The Blooming Stretch Fabric

My Kate Tunic, number three, is finally finished... toot toot toots to me!!!
The first two took only an afternoon each but this one... boy was it tricky!
The fabric is a Knit from my favourite Art Gallery Fabrics .... it is absolutely lovely to touch... like they say, you can Feel The Difference. 
It's not their fault that I struggled making this tunic.... it was all me, my very own silly self... who loves to make things, quilts in particular, using the very stable and super easy 100% craft cotton... the sort my very own shop is full of.
Why I decided to order a stretchy fabric is beyond me!! ha ha ha... but I do love my new Knit Kate Tunic. I plan to wear it until it falls to pieces!!!
But I will not be making another stretchy one for a long time... even though I have new stretchy, knit Art Gallery fabric here waiting to be played with!!!

There's a bag making workshop tomorrow in my very own classroom, so I will go into quilty quarters to make none-stretchy 'How To's" with very stable 100% Craft Cotton... which also makes wonderful Kate Tunics... Have you made one yet?

Stargazy Daisiez Workshop

Stitching News

Christabelle embroidered this Hexagon design whilst on a recent jolly-holiday... We stitchers will find a way and do it anywhere! ha ha ha. On her return came the question "What could I do to make it larger?" Well now... you purchase lovely fabric from my very own shop Chris. Lots of different ones, the Dutch Chintz will look great! How about finishing it with that lovely linen mix from Moda... done deal... doesn't it look wonderful... Those Dutch fabrics all love playing together.

AnnBacan had a question... I want to use these fabrics to make a cushion, 22" in size, like your Taster Day For Beginners cushion... can we do that? Of course we can... A little thought, a few ideas, then.... mathemisms done... cutting sorted... stitching and seam ripping done... one happy Annbacan!

Just Edna, "I want to make two stockings today, how do I do it? I would like to do Quilt-As-You-Go"... Well Edna, you draw a stocking shape onto your wadding then go strippy mad with your walking foot. Cut a lining and 'Bob's Your Uncle'... she went home with two complete, a happy Edna!

Princess Jackie rarely needs help with applique projects... My goodness, she could probably teach me a thing or two! ha ha ha... Look at this wonderful Wall Hanging from the book Welcome To The North Pole... there is so much cute little detail... I helped with the border questions though....

Rose, She Of Scone Fame... has been working on her English Paper Pieced (EPP) Hexagons for approximately 2 years, we calculated. It's now the size she wanted to get to... beautiful stitching! So the question is, "What do I do with it now? How do I finish it?" Well, there are many methods... we discussed a few. Next week we will tackle the mathemisms.

"I need a few fast to make quilts, I have these two panels, can you help?" Of course... I am feeling very helpful!!...come up to my very own shop! ha ha ha. Jackie had this panel ready for sandwiching Lick-ett-split! You can't get much faster projects than pre printed panels... though we do have a great selection of fabulous and already finished quilts for sale!! 

These Dresden Plate cushions of Krafty Karen's are beautiful... Using my wonderful Linen mix fabric from Moda just adds extra scrumptious-ness. Appliqued using a perfect King Tut thread colour (I have them all in stock... we love them!) Karen had lots of questions, especially how to do the centres, which is not a problem at all... I was very helpful because I know how to do that...

New Sue is making another What Colour Is An Elephant quilt using the Jen Kingwell pattern... I have loads of them in stock in my very own shop!! Sue didn't need my help this week, she's made this project before you see... but I did help her have a lovely day, I hope!

Gail needed a little helpful advice... sometimes we all chime in!!!
The thing is... when you know how to do something... especially quilters I find... you just want to help other people... tell them what you would like to do

Several ideas might be discussed and, mostly, they are all helpful... then you can make a good choice of what you really want to do... see... we switched Gail's blocks around a few times to help her decide on a layout for her Bow Tie blocks

It's quite amazing how fast everyone disappears when it comes to the mathemisms though, those questions always seem to be mine to answer!!!
There isn't a lot of structure to our classroom time... we go with the flow... you work on whatever you want to and I do my very best to help you enjoy the process. Anyone there on the very same day will also pick up those top tips, we don't keep them secret... quilters love sharing their knowledge!!! It's just sharing my fabric I have a problem with, he he he he

Time For Tooting

Let's start with a toot toot toot fanfare for Annbacan's fabulously festive and finished in good time, table runner... what a lovely project to adorn Ann's table during the festive season. Beautifully embellished too... I feel almost excited for sewing prevention season's approach...do I? really? YES, I think I do!

Woooooha... just as you thought that I had lost the plot...
Here's Lorna's finished, fabulous and extremely festive family heirloom quilt. Isn't it lovely!! Toot toot toot Lorna... finished with time to spare too... The festive projects are rolling in now, so the countdown must have begun!

And last but very much not least is Gails fabulous and finished gifting quilt. It's been made with six inch Churndash blocks and mostly Art Gallery fabrics so it feels luscious, silky soft and very snuggle-abbubble...

