Stitching News

Just Edna is following a 'recipe' in a book for this project.
We are struggling with the written and rather wordy descriptions of what do do... fortunately there are pictures!.. plus I have a good idea of how to end up with the right result... time to take the paper foundation off...

String piecing is quite a liberated method of piecing, with very few rules, if any... but, as you can see here, Edna needs the rich blue strips to line up beautifully to frame those hansom hexagons. What a lovely project!

Lady Judith wants to make two baby play mats (quilts) She chose the design from one of the Art To Heart books... the name for the one in the book was JACK... it only dawned at the last minute that we needed to change it and write WILLIAM...
what a hoot when we realised!

PM Pam was at the Twist And Turn Tote workshop on Saturday.
Today she had Sheila's tote bag next to her to help with sorting out the waffle-y bits. Pam made a second panel with the same twist and turn method (top of picture)... but this one will be a posh cushion, what a great idea!

Monday Sheila is making all of her block components before piecing any more together. So most of her day was spent making thousands of Half Square Triangles. The blocks will make a great secondary pattern... we think!

Christabell is also following a pattern from a book. It's been tricky to follow the recipe too. but now Chris has enough of the blocks made to start to lay them out for a sneak peek at how they will look... wonderfully wonky!

I made these two cushions and forgot to show you. I love them!
Art Gallery fabric... luxurious, soft and smooth. The design is fabulous.
The method is simple and satisfying... perfect for my new
Basics For Beginners Classes on Saturdays
An introduction to rotary cutting and sewing the all important Scant Quarter Inch Seam. Try some simple patchwork piecing then make a sandwich ready for quilting.

Obviously, lovely cushions are not just for beginners... they're catching attention from my 'experienced' quilters too... Annbacan ran this up in just a few minutes.

In case you hadn't noticed, it's February! We can all go to the new programme of SPQ, Staffordshire Patchworkers and Quilters... this month the speaker, Barbara Chainey will be showing some of her vast collection of antique quilts and telling us about them. It says on the website that I, me my very own self, will be the trader this month. It's not going to be me though... It's gong to be Jane, we swapped months!