Apologies From Angie

I'm sorry, I have to take a blogging break. My heart just isn't in it this week. Today I will go for my first hand operation, Carpel Tunnel... all a result of the Thyroid thing. I'm fine but with a wandering mind. I will be back soon...

My Coiled Bucket

I took my fabric wrapped, coil pot, that's more like a bucket, to sit on the SPQ stand for the weekend of Uttoxeter Quilt Show... I thought it would look fun... boy did we ever have a lot of interest in it... here's a few photos I found of when I was making my bucket... in 2009

I didn't have a plan, I just wanted to see whether I could do it.
This 'fabric bucket' used the 30 metres of cording and a drawer full of  strips

My holiday week is over and life returns to normal tomorrow. Classes resume too at Angie's very clean, very own, Patchwork and Quilting Shop in sunny Cheadle, Staffordshire.
I do hope that you didn't miss my blogging too much... I have been way too busy including moving house, but not mine... no quilty photos to share at all.

Uttoxeter Quilt Show

Happy Easter Break!

This happy fellow comes out every year...
Doesn't he just make you smile!

Stitching News With Tooting

Let's start with a round of tooting for the fabulous and finished quilts...

Toot toot toot for Morning Judith's lovely little quilt.
It's a small wall hanging with each of those little yacht blocks measuring only about 3 inches. They are foundation paper pieced. Judith purchased the pattern at the Festival Of Quilts last year. If you would like to learn how to 'paper piece', there's a workshop on the 10th May with the lovely Jenny Barlaston.

Caron finished her beginner project, the marvellous Railfence table runner, a short while ago but she went on her jolly holidays before we got to take a picture of it for our toot toot tooting. The festive theme reminds me that our new Sewing prevention season fabric is on it's way!!

Merrily has started another one of her original quilts for gifting. This time it's for a grandson and, as you can probably guess, he wears glasses and has done so all his life, so the fabric for this block centre was a must. We shall get to know more about this fellow as Merrily's blocks are made

Di Butterfly was able to lay out her blocks to decided how many more units she needs. We calculated that four more of each should do the trick. Each part has a label to help Di make sense of it all at home... Most of us need to do that eh!

As Caron had finished her table runner , she was able to start something new. A tote bag can be very useful (I should sat extreeeeemly useful as I use several every day!) It's a most fabulous way to use a Charm Pack as you get to show all those beautiful fabrics off to the world as you carry it round! There's a workshop coming up soon if you would like to make one for your very own self!

Now it's probably a good idea for me to remind you that We have decided to keep my very own Quilt Shop closed for one whole week from Monday 21st April... so, we are open today, Satuday 19th April but then closed until we re-open with a 'back to normal' approach on Monday 28th of April.

We will not be closing for the next Bank Holiday on May 5th we will be open as normal... I'm thinking of planning something... be warned, I think a lot and I plan a lot... lets see whether it works... that doesn't happen a lot!!!

Stitching News?

I don't have any news... not with photos anyway. We have been having too busy a time in my lovely classroom... I don't even pick my camera up just lately, let alone take pictures. Then there's the delivery folk dropping off box after box of fun, which has to be priced up and found a space... what a job that is when your shelves are already bursting!! Thread, thread and more thread, glorious thread... fully stocked up displays are waiting for you!
Chris The Foot did pop into my lovely shop to purchase backing and wadding for this fabulous kiddie play mat quilt, she wanted to make a sandwich at Caverswall...

Luckily, over at Caverswall Village Hall, Beth has been more reliable and taken some fabulous photos to share with you
Click on THIS LINK to be taken to the new Caverswall Quilters blog. They're doing very nicely without me!
I, on the other hand, am having a bit of a battle with the blooming Angel sashes for the upcoming Uttoxeter quilt show... next time I want to volunteer my services... hold me down!!!

