Back To Normal

I am trying to get back to normal. Things keep cropping up to disturb the boring humdrum of 'normal, everyday life'. Not bad stuff mind, just stuff. I'm easily distracted, ha!

Dawn, a shop customer, has been enjoying making kiddo quilts using my Eye Spy Six Packs. She popped in to show this one, her latest quilt She says it is her favourite so far, but really, they are all lovely and very colourful. Toot toot toot Dawn, fabulous & finished.

This is Sarah's sandwich. It's a chess board quilt. The little dots are the poppers to hold the pieces in place. The pieces are like little coasters, you can see one on the side. What a fun idea.

Our Norma spent her retreat days working on this, her Boho Hearts quilt top. She's learned such a lot while making all the different blocks. Lots and lots of long seams, needing straight sewing, were a challenge. Didn't she do well! It's booked in with Amanda from Stone for professional quilting. Norma doesn't enjoy the quilting part and being happy is the most important thing about quilt making.

I made these Llamas ready to be made into a reading pillow, complete with a book pocket on the back. I used the Elizabeth Hartman  Little Llamas pattern. There's a little man going to be 5 soon and he loves a good book.

Another reading pillow top. Bet you can guess who it's for! Our little lady will soon be 7 and she reads sooooo much, a reading pillow will be well used. The Unicorn is also an Elizabeth Hartman pattern. It's huge so I needed 26 inch cushion stuffers!

We had a very enjoyable retreat, such a lot of sewing was done. It was lovely to meet and get to know new people too. Great food and we had such beautiful, sunny, warm weather.

Unfortunately, and I am sure you will understand why,  Hillscourt Hotel has increased it's prices. I'll keep you posted on that for our planned August retreat. It's very disappointing but with everything getting more expensive, we have to accept that our fun will cost more too. 

Stitching News

The pesky P is back. No-one knew where it disappeared to or why it wouldn't work. Eventually, I could type nothing but the pesky P, which was a bit weird. It was typing it's very own self in all the searching things. Spooky!!
We've had a busy couple of weeks in the classroom and shop, yes it is an excuse!

Christabelle sent this photo of her finished Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope quilt, complete with the wonderful, Faux Pipped Binding. There's a lot of extra fussy cutting in this quilt, all the little squares are identical on each block. The borders are all the same too, an excellent job.

This is a picture taken in my shop, obviously. You can see the quilting while it was in progress, lots of free motion. The lovely blue Moda Grunge background is a better colour in this photo and those orange-y bits, wow, do they pop.Toot toot toot Christabelle, an absolutely fabulous and finished quilt, already gifted and loved.

Gail has just a few more stitches of quilting to be done on this lovely baby gifting quilt. We won't see it again though as it's going to it's tiny, little new owner before we see Gail again. It's very cute, fabulous and aaaaaalmost finished, so we can raise the trumpets a little early, Toot toot toot.

This is Jackie's first large quilt. Almost all of the fabrics are from a few of Moda's French General collections. She learned a lot of top tips while making the quilt with all of it's Hour Glass blocks. Toot toot toot Jackie, a fabulous and finished, rather scrumptious quilt. The next project will be even larger. It's safe to say, Jackie fell, hook, line and sinker over to our dark side, where there's always a warm welcome!

Preparations are going well with the folk who are joining us on the retreat in March. Some, those who live a little closer to my emporium, have been popping in to buy essentials, very exciting.

I made a final decision on my retreat project, which is hilarious because I made that decision three more times. Yes. I'm taking 4 projects!!! I'll never learn.

It's not to late to join us for 4 wonderful days of stitchiness!

Stitching News

I've got demons in my computer. I'm doing my best to manage it/them, I have Hp people on to it but now my " p " key doesn't work , for goodness sake, it's driving me NUTS!
I have a lot of ictures to share with you too, ha ha ha! well, it made me laugh! Here goes:-

At home, Christabelle it quilting her fabulous Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope quilt. It's a rather large quilt so, in class, she's piecing these very cute Tilda ladies, for the Dreamer Quilt, a free download from Tildas World  it has lots and lots of tiny little bits of fabric to be cut for each one. Look at the hair HST's, teeny!! 

