quilting using her walking foot but, each time she looked at the magazine she found that she was wishing her quilting could be curly whirly too, the magazine won!  She likes the one free motion design I am able to do quite well, so she ripped out all her stitching and did the 'puppy eye' thing in my direction... guess what I did all, all, all day yesterday... The centre is finished and I'll quilt the borders today... at least that's the plan.

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Joan The Shop continued working on her interesting blocks, I can't give you any more information yet... again, from this angle, they do look like fish don't they... Cabbage and raspberries, hmmmm... that would be two of the 'Five A Day' we're advised to eat wouldn't it? Golf could be the exercise... but what of the wine fabric creeping into my picture... vitamins?

Brenda Barbara cut out all of the blocks to make another 10 Minute Block, lap size quilt... can you remember last time she made one... she was enjoying making it so much that she refused to go home at 3pm! This time she used 7 1/2" squares... and we didn't have to help her out of Quilt Cave at 3pm, she has her very own Quilty Quarters to play in at home now... wooohoooo for Brenda!

Late Sue has finished all 24 Pineapple Blossom blocks and spent the day cutting and stitching sashing and corner stones, all 2" wide. She brought her brand new Juki Beast in to sew with... she hasn't had any problems taming her little beastie though, lucky thing, and she's just loving it... he's heavy, yes indeedy, but well worth the extra humph to bring him along to meetings.

Mystery Margaret has been stitching a lot of late. She's finished all the blocks now and was able to trim them all ready for stitching them into rows. The design works like the Railfence but will look more like it's been woven with the size of the strips she used, at least that's what we are expecting... we'll have to wait and see won't we...

Maid Marion worked on her heirloom quilt blocks again. Dotty Maureen makes the blocks first of all, carefully following the instructions in the book... she struggles a little but always succeeds, then... passes on any top tips to Helen who then makes her blocks... she learns a thing or two and passes the tips on to Marion who them makes her blocks armed with all the good advice and top tips from the other two ladies... very smart lady eh!

Helen's very pleased with the way her triangle block turned out... she did complain about having to tie in over 300 thread ends though, she made sure we all knew that she doesn't like that job! Here you can see Helen threading the Trapunto wool through the tiny channel she made, I'll show the good side next time... can you see all the ends she had to sort out? oh... Helen needs three more of this triangle unit, come on Helen.. Marion's catching up, she'll be needing your top tips!

Barbie's project is coming along very nicely indeed... she wasn't sure about the teal blues on the border strips but now, with the blue-ish frame added to the centre panel and the vase cut out and placed there... no need to have worried at all is there, it's really lovely. Barbie is going to hand applique these elements, she does beautiful hand stitching, I bet it will be ready for flowers next week.

Maid Marion not only spent the day working on her Heirloom quilt and getting great helpful advise from Helen... she had her very own helper too... these hands are Dotty's... she's sharing more top tips whilst drawing the bits for Marion to work on, such a smart lady is our Maid Marion.

Ann Little Treasure brought in her minty heart quilt to show us that she had finished it. This was made with a Jelly Roll that was far from accurately cut, you would never know that looking at it now though... Ann is very please with her free motion quilting hearts, she did draw them first and that is absolutely fine, every way of doing things is brilliant if it works... and you can see It Worked!!

We meet again next Wednesday 11th & Friday 13th January. 10am - 3pm. 'Table Top Shop, wadding on the side' will be full to bursting once again as we collected the Big Van back from it's make over... it's extremely shiny and white again, but I'm sure the British weather will have it messed up in no time at all!

Quilty Quarters, Mia Nicole's Baby Quilt

I just finished the baby quilt I was asked to make for Mia Nicole, such a lovely name. I've really enjoyed making this quilt. I fussy cut all the little pictures so as to get as many whole animals, insects and flowers as possible. This quilt could be a game too, Eye-Spy springs to mind, or a racing game... first one to find a green snake can choose who wash the dishes! he he he, OK... so a toddler might not want that prize but if anyone would like to play with me... that's what's on offer, ha!
Did you notice the faux piped binding again... I'm not sure I will ever use normal binding ever again, I love the way it looks.

Gilly's Quilt

Gilly's finished all of her Christmas stitching, all the helmet bags and things she was making for other people so, she could actually have started something new but there was one last PhD... the Garden Twist. If you remember Gilly spent many meetings fussy cutting the floral curtain fabric to get the more dense flowery areas in the centres of the trellis. Yesterday she worked none stop, that means she didn't go chatting much (which is a very popular thing to do at our Quilt Cave meetings, he he he) and was able to get the borders stitched on and so declaring the quilt top finished, wooohooo... doesn't this quilt look fabulous! I'm guessing there will be a sandwich episode at the next meeting, Gilly?

Dotty's Patchwork Cushion

Dotty Maureen has had many happy hours for stitching over the past Sewing Prevention Season, lucky thing... Inspired by the quilt Annie Pie made, Dotty rooted out the magazine with the pattern for the Union Jack and made one for her very own self. It turned out much smaller than Annie Pie's though as it used tiny little Half Square Triangles (HST's)

Dotty decided to make it into a car pillow... this is the back view. It's more of a cushion pocket so Dotty can change the size of the cushion she put inside, she could even store a quilt in there if she wanted to. This project came in very handy for Dotty, her favourite soft chair had disappeared from the village hall so she nipped out to her car and was sitting on her very own soft cushion... good and comfy, in no time at all!