Stitching News

Let's start with a toot toot toot Fanfare for Peggy's fabulous finish.
Made with the lovely About A Girl range of fabrics which, I must say, is proving to be very popular indeed. Peggy is thrilled with  her finished quilt
So... she started cutting up Jeans... more on that soon enough.

Last week during class, Fran Cup Cake purchased on of our new bag patterns. When we opened it and saw it was very  wordy with few pictures... we panicked a bit! We love picture heavy instructions. I have to say that the written instructions were really good and... look What a fantastic bag Fran made! toot toot toot it's just fabulous! Fran came to my shop yesterday to show it off and to choose fabrics to make another bag for her lovely and lucky daughter!

Gail's making good and steady progress with her quilting... if you remember she made 3 large quilt sandwiched not so long ago... one quilt has already gone to it's lucky new owner... so, she spent the morning shadow stitching the Bento Boxes, just the borders left to quilt but it was time for a change for the afternoon, Gail made a great start on quilting her beautiful Batik Bargello... 

This is Rose's new project... she's using a Moda Layer Cake and a pattern from one of the Pre-cut books. The first task was to choose and sort the fabrics into sets of 4... some folk find this to be the tricky bit but Rose says the sorting is her favourite thing to do.

Sporty Sue's had her eye on my Hexagon quilt for a week or two... She's given in to the urge now and has started to make one for her very own self... she was surprised how easy it is to make for how fabulous it looks when finished... I tell you... I don't make difficult projects... They are all easy once you know how!! ha

Stitching News

Rose came to make a beautiful sandwich.
Made with lovely colours of fabulous fabrics... shall you guess from where they were purchased? Might you need a hint or clue... Naaa? I thought not.
This is a rather large quilt so Rose has decided that it won't be coming to class to be quilted, it will be stitched at home.
Needless to say, Rose had to start another project! ha.

We had two more ladies come for the Basics For Beginners workshop. They had a lot of fun and most excellent and very helpful top tips were learned...
with just two ladies to teach it was a piece of cake!

They both did ever so well and even prepared the backs with zips!
Two very different colour choices... one from Mum and the other from her daughter... what a lovely way to spend time together! 

Joanna has almost finished quilting all of her blocks...
I think there are 24 or so. She trimmed them all to a cunningly perfect size and chose her sashing which will be used to join the blocks together... the winner was a luscious and rather scrumptious Moda green fabric

This fabric is in my temptation trolleys at the moment...
I love it!!
I cut a metre or so and proceeded to play Hidden Wells.

Oooooh Fabulous, Look what happened...
I hope to work more on this over the upcoming break

More Fabulous Finishes

Lady Judith finished her kiddo quilts...
This one's obviously for William! Did you guess?
 Toot toot toot Judith it's lovely with beautiful hand embroidery too.
The pattern is from one of our Art to Heart books

This one is exactly the same but WOW they look different don't they.
Not just that it's for Edward! ha ha ha. It just shows how unique quilts can be with all the fabulous fabrics we can get these days. More tooting then for Lady Judith...

PM Pam's turn for a toot toot toot fanfare for her fabulous and finished Stargazy Daisiez quilt. As you can no doubt see, Pam had great fun with her fabric placement.The Daisez block was a workshop a while ago and we should be repeating it in the Autumn... if you're interested?

This is the back of Pam's Daisiez... What a fantastic backing!!!
I often receive phone calls asking whether I stock the extra wide backing fabrics... here's a perfect example of why I choose not to...
We can have loads of fun with quilt backs!!!

Toot toot toot for Gail's fabulous and finished quilt. Unique as it's Gail's very own design... Of course I helped but that was just the technical stuff and mathemisms! ha ha ha. The photo had to be taken with the quilt held sideways on as it's very long and neither Jean Bean nor Gail are very long!!!

here's the back of Gail's tootable quilt... well... this in only half of it as it's folded in half so you will have to take my word about the fabulous-ness! toot toot toot Gail. A wonderful job has been done on this commissioned quilt.

Christabelle finished another kiddy quilt... she used an 'About A Boy' panel making it a very interesting playmat with lots of pictures and details to talk about...
and that's just the adults! ha.
Toot toot toot Christabelle, just fabulous!

Annbacan made covers for her memory quilts so that they can be used as cushions and with the left over fabrics she made a cushion to match, the one on the left is the cushion and the one on the right is the quilt cover-cushion! We're tooting for Ann...

Here's Annbacan's last cushion that's really a quilt cover... blimey it sounds complicated but I hope you follow... Whatever your thoughts about my confusing rambles... it's yet another fabulous  and finished project for todays perky post!

Easter Holiday Opening And Closing

My very own patchwork and quilting shop is about to have a little break...

We will be open as usual  for Good Friday, 3rd April, with Friday Quilt Club for those who wish to come.
Saturday 4th April... after a normal shop opening day with sandwich making in the classroom, we will close the doors for a few days.
Bank Holiday Monday closed
Tuesday 7th April, closed
Wednesday 8th April, closed... though we never open on Wednesdays anyway do we...
I'm hoping thst my Easter Bunny quilt made you smile? He's hanging on the wall in my very own shop and he's making all the customers smile when the see him... just like he does every year when he visits us.

Stitching News

Jeanette Milly provided us with quite a WOW moment...
Bargello quilts never fail to impress our eyes do they?
This isn't the whole quilt it's a WIP... Work In Progress.

