Stitching News

I hope you've had a good first week of September. Kids back to school makes for busier roads and near to my shop we have had roadworks!!! When I say roadworks? I mean traffic lights, no "roadwork" was actually done. Good grief it's been a nightmare. My customers were arriving feeling quite frazzled, but on entering my wonderful shop, delight soon returned to them all. Once again I have met quite a few folk who are discovering my shop for the very first time.
"How long have you been here?" they ask 
"13 years" I reply
"How have I never found you before?"
I then have to confess that I don't really advertise my shop much. I don't have an online shop and I don't understand the internet! I am happy to be a business dinosaur with a very well stocked, bricks and mortar shop! By that time they've stopped listening to me as they wander around "wow-ing! I kid you not, people do say "Wow" a lot.

Pam finished this quilt top during her retreats. At the start of this project, Pam was going to use only her scraps but she then decided not to repeat any fabric so she ended up purchasing a few new ones. I don't think Pam is ever going to use up her scraps, do you?

Rose chose one beautiful, brightly coloured Batik fabric for her setting triangles. 7" squares cut on both diagonals to give 4 triangles, just the right size with the bias on the right edge, very technical eh!

Christabelle has enough blocks completed now to be able to lay them out and see how they're going to look. She sent me the picture declaring how happy she is with it, It's spectacular, those new eyes must be working really well!

  Rose had purchased the fabric and this bag pattern from the Festival Of Quilts. She had put it on one side ready to be made during her recent sewing retreat. She kindly brought it in to show and, of course, get one of our toot toot toot fanfares for the fabulous finish!

The coach is booked for our pilgrimage next year on Sunday 3rd August.
All the same details as this year. You can mark your diaries in ink for that one.

September's Sunday Funday Sewday is almost fully booked already so, if you had planned on joining us and you haven't already reserved a spot, you better get a wiggle on.

There's still time to book to join us on our Lickey Hills Sewing Retreat in October too.
A 5 days and 3 nights, fully catered, sewing retreat.

Stitching News

My shop will be back to normal opening for September

I had to dig around for a few photos. Not having my shop open is a wonderful thing but so not good for blogging, ha! Both my Saturday class ladies and the Tuesdays' went away on sewing retreats for a few days in Cromford during August.

 Pam sent me this picture from outside the garden sewing room. It's Cheryl Cherly's Lloyd & Lola quilt top. Of course it's an Elizabeth Hartman design, my customers do love her patterns. Cheryl took lots of projects to work on, I think this was her first finish and, no doubt, there will be need for a Llama sandwich session soon.

Susan made this reversabubble waistcoat as a commission project for her daughter. She had seen it on T'Internet and knowing her mum can make everything and anything, the request was in. They came to my shop to choose all the fabrics needed, especially for the patchwork.

Lick-etty-split it was made. One very smart reversabubble waistcoat. Finished and fabulous. One very happy customer! toot toot toot

This is Farmer Lynda's retreat day sewing project, apparently, it's Bing 

It does look just like the real Bing doesn't it.

Made with an Elizabeth Hartman pattern, a very smart idea Lynda had.

I hope we get to see it finished.

Christabell had some new eyes recently and to test them out she made this lovely Tilda Gardening Angel, how cute is she! Lots of tiny detail too. Chris's new eyes must be working very well. Toot toot toot it's a fabulous and fun finish.

The Tuesday class ladies also popped away for a few days on a sewing retreat, also in Cromford at Oakhill Hotel, which is a favorite location for their retreats. Rose made this quilt back, yes, the back! All the cutting out was done before she went, which helped as it's huge. Rose is chuffed with it, rightly so.

Rose has been creating this project for a while and with uninterrupted retreat sewing time, she was able to almost complete the top, it just needs the edge treatment. We mulled over a few ideas on her return. You'll see which one Rose decided on soon enough.

Elizabeth Hartman did it again. A new pattern just arrived in my very own shop. It's sooooo cute and a timely reminder that it's not long now for Sewing Prevention Season! Let me know if you want me to order the pattern for you. I am here to enable you, ha ha ha!

