Stitching News

Were home!  It was another fabulous retreat where we were very well catered for. I think it's safe to declare that everyone fully enjoyed our 4 luxurious days of sewing time. Projects from toy elephants, hand pieced hexagons to huge patchwork quilt tops. It's really interesting to see the different projects and colour choices. Inspiring!
I did take a few pictures so I'll just post them all. Not the blurred ones though, I had a few of those!

Planning for the Merry Quiltmas Retreat is well under way. It was a fully booked retreat for a while but, unfortunately for those concerned, 2 cancellations had to be made, there are two places remaining.

Just contact me if you are interested, I'll be happy to provide all the answers if I can.

Stitching News

Retreat planning is going very well. I think we are all taking enough sewing to last a couple of weeks, never mind 4 days. Still, it is much better to run out of stitching time than to run out of projects to play with isn't it.

Gail had done enough quilting on her dinosaur quilt to keep it all stable enough to trim the 'crusts' off and attach her double sided binding, a very impressive binding method, I must say. Once the binding is on, Gail will continue stitching more quilting, probably during the retreat.

This is a lesson for us all. If someone asks you to make two quilts (which can be a wonderful feeling) don't ask them what colour and what design they would like! Pam is so very bored of black and white squares and can't wait to get back to her beautiful and colourful quilt making. Both quilt tops are ready to be sandwiched now so she'll be looking at black and white squares for a bit longer while she quilts them.

Christabelle is making great progress with her beautiful Tilda Chambray fabrics. She has a lot of very small pieces of other fabrics, some Tilda, that are proving to be perfect for the little hearts. More stitching will be done on this during the retreat, no doubt.

Princess Jackie wanted to make a new cushion for chair comfort on the retreat and blimey is this fabric gorgeous. We thought Jackie had purchased the last Fat Quarter but I found a bit more of it. If you look closely you will see she had fun quilting it too.

A perfectly co-ordinating cushion back complete 

with a perfectly co-ordinating, covered zip flap. Very smart!

It even co-ordinates with the red Lotus Chair that Jackie will be taking on the retreat! 

Stitching News

A bumper blog post today. Hope you feel inspired by all the project photos. 

Starting off with Lesley's fabulous and finished wall hanging. You've been watching Lesley's progress with this one and here it is! Toot toot toot! Little grandson tried it on for size and it fit his little body perfectly so now he wants to use it, it might never get put up on his wall.

Another fanfare with the trumpets now. 

This time for Di's fabulous and finished quilt. 

Toot toot toot.

The back, so you can see Di's impressive quilting. Lots of 'In The Ditch' stitching in the filler blocks and stitching around the flowers making it look fabulous on the back too.

Keep the trumpets up for another fabulous and finished quilt. This one belongs to Rose, she made it for gifting to her granddaughter. See the large hearts she quilted in the border triangles, perfect. Apparently Pam has a large heart template that was just the right size. Toot toot toot Rose.

Deb's Sunbonnet Sue Wall hanging, obviously this is a photo of the quilt in situ. Finished in plenty of time for the spooky pumpkin season, which is getting ever more popular each year. Toot toot toot Deb, a fabulous, and very cute, finished quilt.

Pam has been working on this Hex On The Beach project for quite a while now. Not so much in the summer months but with the darker evenings drawing in, Pam is back on it. She does the tiniest of hand stitches so each one must take an evening. It's looking fabulous, Thanks for bringing it in Pam.

This is Mary's quilt sandwich. She's getting her projects ready for our upcoming Sewing retreat. I think she plans to quilt the days away as there have been many sandwiches made recently. I haven't cropped the photo too much as I thought my quilts made a lovely and co-ordinating backdrop!!

Deb wanted to 'have a go' at the machine pieced method for Cathedral Windows. The one on top is a sample hanging around in my classroom to inspire folk, and inspire it did. Deb, obviously, is going with Blue and White to represent the tiles in Portugal and Spain.

Norma finished all the applique blocks and moved on to sew the filler blocks. In the book they are one inch finished little squares. After making one as a nine-patch unit, Norma decided to Please Her Very Own Self, scrap that plan and go with little piano keys, much less accuracy needed so a lot less annoying for her and the result is just right.

Karen is very particular and wants accuracy. I love accuracy too but it's not for everyone, as Norma shows us. If you want it, you work at it, even to fussy cutting your units, like Karen did with these two x 3 inch blocks. Green stripes all going the same way and tiny roses just right.

Ooooh Trumpets up again. Paula is making a lot of festive projects with her new found addiction! She loves stitching applique. What fun table place mats she made. All fabulous and finished, Toot toot toot, toot toot toot Paula. One toot per little quilt!!