Time For Change

I started Caverswall Quilt Cave at the end of May in 2010 The first meeting was very successful and the days got busier, see this post about about only our third meeting. It was more of a class in those days with lots of ladies coming to learn all the basics every week.
These days at Caverswall Village Hall, our Quilt Cave, there can be anything form 8 to 18 ladies on Wednesday, all with machines stitching the day away and enjoying a very social time. There's no longer need for a teacher as such, they are all quite competent... The ladies can, and do, all help each other with anything a little tricky or new.
I decided that working for 6 days every week is a bit too much for me now, what with all the other things that life is throwing my way, so... after much pondering, I had to stop going to Caverswall Quilt Cave. The ladies have decided to carry on meeting every week... which is fabulous!
I asked them to start a blog, keeping all the quilty news and project progress available for you all to see, and for me of course, I shall pop over every week to see the fabulous pictures.
Here's the link to the blog, please pop over and take a look, the first post is great and I'm sure there will be many more.
It's a new beginning, lets watch the fun!

Stitching News

Jeanette hand pieces... beautifully and rather quickly!
 You might well think that she made this quilt from her stash at home... but no, each time she comes to play in my very own quilt shop she picks up a few "Quilters Quarters" I never thought to call them that... so her collection continues to grow... 

This is the back of Jeanette's quilt... though for ease and speed she did bring her sewing machine to piece these large squares. A sandwich was made and the hand quilting began... you can just see the stitches in the centre pink fabric.

Jeannette, they are spelt differently as it's another lady... she's rather hooked on the Feathered Stars. POW and WOW... There will be three of them used to make the centre of a rather stunning bed quilt. Jeannette is considering apartment quilting this one.

Michelle My Belle had a tricky start to putting her blocks together... just two of her 40 odd strips had been cut a quarter inch too big... which two did she pick up to start with? On top of that the naughty pattern had an incorrect size for the HST (Half Square Triangle) unit. It took a while but we figured it out eventually, then all these blocks were made... licketty-split and beautifully accurately!

Josie purchased a new pattern from the craft show at the NEC recently... she wanted to make her little dog look like a Jack Russell. She has a lot of appliqué stitching to do for homework, and tracing all those little rustic looking hearts will keep her busy too.

This is another project made by the hands of Jeanette...
What a clever lady!

Feathered Star Progress

Princess Jackie finished piecing her fabulous Feathered Star. The template Dawn gave to use for fussy cutting the centre hexagon was actually a little too small so, those that used it, had to improvise. Jackie added a tiny little border to her hexagon and it looks great.

Rose must like making teeny weeny little half square triangles... look what she's made for her border! Jean Bean calculated that she needs about ten more to be able to get all round the star... looking fabulous eh!

Stitching News

Christabelle put the finishing touches to her Feathered Star...
What a stunning little project...
I wonder... have you noticed the fussy cut owl eyes on the tips of the star?

PM Pam arrived with bag of left over bits from her Lone Star and wanted to make a few blocks to add to the backing, so we played all day doing ...
"What if we join this? Lets try joining that' sewing... much fun.

We had a new lady join us. She had cut out lots of squares and wanted to be shown how to proceed... we can do that! It's quite a tricky block to learn all the skills with but it's the one she wanted to make...
so she stuck at it and went home happy.

I need to draw your attention to our upcoming Easter break changes...
The shop will now be closed from Monday 21st April until it re-opens on Monday 28th April.
It was getting awfully complicated to staff the shop with us all wanting to go the Uttoxeter Quilt Show, he he he!
If you have a fabric emergency during that week, just call me or email me... If I can help, I will.

Saturday's Workshop

Quilt-As-you-Go, Apartment Joining and Double Sided Binding... my longest titled workshop so far! ha. Joining wadding, rotary cutter servicing, mat cleaning, layout options and other 'apartment joining' methods were all included too! A workshop packed full of information and fun, fun, fun to boot.

Polish Your Trumpets...

We need a fanfare of tooting, long and loud, for the fabulous and finished quilts I was able to get pictures of this week... I hope you enjoy looking at them...

