Stitching News, Monday

You must have noticed by now that a few of the ladies have adopted silly names... all in the name of fun of course, mostly to help us all remember who is who. This project was the work of Bev, one of the Monday AM ladies... from this day she shall be known as Cynthia, she says Cynth' will do nicely... no silly story to accompany the name... she just loves it! The food mixer cover is coming along very nicely.

Penelope Baskerville... (used to be Sarah, this is what happens when you let the ladies choose their own alias)... anyway, Penelope finished off her quilting and, after a little bit of instruction, she trimmed all the crusts from her sandwich. She chose binding fabric and just about ran out of time so was unable to stitch it on... next time.

 Both of these finished projects belong to Afternoon Judith. The Mat & Ruler bag has been waiting for a set of handles for a few weeks but they're on now and the bag has been put to very good use.
Judith's Table Runner, oh how we love the good old Railfence... isn't it lovely, Judith is very pleased with the things she's made. Next we will be trying appliqué for a baby quilt, very exciting!

Bag Lady Day

All of the ladies were beginners, not that you would have known it. They got on really well... First job was to cut all the strips, though Judith had purchased a Jelly Roll so she escaped that bit...

All of us got a little confused doing the Bargello-y bit, which is quite normal until you get the hang of it, that was for the front and back panel. Quilt as you go strips for the 2 sides and the bottom of the tote bag, easy and impressed the ladies somewhat...

All pieces completed it was time to start adding borders and joining all the parts together, it got a little exciting at this point and the working speed went up a notch, he he. These colours belong to Lynda... lovely aren't they.

I feel I have to comment on this picture... see how Judith seems to have carefully matched her cardigan to the colour of her chosen fabrics? That must have taked quite a bit of planning eh?

Clare's quilt as you go panels. This was only Clare's second time of using a sewing machine, her second patchwork class at My Very Own Quilt Shop. This lady catches on really quickly... and she's so 'bitten' by this patchwork and quilting bug! how strange to be so bitten after only one class? NOT!

All three bags were finished in the one workshop... there were ends to tie off and the handles needed just a few minutes more but ... didn't they do well! Thanks to Shelia for teaching the class, I think we will have to do it again!

Geoff's Quilt

Geoff finished his 6 Minute Block Quilt.. toot, toot, toot. Doesn't it look great!! He was laughing because I had told you all how quickly he had made his blocks on that very first day, he confessed to having had to re-stitch some of the seams... he says they should be called 15 Minute Blocks. He had a go at doing Faux Piped Binding at home but something wasn't working properly so, he practised our favourite PMS (Pleasing My Self... I wonder if he tells his workmates that he gets PMS??? oh.. ho ho ho) and invented striped binding which looks rather good... I'll remember it for a future occasion.
Geoff's found it difficult to get to classes in the past because of being a shift worker, he told me how great it was to be able to come to My Very Own Classroom in My Very Own Quilt Shop on different days of the week... all he has to do is book up... Monday morning one week, Tuesday afternoon the next, possible followed by a full day on the Thursday of the next week... isn't that a useful thing to know? He's getting to know ALL of the other ladies by switching classes too...

Caverswall Quilt Cave

 Marisabel finished adding her borders and sent an email to me angiequilts@gmail.com  to request that I reserve enough tables for her to make a sandwich. Now you should know by now that I am very helpful whenever I can so... 5 tables were ready when Marisabel arrived, she wasted no time at all in taping the back down, 'taut but not tight' and continuing through the process of sandwich perfection...

 We discussed several possibilities for quilting designs for Marisabel, it's quit a big quilt so we didn't want anything too "Turn-y" (another new word for Angie's Daft Dictionary!) Obviously there's the option for straight diagonal lines, nothing wrong with doing that... but how about we play with the patchwork shapes?... Whooping over steadily to the left and just before the edge of the block arrives,  curve over in your return to the centre, pause if you like... whoooop over right... return back to the middle but not quite to the start point and... loop left, return... loop over right stopping at the centre point to loop up and down with a finale of a wiggle to the centre of the top loop... easy... and it will look soooo cool! This can de done using the walking foot because all the lines are long and the curves are quite big but that means it will be quite "Turn-y"... Marisabel's going to have a go... maybe with the free motion foot...

Now then.. this business of free motion... here's someone's very own, very first attempt. It's Jean Bean. She has never tried free motion before, she never even knew that she wanted to try! ha ha ha...
See the scribble, perfect starting point... scribble, scribble, scribble... do a few pointy loops.. they turn into rounded loops very soon... If you've had a go at free motion quilting and your work looked like Jean's so you thought... " Oh I can't do it" so you gave up... please please try again... the very beginning is supposed to look like this, all I ask (if you are wanting to)... is that you just try, don't convince yourself that you can't do free motion because it doesn't look good enough in the first half hour, please?
On the other hand, if you've decided that you don't want to free motion and you're happy with your walking foot, that's absolutely perfect, I just don't want you to give up because you think you can't do it...
If you think about it, this beginning stage looks like children's scribblings... do you think our wonderful artists never went through this beginning stage? Practice makes us better, giving up achieves nothing.
Right.. I better get off this soap box... there's a shop to be opened!