Gail has her faux piped binding stitched and finished already on her baby gifting quilt, so she's just adding a bit more quilting around the applique shapes. There's a lot of thread colour changing involved.

Our Pam brought in her Churn Baby Churn quilt project. She needed a little help understanding the layout as she's made lots of different sized Churn Dash blocks, pleasing her very own self! They will work, just a few little fudging mathemisms will be needed. It makes such a fabulous photo with mine on the wall there in the background, don't you think?

Shirley has finished quilting this lap sized quilt, and very pleased with it she is too with a very snazzy and rather beautiful Batik backing. We spent a while searching for a good binding fabric, with success. Shirley had the binding fabric already, but she's given up the search, it's disappeared. It will turn up now she chose another, it always does. 

Jan was able to make her lovely, Autumnal coloured, Lap Quilt sandwich. Most of these fabrics were left over from other projects so this really is a bonus quilt. Smaller quilt sandwiches can sometimes be made in class, larger ones need a sandwich Saturday, on a Friday! 

This Llama quilt is a larger one, so a sandwich Saturday, on Friday was planned. Cheryl Cheryl arrived bright and early to pin it all as I had most of the day with the tables booked. All sizes are catered for in my very own classroom.

Our Pam was next. This is one of three baby gifting quilts she's making (actually four now!) This design is a pretty simple one for quilting, at least it could be. I think Pam is going to stitch around all those letters though. It will look lovely.

Sarah was delighted to be making this sandwich. She is already deep in the throws of planning her next project, a large one! so she want's this one quilted, done and dusted, lick-etty-split.

Merlot is ready for our trumpets to be used. A fabulous and finished, foundation paper pieced, Animal quilt, and how blooming cute is it!!! I love it, those googly eyes are rather splendid. Toot toot toot toot-etty-toooooot  I placed the book there, just in case you might be tempted?

A closer view, this book is in stock on my inspiring bookshelves, in my wonderful quilt shop. They are all Foundation paper piecing patterns, if that's your thing you will love it. If it's a new to you technique, I could help you get started?

I can't remember who asked me about the Best press ironing spray when I had run out. I just want you to know it's back in stock, lots of flavours!

We will be closing the list for our March 3rd -6th sewing retreat very soon, Wednesday I think. If you found your very own self tempted and wanting to go, you'd better get a wiggle on.

Checkley Sunday Sewday is coming up too, 23rd February, a bit more wiggling is needed for that list too.

I ho*e I haven't missed too many p 's? I've had to co*y and *aste every one!

Stitching News

Just a brief catch up. Lot's of projects are being made. New ones started too. My classroom is a hive of quilt making activity, and chatter!

Farmer Lynda is ready for one of our toot toot toot fanfares for her fabulous and finished Birchenbower Trees quilt. Hours and hours of quilting have kept Lynda very busy for quite a while so she's super chuffed to be able to use her new quilt.

Rose came to make a dinosaur sandwich. This is another of Elizabeth Hartman's patterns but Rose did a bit of PMS (pleasing My Self) and added the colourful borders around each dinosaur, looks great doesn't it.

This is Sarah's work. She has embroidered all the main pictures, ever so neatly. They were all on a pre-printed panel and once they were all stitched, Sarah cut out the blocks and framed them. It's not large enough yet so,

Flying Geese units will be used in the border. 40 were needed in total here they are all trimmed up, they will be sewn together with some appliqued paws. Intriguing eh.

Judy's making a set of table place mats for gifting to a special friend. They will all be identical to this one. Judy's mind is elsewhere, as she's had to put her triangle project on one side to make these mats. 