This lovely quilt also belongs to Jeanette Milly...
it's huge and will be machine quilted with shadow quilting following the patchwork design... a very popular method that most of us can do successfully, have you tried it?

Brenda Barbara's Denim Circle picnic quilt is getting larger...
It's been made with 9-Patch units so the decision on the final size can wait.
This is a great way to use up jeans that shrunk in the wardrobe!! 

Joan The Shop is working on her commission project.
6 quilted Kaleidoscope block cushions and they are looking great.
Each one has it's very own zip with a perfectly positioned and co-ordinating flap

This is another of Longport Lynda's projects... She had acquired a Strip Roll... like a Jelly Roll but from a different company... and decided to make up this design after seeing it in a Jelly Roll pattern book. It's lap size now and it waiting to be sandwiched.

Left over from another project, these Art Gallery, silky soft fabrics have been patched together by Longport Lyna... they will be made into cushions soon enough...
and each will have it's very own zip!

Longport Lynda.. again!!!
She acquired 'one of those piles if little bits you can get'... 
She meant those little 2 1/2" squares that Moda started to do a while ago... unimpressed with it, Lynda made a cushion front.

and.... Longport Lynda.. again!!!
This Advent Tree is almost finished... the binding is pinned in place ready for hand stitching in front of the TV. I had forgotten about this project and, as it is fabulous, we will have another workshop so more of you can make it... 
on Saturday 15th August... just so you know.

Can you believe it... Longport Lynda.. yet again!!!
Slightly different from Bonnie's pattern of Chunky Churndash and looking great.
This is also ready and waiting to be made into a sandwich... Longport Lynda will be all tooted out by the time all of her WIP's are finished! 

This one is Christabelle... lovely, funky fabrics and colours... she's just about finished meandering around her wonderful wonky squares and has started quilting the borders... it's a long way round this quilt.

Fanfare Time

Toot toot-etty-toot toot... just how big can we make quilts with the very fabulous apartment quilting method... the answer is obviously... Massive!!
This might well be the largest quilt I have ever seen...
I couldn't get it all in the photo but it's a wow quilt.
A fabulous finish made by Gilly over the last 4 years, what an achievement.

Another toot toot toot fanfare for a fabulous and finished quilt made also by Gilly.
This one was made with old, but rather gorgeous, curtains... The lining makes up the backing fabric. A much loved already, family heirloom in the making.
It's ever so soft and cuddly too.

Toot toot toot, New Sue did it again...
We all just stand with our mouths open as we say "Wow!"
Perfect piecing, perfect and precise quilting, perfect colour choices... and the best bit... we can purchase raffle tickets to win it... once they are printed!!

I couldn't not show you the back... just look at the fabulous quilting!!!
Once I have more details about the raffle I will post them here. It's all official and registered so we can safely purchase as many as we want to.

Longport Lynda is on a roll with her finishing spree.
This Paper pieced Christmas Tree wallhanging is now ready for use... it's been growing for a year or two, ha ha ha. This was a wonderful workshop a couple of years ago and we will do it again in the Autumn section of our year...
Tomorrow I will update the 2015 Workshop list.

Another toot toot toot for Longport Lynda. The fabulous and finished fruits of a Jenny Barlaston Hexagon happy workshop which will also be repeated in Autumn... (Is that OK Jenny? Perhaps I should have asked her first, no pressure now eh!!)

Sandy attended the 3D Folded Cushion workshop last Saturday and had so much fun stitching the whole day side by side with her lovely daughter, Claire Sainsburys, who had treated her Mum to the workshop for Mothers Day... what a great idea!! Sandy made a second cushion when she got home and has plans for 12 more.... though they may not be 3D folded ones... she has other ideas... but they will all have one of my fabulous 20" cushion zips which are a best selling notion!! ha ha ha

Is It Too Early To Start?

Evidently not!!!
I have just taken delivery of box after box of Christmas themed fabrics to help get your Christmas crafting started... the boxes contained
The Makower revamped and adorable Angel Advent Calendar

 Super stocking panels...

 The new and luscious Scandi range which includes an extremely cute and want-able Advent Stocking panel...

 And some totally traditional prints with good old Santa Claus featuring on them...

 Lovely label panels... the are multiple uses for these so they are usually very popular, not just for quilters... Christmas Greeting cards, festive sofa cushions, bunting, gift bags...

Is it too early to start?

Of course not!! Let's get stitching!!!

Stitching News

Toot toot toot Jenny Bean...
One fabulous and finished project and what a beautiful quilt it is.
Jenny says she learned a lot about accuracy while piecing the blocks...
I don't think we ever stop learning stuff actually... do you?

Morning Josie is having her first taste of applique.
She's starting with a cushion front but has plans for a full quilt. She's using my favourite method... Sticky Stuff and Edge Stitching... he he he

Toot toot toot for Brenda Duck's finished and fabulous table runner.
Inspired by all ready in situ curtain fabric so that it will co-ordinate with the room beautifully when it's gifted and used.

Sister Sue made a sandwich with her lovely Railfence Table topper and spent her class time shadow quilting by following the 'rails', tying off ends and threading them through...  

Fiona also made good progress with her shadow quilting. These ladies are in no hurry to finish their table runners... they want to enjoy the process... and they are! Two new Juki HZL G210 machines are helping them with that.

Farmer Lynda is super excited about her latest applique project..
oooooh how cute is the design!!! Loving this one!!