New Sue's Quilt

As promised, here's a Toot Toot Toot for New Sue's latest finishes. Firstly we have this lovely quilt, it's made with a pattern in a Layer Cake book but Sue used yardage and cut her very own 10" squares. Isn't it lovely, the fabric's called Hello Luscious from Moda I think.

With the left over fabrics Sue made this fabulous co-ordinating bag, this is a free pattern from the Moda Bake Shop site and it's really easy to make... it must be as I have also made one and I have 'Bag-lexia'!
The quilt will be gifted to Sue's granddaughter tucked inside the lovely bag... just as we see it here. What a lucky young lady eh!

Tuesday Stitching

Lovely Lyn had finished the quilting on her 4 quarters, each of 4 kaleidoscope Stack-n-Whack blocks. She cut the strips, both black in this case, 1 1/8" for the back and 1 1/2" folded for the front and started to join the quarters together. Again this method can be a little fiddly but, as Lyn stated once she got the hang of it... "It's a very clever way of making big quilts isn't it!" Lyn will be adding a stunning border but, as yet, she hasn't decided what to do.

As you can see, Giggly Gillian has almost finished joining her apartment quarters (I know, I know... but they are the same size as Lyn's so 'quarters' feels right, even if there are 6 of them! ha ha) Gillian was going to add borders too but the quilt is big enough for a single bed or a largish sofa throw now... and she is itching to get to work on her kaleidoscope blocks so... a very smart Faux Piped Binding will be added... without borders!!, borders are not 'compulsorary' (oh dear... spell check doesn't like me inventing words) I always encourage PMS (Pleasing My Self)... if you're happy, I'm happy!

New Sue finished her latest project, I'll do a "toot toot toot" for it in the next post... She's starting the next quilt (the paper pieced Log Cabins have been set on one side for now) This is one practice block... Sue's using the London fabrics (I think just about everyone has purchased some of them without thinking what to do with them, it's such a British year!!)... plus a few other red, blue and white-ish ones. These blocks will be alternated with Judy's Star blocks, as seen on the wall in the previous post... My Mum Gwynneth's blue and white quilt that's hanging on My Very Own Quilt Shop's Quilting Classroom wall.. what a mouthful!

Monday Stitching

Bev finished her 12 Log Cabin blocks, each one 4 1/2". There will be 6 on the front and 6 on the back panel of this Kenwood cover... Bev played in My Very Own Quilt Shop for a while, she was auditioning fabrics to sash the blocks with, the fabric will make up the body of the upside-down bag too... this is the winner, a perfect match to the tiles on Bev's kitchen floor, apparently.

Morning Judith (we have an Afternoon Judith too) popped in on Friday last week to request that she make a sandwich during her Monday class... now you know I am happy to help if I can... I switched the classroom round to make space enough for her and the job was done beautifully. The sandwich on the table is Judith's... stunning isn't it?, see the purple-y quilt on the wall there, to the left... that's the same pattern... My Mum Gwynnth made that one, they look completely different don't they.

Jean Bean added the last of her borders. It's been a little fiddle, those 1/4" inner borders need special care but they are well worth the effort, 1/2" of white, 1/4" of red... it looks quite stunning indeed. This quilt only needed the one table to be sandwiched, twas done in no time at all and Jean made a good start on the quilting. Tying ends off  proved a bit eye-boggling, it's so hard to see black thread on black fabrics so we got out the magic eye! A top secret gadget...

Sarah came back!! She has a very young family, had a poorly car, a poorly kiddy, a day trip, two bank holidays, you name it... it all happened on Mondays, so she hasn't been able to get to class, shame... She got stuck in though, made a sandwich and did loads of the quilting on her Railfence table runner. She was pleasantly surprised to see all the lovely things the others had been making, it spurred her on and she's making her very own list of "I want to make one toos"

PM Pam (she of Cheese Scone fame) continued to add the beautiful, bright yellow sashing to one of her play mat quilts. Without corner stones we have to fiddle more to keep the rows in-line with each other. Pam's second quilt will have corner stones... they seem a little more fiddly but they don't half make this part of the process much easier... things just line up better!

During the day there was a delivery of boxes... one brand new Juki sewing machine, ordered for a very lucky lady and one huge box of delicious batik fabrics and Batik Jelly Rolls... oooooooooooooooher they are lovely!

Saturday Swap Shop

Saturday 30th June - 10am-2pm

Do you have fabric that you no longer wish to keep?

You bought too much for a project?

You might have purchased the wrong kind of green...

An orange that was too bright?

A floral that you will never use?

An abstract/funky fabric that hurts your eyes these days?
A Jelly Roll and you just don't want to use it?

We're having a Fabric Swap Day, just for fun...

Fabrics must be 100% cotton, patchwork quality.

Minimum size piece is 1/4 m Fat Quarters are fine.
Fold up tidily, as many as you like. Add a label including your name and a desired price if you would like to sell it.

If you find someone has fabric you'd like... Swap with them. 

If you see fabric you love with no swap, you can purchase it...
No strings... it's just for fun...

You could add a perfect piece of fabric or two to your collection without spending a penny!

Of course this social event will be at My Very Own Quilt Shop.

Come along at 10am with your unwanted patchwork fabrics...

I expect it will be a fun, social occasion...

I wonder who has the ugliest fabric?

Right, I'm off to root in my piles, I know I have some weird stuff in there somewhere... I could swap for something pretty!