Jackie was just packing up at the end of her day when I ran into the classroom bit declaring that I needed pictures! The ladies pack up so efficiently and My poor blog is so neglected of late. So Jackie obliged, held her quilt up for a quick piccy, this is a quarter, obviously! Lovely, rich reds.

Sue needed to get this baby play mat finished rather Lick-etty-Split so she was delighted to see enough table space to be able to make her sandwich. No sooner had the last pin gone in, her Juki was set up and lot's of quilting was done. This was made using an Eye Spy Six Pack.

Cheryl came to choose a perfect backing fabric for this splendid quilt. Elizabeth Hartman strikes again. Her patterns are very popular with my customers. Cheryl will be making a Llama sandwich next week. It's a huge quilt and will, hopefully, be finished in time for gifting to a special couple.

We enjoyed a busy and fun Checkley Sunday Sewday last weekend. It was lovely that it was still light when it was time to go home too. Birds are chirping high in the trees, spring is just around the corner, it's a lovely feeling isn't it. 

The next Checkley Sewday is on Sunday 23rd February. I have a good list of people planning to go. It's the last one for a few months, until June, which feels, and is, a long way off.

4 weeks from today we will be on our first sewing retreat of the year.

Plans need to be made, now-ish! These decisions never get any easier do they!

March Quilting Retreat

It's just over 4 weeks now until we go on our next sewing/quilting retreat. We still have space, should you be interested.

Monday 3rd March - Thursday 6th

At Hillscourt Hotel in the Lickey Hills

£485.00, to include single occupancy accommodation, unless you prefer to share. All meals, with tea & coffee breaks:- Breakfast is a full buffet of almost anything you can think of. Lunch is a lovely hot and cold food buffet.

Evening meals are 3 courses, with plenty of choice.

Most importantly, you'll have unlimited access to the large, and very well lit, sewing room for the 4 days, and nights should you have the stamina!

As it's so close to the retreat time, the full payment will be due when you book your place. £485.00

You can email me angiequilts@gmail.com with questions or call me 07807530441. Or, even better, pop in to my shop, you will love it!

Stitching News

Meagre pickings in the photos again folks. Someone is telling people about my shop because new people keep coming to see it. I don't think I stopped last week. It's supposed to be a wonderful secret, like a real shop, but not too busy 😂. It's actually very exciting helping people to take their first steps on the quilting ladder, soon they will slide down to that glorious dark side won't they!

I pushed the tables together on Friday for a sandwich Saturday! They have to be made, and classes are a bit full so there's  just not enough space for moving tables around. And "No!" I am not going to have a larger shop! no matter how many of you suggest it.

Sue's first large quilt sandwich. She's made lots of beginner cushions and a table topper before so she's feeling quite accomplished and proud of her very own self for finishing this top. We had a chat about quilting designs and she'll be starting that job on Thursday. 

Jackie's rich reds. French General fabrics by Moda are really scrumptious. These are 4" hour glass blocks, aren't they effective all together. This is also Jackie's first larger quilt so we'll see how she gets on with the quilting. I heard a whisper of a King Size next, whoop whoop!

This is Farmer Lynda's Birchenbower Trees quilt, a work in progress. She's absolutely thrilled with it and is spending every spare moment on the quilting, not ordinary quilting, a special kind. I'll show you in more detail when it's tooting time. I'll get close-ups for you!

That's all I have of customer project pictures, shocking isn't it, ha! I will try harder, but ... you know how it goes!

Back in 2016, on a retreat at Alison House in Matlock (Now Oakhill Hotel) I started to make this bag. I've mentioned before how rubbish I am at Bag Making, it's because there's a lot of writing to decipher. I like pictures and videos! I had purchased the pattern when I lived in Portugal and I've been back in the UK since 2009! Anyway, I had made a good amount of progress during the retreat. But then it got banished to a plastic box, along with other projects I don't know how to finish.