Pauline booked to make a sandwich and was able to get in to do it ON A SATURDAY!!! See? it does happen, ha ha ha. She needs this quilt finished for gifting so she went straight home to make a start on the quilting.

Christabelle has started a new project. The blocks made with Tilda Woven fabrics with Moda Bella Solids for the sashings. There will be appliqued hearts in the centre of each block. Inspired by a Tilda quilt picture seen on Instagram a few weeks ago, before it launched. You can see it and the actual free pattern here, https://www.tildasworld.com/free_pattern/farmers-market-quilt-2/?lang=english .

I think you will agree that quilt making is good for your very own self. 

With all the designs and styles, all the colours and fabrics we choose.

All abilities and all ages can do it.

A little help given by my very own self here and there for those who need it and we are all happy makers.

There's a lot of prep going on to kit up our projects for our upcoming October Sewing Retreat. At least the others are getting on with it. I'm still pondering, as usual!

Quilt Sandwiches

Sandwich Saturday, on a Friday! with the Tuesdays. It made me smile.
We can't really make larger sandwiches during normal class time because the tables are all needed for sewing. That's why I have sandwiching days. The tables get pushed together making a good size work area. Then one hour slots are booked. It's very practical and excellent customer service I think.

Pam has been taking her quilts to the Long Arm Lady, Amanda in Stone, but she decided that this one should be easy enough to quilt it herself. It's 1.70m by 1.40m. There's a great opportunity here for changing thread colour to match all the beautiful fabric colours and Pam is looking forward to a bit of thread play.

Rose's heart quilt was sandwiched, great with those lovely border stripes. This is a very eye-catching design and it caught Pam's eye, she started to make a green version last week. Rose has a plan for the quilting using a variegated King Tut thread.

Christabelle's Stargazey Daizies sandwiched and ready for a little free-motion fun. Perfect thread was chosen for the job. It's a bit of a rubbish photo I've taken, I think I must have twitched because, to me it looks a bit blurred. I promise you it is very gorgeous in real life. 

A dinosaur sandwich! Gail was able to make her sandwich during the Tuesday class and as soon as it was done, she chose lovely threads and made a good start on her quilting. She will stitch around the dinosaurs and leaves to start with.

Di has been busy quilting in her newly organised sewing room. It's amazing how a good tidy up can inspire us to sew. During class she stitched the binding in place ready for the hand sewing, a job she enjoys. Just a few top tips were needed for joining the binding. Lots of people bring their quilts in for this job.

Plans are being made for our next sewing retreat at Hawkstone Park. I'm still procrastinating on my decision, as usual. You would think I would be used to it by now wouldn't you. But no, I'm hopeless. Lots of people have made solid sewing plans, with a couple of those 'just in case I finish all my projects' necessities.

I'm going to be taking a table top shop this time. Do you think I can decide what to take for that? NO!

Stitching News

Another fun week in my shop and classroom. The gardeners are back to stitching. Kids are back to school. Nights are drawing in and lights need to be used in the evenings! How quickly it has all changed from long summer days. Christmas Corner is busy tempting people to make things ready for sewing prevention season. Christmas Corner is a little nook full of festive fabrics!

Hours and hours have gone in to this beautiful project and, to be fair, it's starting to feel a little bit endless for Bev. She arrives each week with a little cloud following her... wishing she had finished it so she could start something new. BUT by the end of class, she is totally happy with it again. A sewing Roller Coaster with it's ups and downs. It will all be worth it!

Lesley has started the quilting! She's going to stitch around all of the details to make them pop. Most of the creatures now have eyes too. Little french knots done with metallic embroidery threads. They look like beads at first glance, until you touch them. You know we love to touch a French Knot, so tactile!

Di finished her first pumpkin cushion topper. It's all ready for sandwiching and quilting but I think she will get the next one to this stage first. Such a fun project. Perfect pumpkin fabric for the main border highlighted with a tiny-teeny inner green bit, fabulous.

Sun Bonnet Sue is getting ready for the Autumnal weather. This lovely wall hanging belongs to Deb. She popped in to get backing fabric and wadding so the quilting can begin. It will be done in no time, this lady gets on with it!

There's lots of plotting and planning happening in readiness for our next retreat, with only 5 more weekends to go. It's all part of the retreating fun. Stressful and exciting at the same time. 

As I've said before, this retreat is fully booked. 

I have the Quiltmas Sewing retreat in the planning process too. I am working on a new poster with the details for that. As there are only 6 more places available, at the time of writing this, I might be wasting my creative time! I actually got My Lilly to design the borders of it and it will be perfect for next year if I don't need to use it after all.

It's the best way for us to escape Sewing Prevention Season. We sew A LOT and get looked after very nicely indeedy, thanks to Hawkstone Park Hotel.