This is the back of Gail's totally toot-a-bubble quilt... It's fun eh!!
So here's a little bit of 'good to know' information... you already know that I love to promote PMS (Pleasing My Self) don't you... well... Gail had quilted in the ditch of all the Churndash blocks, a 6 inch square design, but she wanted to do more... She found her very own self unable to decide what she would enjoy stitching... she just wanted the quilt finished, so... a cunning idea was thunk up! Gail searched through her hundreds of Juki fancy stitches and chose a little embroidery heart stitch... like the good old days when quilts were tied... In the centre of each Churndash block, there's now a delicate, embroidered heart... it looks great... and best of all it's very quick and easy to do... perfectly anchoring all the block centres... I think we will recommend this a lot more. No quilt turning necessary! Got to be a winner eh...

Stitching News

Christabelle finished two projects... Double toot-etty-toots will be needed then. This is one talented lady you know... Not many of Chris's projects stay on track with a pattern, he he he, that's if she uses a pattern at all... I think she goes off up a new road at every junction... much fun!! As you can see, the results are lovely... I am hoping you can see the quilting too... fabulous!

This is Chritabelle's second finish... she's been working on both of these quilts at the very same time along with other things, wow! That's a skill I could do with learning... he he he, so... toot toot toot, another fabulous finish Chris. This quilt is a commissioned job

This time I got a picture of the back (of the quilt pictured above) so that you could see for your very own self, the detail and the amount of lovely quilting Chris does on her projects... Fabulous! oh go on, let's toot toot one more time for Chris's fabulous and finished quilts!!

This is what Merrily has been up to, in between sorting out her latest memory quilt. The scarecrow and animal templates have been taken from one of the Kids Quilts patterns, Apple Hill Farm (availablubble in my very own quilt shop, but you knew that eh?) Merrily has backed her templates with felt, the idea came from watching All Day Di making her Farmer Joe's Quiet Book Lots of talent found in my very own classroom!!

Brenda Barbara added borders and corner treatments to her quilt... why put corner stones in 4 corners when yo can go Off Piste... please your very own self and put them in just two!!! Very effective... lick-etty-split a sandwich was made.

Farmer Lynda arrived for her fun, stitchy afternoon with this bright Sunflower fabric purchased during her trip to Yarndale.
"I want to make a cushion with it, what can I do?" Not wanting to cut the Sunflower fabric too small and wanting an easy to do design... we did good eh! Lynda loves it.

Remember the customer who is teaching her very own self to piece? Unfortunately for her, she told me a story about a Parrot rescue, so I have to call her The Parrot Lady!!! ha ha ha... she finally brought in her WIP that's Work In Progress... WOW! This is a centre panel. There will be borders and things added to get it up to a single bed size... Did I sat 'it' ? noooo, now she tells me she's making two for twin beds... talk about jumping in at the deep end!!! More as it happens....

A brighter post with pictures... much better eh!

Real Life...

So, you must have noticed there's not been much of the usual quality of blogging from these here parts this week... It's been a strange week for one, two, three, four five and counting... reasons.
Lots of little things all added/add up to a tornado of stuff whizzing round in my head.
It's almost time to shout... "Stop the world, I need to get off for a bit"
My parents' home was burgled while they were on holiday last Sunday in the early hours, so I've been doing lots and lots of to-ing and fro-ing with CID, police, forensics, phone calls galore... insurance quotes with window folk... cleaning everything ready for my parents to return.

Then in my own home... Electical domesticals breaking down, now that's an almighty palava because, not only did we have to replace 2 majorly useful electrical domesticals but the floor covering ripped it's very own self quite badly, so we had to replace that too... Timing was everything!
Himself, Helpful Hubby Dave, has been on holiday from work this week.... real TRAUMA!! Disruption all round here, I am used to him traveling the world all the time  only having him home for a day or two only every other week... I've had to share everything!!!!

Whilst on holiday, he decided to be very useful... Cleaned all the windows, inside and out. Jet washed the paths... lovely. Then...he decided to paint the garden fence and the shed in a lovely shade of green, as requested by my very own self... Oh Dear.., as I have mentioned a few times... the man is colour blind... I have wrap around, dark brown fence panels with dark brown leaves growing over it and a dark brown shed! Molly has dark brown spots on her legs!

I've had a bit of a fall out with one of my suppliers over the Sewline products... Not the first time either... That's why they are all on offer in my shop, when the stocks have gone... no more!
Fabric is rolling in and there's no-where to put it!.. There's a shipment arriving on Monday too..That's happy stress though... I think!
All is, hopefully, getting calmer... though the vehicle is making funny noises now, he's out now trying to figure out what's going on there.

It would be good to put a line under this week and to be able to start again fresh today...
Mum and Dad came home. Dave goes back to work tomorrow. The electrical domesticals are installed and working... and it's Sunday... lets see how it goes.
First job, after a few of MY chores of course, is to tackle that blooming stretchy fabric, Kate Tunic!!!

Coiled Fabric Pot Workshop

Sewline Products All Reduced To Clear