Stitching News

I do hope you are all ready for the weekend, high winds and snow means only one thing... STITCHY FUN TIME!!
You should check you have enough fabric and thread to get you through eh? Of course I know it won't last long, but I'm being optimistic that you will need fabrics.

Please take note that I have a very busy weekend so I am only able to be opening my shop for appointments on Saturday 27th. 
It's a Checkley Funday Sewday on Sunday 28th and there are a few spaces left should you decided to join us. Just call to book.

Look at this! Our Pam is cracking on on with her dramatic blocks, there is actually a mistake in these few, I wonder whether you can spot what it is. It has been unpicked and put right now but I'll leave you to quiz about it.

Twin Tomtes!! Farmer Lynda will be a Tomte expert at this rate. 

She's learning about their story too...  Google him?

" mischievous domestic spirits, responsible for the protection and welfare of a farmstead" 

 as Lynda is a farmer... that's rather apt isn't it!

New Sue finished her gifting cushion. Each of the little hearts has extra wadding behind it to make it more phoooophy! 

One perfectly co-ordinating backing with a hidden zip. It's ready for a fabulous and finished fanfare, toot toot toot.

Just a quickie today... so many chores await my attention.... 

Sewing Prevention Season is approaching at a scary rate!

Stitching News

 My shop specialises in Patchwork and Quilting, that's because I'm not much use at any other kind of sewing, especially the 3D stuff. But I always try to help with whatever kind of sewing my customers want to do.
Cushions... basically they are just a mini quilt with an extra backing that is stuffed with a fluffy pad!... I'm ok with those.

Sheila wanted to make a cushion. She arrived with a photo of this Squirrel printed onto a cotton Poplin sheet, you do them in your own printer (I sell the stuff to do that!) She stuck the picture to Sticky-Stuff, in this case Heat & Bond, then cut the squirrel out very carefully, stuck it down and proceeded to quilt. Isn't he/she fabulous. The cushion has been gifted and everyone is very happy, toot toot toot Sheila, a fabulous and finished gifting project.

Norma is going to be making about 900 of these blocks, nine and a half inches as they are, so that's 9 inches in the quilt. The Churndash is a very lovely traditional block. All the colours of the rainbow will be used, it's very Norma!! She is very colourful.

Norma wanted to recover her comfy chair.

"Oh heck" says I!!! 

After my mathemizing and stressing about making a cover to all the correct sizes, I lost the will! So... You know what we did? We made two long rectangular quilts! Genius eh.... One quilt goes across the bum bit and over the two arms and the other is a bit longer and goes all over the top, across the bum bit and down to the floor... I think it looks fabulous and Norma says it works a treat... Winner, toot toot toot!

Farmer Lynda is making great progress with the Tomte production line, aren't they cute little characters. She has the others all kitted and labelled up ready to be sewn. I think one will be blue though.

Bev's project... it was going to be a table runner until we changed the design a little bit and it grew, it's now going to be a big quilted thing! ha ha ha, Bev doesn't care what it will be used for as she is enjoying the whole process way more than she could have imagined, how fabulous is that!!!

Stitching News

 I am trying to keep up, honest! Yesterday, that's Wednesday, I spent all day in my shop. It's closed on Wednesdays so I could get on with sorting, cleaning and generally tidying stock. I have loads of wadding pieces cut and rolls of that Vinyl bag making stuff, and sticky stuff cut, (though Beano did those for me) and all the other things that I purchase on large rolls to save you money! More great customer service, I know right!! Behind the scenes prep gets pushed to one side when days are busy in the classroom.

Carol Cake is making great progress with her Traditionally Pieced Festive Table Runner. Like with a lot of folk, the On-Point setting can be a bit confusing but Carol got it sorted. Now she has a collection of different sized quarter inch triangles to play with.

Lorna finished her quilting. She used the walking foot and perfected her Stitching In The Ditch, a tiny top tip helped her not to be too stressed about a bit of ditch hopping. As you can see the table runner is fabulous and finished so it's toot toot toot time.

Shirley spied the empty tables so, Lick-etty-Split, we laid out her blocks to decide what to do next. This quilt will be gifted to a young teenager so the charcoal Hashtag fabric was perfect. Shirley has that decision again... To Cornerstone or Not to Cornerstone!

Tadaa. Deb proudly held up her almost finished Traditionally Pieced Festive Table Runner. She hand stitched for about 10 minutes, just to learn how to do it perfectly then put it away, that job can be done at home... so what next.... she had a good nosey around in my lovely shop...