We have a Checkley Sunday Fun Day for September.
The 29th to be precise. 9.30am - 3.30pm. Have you booked your place. 

It's £20.00 paid in advance and £25.00 to pay on the day.
It's a one day sewing retreat, which is a perfect introduction to a longer retreat, if you've never tried one!

October Sewing Retreat

Good grief, it's almost September!!!
I had better to get cracking with retreat organizing, it's only 5 weeks until we go.
I've made so much mess in Quilty Quarters while faffing with other sewing. I'll have to sort that out before I get a project (just one?) all of my projects ready to play with on my retreat.
Are you coming with us? Here's the basic information, let me know if you are interested.

Sewing Retreat October 2024
Hillscourt Hotel, Lickey Hills B45 8RS

Arrive Monday 7^th October from 11am.
Set up your sewing space, there is a lot of space.
Buffet Lunch @ 12.30pm
Afternoon tea, coffee, biscuits.
3 course dinner served @ at 6pm

Tuesday 8th
Full Breakfast menu, 7.30am - 9.30am
Mid-Morning tea, coffee, biscuits.
Buffet Lunch @ 12.30pm
Afternoon tea, coffee, biscuits.
3 course dinner served @ at 6pm

Wednesday 9th
Full Breakfast menu, 7.30am - 9.30am
Mid-Morning tea, coffee, biscuits.
Buffet Lunch @ 12.30pm
Afternoon tea, coffee, biscuits.
3 course dinner served @ at 6pm

Thursday 10th
Full Breakfast menu, 7.30am - 9.30am. 
Mid-Morning tea, coffee, biscuits.
Buffet Lunch @ 12.30pm

You can sew all afternoon, leave for home any time before 5pm 

For this retreat we will be sewing in the wonderful & extra-large conference room with plentiful tables. The room is available for you to sew with no time restriction.
Irons, ironing boards and electric cables are provided.
The hotel has a bar, obviously, you pay for those drinks.

The total cost for 5 wonderful days of sewing is £485.00 A £50.00, non-refundable deposit when you book. Payment in full by Monday 23rd September.

Please feel free to tell your sewing chums, so long as they are independent workers.
This is a 'Sew your own thing' relaxed retreat.

My Shop is now closed. 

It will be open on 

Saturday 31st August, as normal.

Stitching News

I've had lots of new people visit my shop this week. Apparently, quilters go on holiday and search for quilt shops to visit during their travels, who knew! We all know really, I think we all do it.
I've met customers from New Zealand. Australia the USA. From France and Ireland. Peterborough, Nantwich, Meir Hay and Uttoxeter. They all tell be how wonderful my shop is, so they are very smart people, ha! It's quite sad to hear from some that so many quilt shops have closed. Hey Ho. I'm still here. 

Princess Jackie spied opportunity to make her circus quilt sandwich. Such a fun quilt with lots of colourful detail. I think Jackie's plan was to get lots of the quilting done during her sewing retreat.

 Di made more of her Garden Retreat flower blocks. She's using lots of Tilda fabrics from a recent Fat Quarter Bundle purchase and she's very happy with the look so far. Those taller blocks measure about 23" and a fat quarter measures only 21", so Di has been purchasing long quarters too.

Deb purchased this Mug Bag pattern quite a while ago then forgot all about it. There are lots of us going to Checkley Sunday Fun-days with mugs in these cute bags, they are a perfect addition to your sewing paraphernalia. Deb was very happy with her making day and she'll be showing off at cuppa tea time at Checkley on 29th September. Toot toot toot for Deb's fabulous finish.

Eye Spy play mats are perfect gifts for kiddos. They are a great size for babies too. I sell "Eye Spy 6 Packs" in my little shop. 30 x 6" squares, every one different. For a smaller baby quilt you can make up your quilt without sashing then, obviously, add sashing and borders to make larger quilts. This is Deb's Eye Spy Quilt top, she's chuffed with her corner stones and says it makes it a bit more boy-ish.

