Sunday 30 June 2019

Quilt-As-You-Go Workshop

This workshop has always produced a fun day. It can feel a little bit frantic at the beginning, especially if there is shopping to be done before we can start... The method is easy, once you know how of course.... the results are eye opening... My Top Tips are very useful too. Below are the fruits of the ladies' labours. No-one actually melted but it got close near the end of the day! Small price to pay me thinks... What do you think?











Friday 28 June 2019

Stitching News

Sally popped into my lovely (and very well stocked shop, it has to be said!!) to choose her border fabrics for this tasty sampler quilt top... staying with the chocolate theme to keep everything neutral... Why brown makes me write chocolate I do not know, ha!

Jean Hill only purchased the pattern and the fabrics for this Tote last week and here we are giving it a fabulous and finished "toot toot toot" fanfare already... It's a Lazy Girl Pattern... Mini Miranda. Lazy Girl Patterns are super easy to follow (even I have made this particular tote, only 5 or 6 times though!!) Jean used cotton wadding.

Jean Hill also made this Miranda Tote bag, yes, two totes in one week... this time she pleased her very own self and elongated  it up and taller and used In R Form in place of her wadding... she's hooked now and, from this day forward... will always use one of the foam stabilizer if she's making a bag. The handles were taken from a no longer required handbag, thrifty!! See the little pouch with the lacey zipper... pretty and made with the leftover fabrics... more thrift! 

The inside to show you how smart the tote bag is...
 Toot toot toot, Jean Hill.

Longport Lynda was given a few fabric squares, not the best quality fabric but she decided to use them up making a tiny baby quilt... baby won't notice! Lick-etty-split it was finished and ready to be sandwiched for the quilting, the main advantage of tiny quilts me thinks, is that they are quick makes, ha!

Oooooh this is very exciting... Sporty Sue is making great progress on her 40cm wide borders. We are absolutely loving the vibrant Art Gallery Solid Fabric (AGF) Those colours together with the black and white dots in different sizes... scrumptious indeedy.

Equilateral Triangles...  Kate's latest project... Two sides of each 60 degree triangle are cut on the bias so they can be a bit stretchy, there's no way round that really, so a few Top Tips were needed to help Kate piece them successfully to keep the points 'pointy'... Top Tip number one? Use pins!! simples... ha ha ha

Thursday 27 June 2019

Stitching News

Gail continued with her quilting.
She's stitching the ball's bounces... how very artsy fartsy
Rose finished the first part of her quilting, outlining the swans, and moved on tho her freewheeling in the background... of course there were waves.

Jean Beano is adding character forming stitching to her Hounds whilst quilting each one for Apartment Joining. I think she will tie off those ends though...

Princess Jackie is using a Piece O Cake applique pattern for her flowers but going slightly off piste with the overall general design. Two fabrics in the background, perfect!

This is a truly fabulous finish... and, even though it's not a quilt, it deserves a fanfare! Toot toot toot Princess Jackie. Made very nicely indeedy, it has to be said, It will be gifted to one of her granddaughters.
There are lots of people using my beautiful, top quality fabrics for dressmaking. It's very exciting to see my fabric walk into the shop!!

Wednesday 26 June 2019

Beautiful Batik Six Packs

Stacks of 6" squares... they took a lot of hours to cut precisely!
Six Packs... Like a Charm Pack but with 6 inch squares, very useful.
Each pack this time has 48 x 6" Squares.

In this first Batik Six Pack (I have a plan to cut more Six Packs in other colourways) there are three x 6"squares of each of these Beautiful Batik fabrics. 48 squares will give a 6 by 8 setting if you just sew them together as they are.... add a background fabric to make Half Square Triangles and double the size. Won't they make a scrumptious Batik Quilt!!
Only while stocks last of course, just saying.

Saturday 22 June 2019

Stitching News

Merrily's Carp fish have a border on.  That should stop them escaping!! This Wall Hanging is turning out to be much larger than Merrily expected... even though the finished sized are printed in the magazine... ooops.

Farmer Lynda has a horse-y friend... you'll find farmers do!!
This lucky friend will soon be gifted this lap quilt. Borders were chosen, stitched on ... then unpicked and sewn on properly! enough said.

Farmer Lynda already gifted her huge Harry Potter quilt. She's been able to make another... a tiny version, so it was a much quicker make... so when the new baby arrives, it will already be wrapped up (brainwashed?) in the Harry Potter-ly-ness ... ha ha ha

Friday 21 June 2019

Stitching News

Just Edna's fabulous and finished quilt ready for a toot toot toot fanfare... I remember Edna purchasing these fabrics quite a few years ago. I remember her starting the patchwork all those years ago too... it's a good job, very well done... eventually, not every project needs to be a quick finish!!