A quilt will be made, quite a big one too!... Deb saw the Cats On The Fence Quilt on display and decided to make one for her very own self.... Not a cat in sight though, this will be Stars On The Fence. She was so excited. A lot of stripping preparation was done!

I  have decided to teach the beginner workshops on the Sewing Saturdays for a while. It's much more fun for the new folk that way. Caroline's a complete novice to sewing and sewing machines and didn't believe she would be able to finish a cushion in one day... well

As you can see, not only did Caroline have a fabulous day... that was never in doubt! she even surprised her very own self by putting a zip into her beautiful cushion back. This lady sews very straight lines too... Toot toot toot for a perfect and fabulous first finished project... she's booked to come again to make another, she thinks it was beginners luck!

I think only a quilter would appreciate a bank of tables pushed together with nothing on top (I did move that little Coiled Fabric Pot full of Mini Advent Stockings, after taking the photo)... It can only mean one thing... Big sandwiches need to be made!

Our Pam came to make her huge Tree quilt sandwich. It was a perfect size for my tables, so that's 180cm x 240cm... a lot of pins were used. We had fun (well, I did!) coming up with all sorts of fabulous quilting ideas. This will be Pam's Sewing Prevention Season project.

New Sue made her sandwich too. Not quite needing all the tables but it's still a good size. We got the tracing paper out and had a long Powwow about possibilities for quilting. Those Snowball blocks could have something in each one, or not? We will see, very soon.

Stitching News

I don't know about you but I am really missing the longer days of summer. I don't need all this darkness falling so early each day, there's so much to do and when it starts going dark I start to fade too... Like a little flower, ha! Beano was telling me it's only going to continue for about 5 weeks then the days will start to draw out again. that's more positive eh!

Our Pam has been quilting her cute Turtles project. She is ever so chuffed with her stitching accuracy. She Stitched-In-The-Ditch of all the blocks to get it stabilised then trimmed up and stitched her binding on. She closely stitched around the turtle bodies and Now she's going to add quilting designs to each of the shells, fabulous... so no tooting just yet.

This is another of Our Pam's projects. This is both sides of her stocking beautifully quilted making all the details 'pop'... you know we quilters like a bit of popping!

Shirley was able to sandwich her dinosaur Log Cabin quilt during her Thursday afternoon class. We had a bit of a brain storming session about possibilities for the quilting, of course I got carried away.... I'm an expert at throwing ideas in the mix.... now Shirley can have a good think.

This is the back of All Day Di's Christmas gifting quilt. It's such a lovely idea, don't you think? We are getting very good at making these fabulous quilt backings, Letters are so much fun... 

This is the front... It's a fabric from Makower and it's one of the cutest Festive collections they ever had. Di just had to decide how long to make the quilt, buy the fabric and that was the top done... of course with that fabulous backing it took a little bit of time before a sandwich was made but... It's now Fabulous and finished and needing it's very own fanfare, sooooo.... toot toot toot.

Another beautiful panel from Andover Fabrics. Farmer Lynda wanted a very quick make as the gifting window was very tight. She has enjoyed quilting this and all the little details pop perfectly, It's time for another toot toot toot fanfare as it's a fabulous and finished gifting quilt.

Deb's came for a sneaky extra class... holidays from work are perfect for a little me time and I'll always try to fit folk in for extra tuition. She got so much done in the one afternoon, even with her mind wandering about trying to decide what to make next!

Farmer Lynda loved the Tomte project I was making on our recent, and almost long forgotten, quilting retreat. She decided to have a go at making it... all for her very own self. She should have kept it secret because now she will be making 3 of them, Ha!

Traditional Piecing Workshop

The workshop was brilliant, even though I do say so my self! The ladies all learned so much... here are some photos from the day...

Deb had been working on her Traditionally Pieced Table Runner during a few Sew Saturdays so she was able to get her borders stitched in place and make a superb sandwich... followed by some Walking Foot quilting, it's coming along so well, Deb is so much enjoying her very own self in my classroom!

Donna is making the same Traditionally pieced blocks but she will be making many more of them as she wants to make a quilt, as opposed to a Table Runner... you know we offer great customer service, so we were happy to oblige!

These three blocks belong to Lorna. Fabric placement on a block can make all the difference to the look of each block. Sometimes you have to make one to see what you would change, and Lorna did just that, watch this space!