Well now,  I have re-found it, that plastic box of PhD's. I have pulled out the bag, I've studied the pattern, a lot! I have worked on it a bit more and, what's more, I think I can finish it!! It's very exciting.

This next Sunday, 26th January, is a Funday Sewday at Checkley Village Hall. I have a good list of ladies, all eager to get back to the luxury of uninterrupted sewing days. If you haven't decided yet you have a couple of days to ponder. But please remember Wednesday 22nd is the last day to book for £20 as I need to buy all the supplies for your lunch.

Stitching News

 My pictures are a bit out of sequence. As am I!!!

Deb was asked to make this baby play mat after her daughter had gifted one to a friend. It's dangerous allowing people to look at your quilts! Deb rose to the challenge though. Luckily, she was able to purchase one of my pre-cut "Eye Spy Six Packs" so that was a chunk of the work saved. 30 x 6 inch squares, all different designs, winner! The top is soon to be sandwiched.

Sue's top is finished. She had managed to find a little stitchy time during the festive break so was able to finish all the 9 inch border blocks. She's delighted with the look, and rightly so. The backing has been prepared and a sandwich will be made next Friday... a Sandwich Saturday but on a Friday!! If you need to use all the tables to make a sandwich, it's the only way.

I also had a baby gifting quilt to make over the festive break, (it is now finished) I was making a sandwich and remembered to take a piccy. "Eye Spy" play mats are a perfect gift for a baby. A practical gift to be loved, peed on, pooed on, snacked on, picnicked on, possetted and puked on and then absolutely washed to death, they can be tumble dried, as baby get older, they make great dens too.

Stitching News

After my post confessing my Crochet addiction, it seems quite a few have you have been up to crochet shenanigans too. Thank you for the encouraging tips. I am back to my patchwork now though, should I dabble in a new crochet project it will be tackled a bit at a time, in an evening and definitely not a whole entire, non-stop day! 

Back in 2024, that sounds ages ago doesn't it.

Princess Jackie finished her wonderful festive quilt. She had started it originally to be gifted. As the project got larger and more adorable, she decided she might have to keep it. I think lots of us do that. All those hours spent bonding with the gorgeous fabrics. The sorting, choosing, cutting, sewing, trimming, a bit of unpicking too, a wonderful process. But I'm happy to say that Jackie did find the courage and the quilt was gifted.

This is the quilt back, Jackie's chosen style of using lots of smaller pieces of fabric. It makes for a double sided quilt and, I am told, it reduces the left over fabric stash, but that could be just a rumor. Toot toot toot Jackie, the fanfare is a bit late really, your quilt is absolutely fabulous and truly finished.

Gail's gifting quilt. Ever so cute. We tried lots of fabrics for the border but came back to this neutral one. The cunning plan was to add those little corner squares so that there was no need to have a join on any of the sides, a brilliant idea that looks like it was planned all along. That's it, the top is finished. The sandwich was made last week, I am a bit behind, ha!

Our Pam has thoroughly enjoyed making this Log Cabin quilt top. She had seen a photo of someones' finished quilt on social media and had fallen for it. This was back in August. Pam tried, in vane, to find the picture of the quilt again, to show to me as she wanted to make one. She had mostly remembered that it was green and cream Log Cabin blocks. I think Pam hit her very own brief, don't you? There's a green border to add. But Pam has already started three other baby quilts, so goodness knows when this top will be finished. (yes Our Pam, I am talking to you xx)

Here you go. This is one of Pam's 3 baby quilts. She's found it a bit frustrating making a baby quilt using neutral fabrics. She had wanted to make a brightly coloured, cute, applique one you see. Lots of people are asking for neutral tones in their baby quilts these days, seems it's a thing. This is quilt number 2, it is already a sandwich, pinned last week actually. The brief for Quilt number 3 is "as bright and girly as Pam chooses" Ooooh, yes! Pam was excited to get onto that one, and she has.