Just Edna pieced the backing to co-ordinate with the front, even to using the last little patches of the favourite fabric, the quilting has followed the patchwork design. Toot toot toot Edna.

LouLou, who used to only love neutral coloured projects, declared her love for beautiful and bright Batik fabrics... and no wonder... what a fabulous fishy quilt top she's made... it's from the Happy Quilts book. Just a few border blocks to do.

Carol added a few finishing touches to her tree... then she made a start blanket stitching on all the details. She fussily cut the fabrics for the dragonfly wings and the owl eyes... had you noticed?

Just Edna is making a beautiful Batik bed runner  and hopes it will be finished in time for gifting... I'm pretty sure it will be as all 4 blocks were almost complete by the end of class. This design is from a magazine. It uses lots of Half Square Triangles and Hour Glass blocks... though, in my very own opinion, it would have been very much easier to have pieced mostly rectangles!! Do you see the rectangles?

Monday 17 June 2019

Stitching News

Carol's making a cushion to match her Owl quilt sandwich... I say that because it's not actually been quilted yet. I suspect this cushion will be quilted first as a practice of possible ideas before quilting the main quilt, a cunning plan me thinks.

Norma is making speedy progress with her Half Square Triangle quilt. Each Sixteen Patch unit will be quilted  individually with a brightly coloured (Very Norma style) stripey backing.

Jean Bean cut out and stuck down another hound...
He's ready for blanket stitch applique.

Annbacan finished her fabulous, double sided scrappy quilt.
Mile-A-Minute and Crumb bits on one side....

Pieced blocks made in a plethora of colours on the other side...
Each block quilted individually in many designs then all joined together apartment-ly.
Toot toot toot Annbaan, a fabulous and finished Scrappy Quilt

Rose brought in her Heffalumps Wall Hangings for a toot toot toot fanfare.
There were three of them but one wall hanging has already been gifted. A new home will look much better with a new wall hanging... Three fabulous finishes Rose. toot toot toot

Gail made a football pitch sandwich... Doesn't it look great?? Trapunto-ed balls to boot! (see what I did there? Balls to boot!!) There is a plan for the quilting design... this quilt will not be hiding in the garage for a while, unlike the others Gail finished recently!

Sunday 16 June 2019

Stitching News

Princess Jackie finished her pieced middle panel of Flying Geese units so we just needed a few mathemisms to calculate how much fabric was needed to get it large enough for the quilt backing. 

Gail also needed a few mathemisms on her football quilt project to calculate how much more red fabric was needed for her backing to be big enough... I prefer to lay projects out so I can see whether I mathemise correctly... nothing like seeing it for real!

PM Pam cut out all the little pieces for her next animal, all carefully labelled ready for the building... It really get's quite tricky without labels! I think this animal will be a Wildebeest.

Bargello Wall Hanging Workshop






Tuesday 11 June 2019

Stitching News

Luna Twearly loves reds, in particular the French General Reds. She's decided to make blocks... all sizes and any design she fancies. All the blocks will be based on 3 and multiples of 3. There will be mathemisms involved... 3 makes that a little bit easier... she's enjoying the challenge, so far.

Merrily is making up this wall hanging. it's a pattern found in a quilting magazine, I think it's British Patchwork & Quilting actually. Not a recent edition, one that Merrily decided to keep in her 'To Do' pile. The Carp have been stuffed with wadding, they look real!

Sporty Sue needs 40cm of borders to be added to each long side of her giant pinwheel quilt... Art Gallery Solids are so very vibrant and play with the Kaffe fabrics very nicely... there is a plan and it involved Clever Mr Black! 

Kate's Lynda purchased a bag of scrap strips recently, I think from Malvern Quilt Show. The strips are just the trimmings from the shop cutting Layer Cake style pre-cuts. Nevertheless, they are wonderful and bright so Lynda made a Quilt-As-You-Go bag with another one prepped... now we all want one!!

Nuttie Nutter added this delightful border to her bright Birdie table topper... with a little quarter inch inner border of a vibrant striped fabric... The backing has been chosen already, so a sandwich making session is iminent. 
On Saturday this week, 15th June, there's another chance to start the Bargello Wall Hanging... It's always a WOW, how clever is that!!! workshop!!
These are two projects from the last workshop...

 
I will do my best to remember to take pictures!! I promise.