Sharon brought some of her 'special fabrics' with her. Fabric she didn't really like, but was happy to use for her "Guinea Pig" blocks.... How funny that she ended up quite liking her blocks so the table runner will be finished and gifted! They do look great don't they

Here are all the pieces before stitching.

Carol Cake (who didn't bring cake!!) took her time with her cutting as that was something she wanted to perfect. It's a great idea to take your time with the cutting of all the units, it makes the sewing up so much easier. This table runner is sure to be festive when it's finished, especially with that beautiful Ombre Red as a background!

There's a Sewing Saturday again this weekend, they are quite popular with the working girls!! ha ha

Please remember that it's time to book and pay for your place on the next Sunday Sewday. 28th November... last one of the year, my goodness!
Refreshments are included in your £20.00 fee. Cheesey Scones, Rose's famous Nutty Slack and Cake, though I forgot what sort Rose will make!

Stitching News

 Exciting things happened on Monday... Lovely new projects are being made. Please take my word for it as there's no pictorial evidence! In English that means that I forgot to take photos during Monday class!

Rose made this sheepish little number (do you see what I did there? ha ha!). The dog is based on a real one belonging to the folk this quilt will be gifted to... that's so thoughtful isn't it.

Farmer Lynda has continued working on her backing designing for the Cats On The Fence quilt... she has a dilemma now though as she doesn't know which side to call the front, that's a fun decision eh!

Monday Sheila needs a toot toot toot. She started this Jennifer Jangles project whilst we were away in Cromford, although she had forgotten to take the fabrics she had planned to use so had to go to plan B... It's Pickles The Elephant ... very cute indeedy... brothers and sisters will be made too no doubt.

One's Stitching News

What a beautiful day of terrible weather it was on Sunday, yesterday... One couldn't do one's chores so one had to go into Quilty Quarters... dash n darn it!!
One wanted to sort out all the paraphernalia brought home from one's retreat last week... Alas... That didn't happen as one had a very special commission request and had to get started on yet ANOTHER blooming project.

Foxes!

 The Elizabeth Hartman Fancy Fox pattern only had 6 inch blocks on offer so I had to  figure out how to make a few larger Fox blocks... There is a pattern for larger foxes but it was out of stock when I needed it. One made a good start. There was a lot of math involved but I got there in the end.

As it's November, it's time to book your spot on our next Sunday Sewday... it's a one day sewing retreat!!
Sunday 28th November. 9.30am to 4.30pm, Refreshments included, £20 per person. Please bring a packed lunch, if you want lunch and remember to bring your very own mug and your glasses if you wear them!!
As it was so popular last time I will bring a selection of fabric bolt end bargains to show tempt you.

Stitching News

 It's been a hive of activity in my classroom this week. 

Gail will have her Christmas stocking finished in good time for gifting. The binding is on and just needs to be hand stitched to the back...we won't see this project again. Such a lovely stocking, I think this is Gail's number 4... I bet it's not her last either.

Norma has been inspired by my Churndash blocks and decided to make a start on some of her very own. She has quite a stash of beautiful fabrics that are perfect for the job. Of course I'll help her with the cutting, excellent customer service, as always. These blocks are 12" finished.

Farmer Lynda has her Chuffing Cat's On The Fence Quilt top finished and we played with the left over strip sets to make a great backing... it all morphed into an amazing idea and Lynda went home skippy-happy with the plan. Do you see where it's going??

Jan's first, fabulous and finished project...Toot Toot Toot ... Perfectly pieced and looking lovely. Jan's very please with her new Table Runner and she's learned so much in it's making. She's already started Table Runner number 2.

Jan has also purchased a new book and started another, larger quilt. These Quarter Log Cabin blocks are keeping her on her toes as she wants them all to be accurate and as perfect as possible... and ' by George', they are! (who is George by the way?)

Fiona added a strip of festive fabric to a Moda Bella Solid in Christmas Red to make the WOF (Width Of Fabric) long enough for this table runner and then she was able to make a sandwich. She's going to quilt it with both walking foot and Free Motion quilting... exciting stuff.

All Day Di not only made a festive sandwich as soon as she arrived for class, she quilted this whole sandwich in the one day too! She chose perfect striped fabric and cut the binding aaaaand got it all ready to be stitched on. That's a lot of productive sewing for Our Di!

I've taken delivery of the New Juki UX 8 sewing machine in my shop. Boy is it spectacular.
It's allowed visitors, should you be tempted...
I sold that one so I'm waiting for another Juki UX8 sewing machine.

Visiting has to be suspended for a few days...