Christabelle's, made with the Little Black Dress 2 fabric collection from Moda. Pattern inspired by the post last weekend about the Split 4-Patch blocks... another beauty to be gifted very soon.

Merrily's, made apartment-ly in three sections to make the job of quilting far more manageable for Merrily... it's quite a large quilt you know...

This is the back of Merrily's quilt. The three sections were joined together after quilting and, believe it or not, the fact that the patterns lined up perfectly was nothing to do with anything but luck!

Stephanie Iceland has a musical hubby... don't be thinking Stephanie made this quilt to keep him warm though... it's for covering the guitars on one side of her very own craft room!!... he thinks half of the room is for his very own self... tisk!

Brilliant backing too... Stephanie says she made this whole quilt just so she could have a go at making the Prairie Points! he he he

Toot toot-etty toot toot ladies... very inspiring eye candy, thank you.

Stitching News

AnnBacan is now happy with the shape and the size of her Lone Star quilt...
I know what you are thinking..."Wow... that's fabulous"

Ann's playing with blocks from another project to make a stunning backing... a double sided quilt. She left the centre with plain fabric so that when she quilts the Lone Star front it will look great on the back... hmmm great idea!

You probably won't believe me but Jeannette arrived with just a few pieces of fabric cut and went home with this Feathered Star finished!! She said it's so much easier to make the second star because she knew what she was doing!!

Damm Julie played making a tiny quilt with her very own new sewing machine.... a Juki HZL 210
She's been playing with my shop one for a few months now while she saved up for one of her very own... one very happy lady!

Stitching News

Joan The Shop completed block number 2 of the Snowman Collector Quilt. All 12 of the patterns are available in my very own Quilt Shop... just so you know... if you're thinking... "Wow that's cute, I want to make it too" he he he.
Don't you love that red circle-y fabric? I do

This is number three... Joan spent her Caverswall Quilt Cave day tracing all the bits, planning fabrics, sticking them to the Heat And Bond and cutting them out.

Chatty Cathy had attended Dotty's Lone Star workshop recently but wanted to finish off another project before getting it out again. She's making this star as a sample and test ready for a much bigger plan.

Just Edna has been making Mile-A-Minute blocks for a while and fully intends to continue making them, sort of 'willy-nilly'...
 we can come up with quilty  plan another day

Chris The Foot saw our quilt made from a panel but wanted hers to be a larger quilt... so she purchased two panels with a little extra fabric. One panel was cut up and will be used in the borders as 15 squares made it just right.

Kate's Dresden Plate borders are taking shape nicely. Each border will be quilted before it is stitched to the already finished, quilt centre... apartment-ly.

Mystery Margaret is making the cutest little baby quilts
(well.. that is exactly what they are!)
She's using shirts... what a fabulous idea... see how the shirt back will just about do for the back of the quilt... 

Here's another of Mystery Margaret's shirt quilts, almost finished... 

Arty Beryl made this cute-etty cute little apron for her grand daughter.
All in patchwork with a very handy little front pocket...
it's fabulous and finished toot toot toot Arty Beryl

Stitching News

Toot Toot Toot time for Fran Cupcake... this quilt started with Fran's desire to make a Log Cabin block. She had decided that each Log Cabin block would only use a little bit from each of her favourite fabrics, this is true... but she didn't stop there, she made more blocks... as you can see, Fran has a fabulous and finished quilt and has almost used up her little stash of Autumnal fabrics

Rose continued working on her fabulous Feathered Star project, started at the workshop with Dawn Cameron Dick last Wednesday... a tricky morning involving a seam ripper and fudge fansies... but we got there by end of day.

New Sue, our bag lady, also spent the day with her Feathered Star... fudging, trimming, and lots of coffee was needed... fabulous results though... these stars are quite stunning.

Gail has her top stitched together. After quite a few auditions, we decided that this quilt needed several borders...one is a flange! 4 different fabric strips will finish this quilt off a treat... I'll show you when it's done.