Can you guess who this belongs to? Princess Jackie sent the picture from her retreat with the Tuesday ladies. What a mess it looks (to me) but Jackie loves tying off all those ends. Usually it's a rainbow of mess and I think it will be more tricky all in black. Doesn't matter what I think though. I'll report back on this soon as they are all home from a wonderful relaxing quilting retreat and, hopefully, ready for next Tuesday's class.

While I'm talking about retreats. Our next available one is in October. We are going to Hillscourt Hotel again.

Arriving on Monday morning 7th, Tuesday 8th, Wednesday 9th and going home on the afternoon of Thursday 10th. Total cost is £485, single rooms, unless you want to share? you can book a twin room.  The retreat includes refreshments, (tea and coffee) A full breakfast menu, buffet lunches and a 3 course dinner. I think you can class that as very full board! 

You'll need to pay a £50 non-refundable deposit then the full payment by 23rd September. You can pay in smaller installments if you want to.
If you are thinking about joining us on this next sewing retreat please let me know as soon as you are able. Any Questions? just ask.

Stitching News

 My shop is back open as normal after my little trip, which was a lot of fun, even without sewing!  Next week though, I am treating my very own self to another few days without work! How very dare I? It's quite easy really. I just tell you I'm not in my shop and off I go, ha! The dates to note...
My shop will be closed on Friday 23rd August. It will be open again on Saturday 31st August.

Norma finished sewing her binding to the back by hand, her favourite method, and very kindly brought her quilt back to my shop so we could see it one last time. We should raise our trumpets to give her a toot toot toot fanfare for another fabulous finish. 

Norma is already well on her way with another quilt. This pattern is Grow Free, Wild Flowers and is an excellent one for using up odd shaped pieces of fabric and larger scraps. This time Norma is going to quilt each 4-Patch all by her very own self and then join them together, apartment-ly.

Sue is very much enjoying her newly acquired Juki f600. What a wonderful birthday gift it was. She'd made a 9" finished Log Cabin block to begin with and found it so much easier to be accurate with her quarter inch seams, speed control is such a help. So much so, that Sue decided to continue adding more logs taking the block up to 18 inches, an excellent cushion size, perfect for gifting.

Julie was able to make her lovely Garden Retreat quilt sandwich. We had to hang it over the table edges just a little bit as Julie had added extra 4-patch units, accidentally of course! Such bright and cheerful colours, you know I love oranges! It's a big quilt to work on in our current heatwave!

Stitching News

Many of my customers work on more than one project at a time, especially those who come to class each week. Inspiration never stops catching the eye. Almost all declare that they won't start anything new until they have finished what they are doing. But they all do it! Starting a new project is fun! Just one more won't hurt, ha ha ha. That's how we end up with a list of things we want and need to sew, there are not enough hours in a day. We need more Bank Holidays don't we?

I've kind of lost count of how many sewing projects Christabelle has on the go at the moment. This one is the beginning of a Stack-n-Whack quilt. The fabric was purchased years ago. Now Chis wanted to get it all prepped for an upcoming Quilting Retreat. So she Stacked, Pinned & Whacked the main fabric, cut out all the background units and kitted up each block.Then of course she wanted to sew a block together to check all was tick-etty-boo. Isn't it going to be stunning? Chris had to be very strict with her very own self NOT to continue stitching blocks until retreat time. 

Another almost finished quilt for Our Norma. She has really enjoyed the piecing process of the 9-patches. She especially loved doing the applique in the borders. The quilt had just returned form the Long Arm Lady, Amanda In Stone. So Norma was able to prepare and machine sew on the binding ready to be hand stitched to the back at home. A job she really enjoys.

Julie hadn't even finished her pink-ish version of the Garden Retreat quilt when she sent me this picture of the border applique blocks for another Garden Retreat quilt. This one with a very different colour scheme. Very much improved Blanket stitching skills, which is no surprise with all her hours of practice!

Princess Jackie made another of her Circus themed blocks. How blooming cute are those Penguins!! You know, they do look a bit tipsy to me. This quilt will be gifted to a very lucky baby when it comes.

A new thing for Our Pam. Can you believe that she started another project? 

I certainly can't. It's all the fault of the internet. Pam was happily enjoying looking at the work of others when she spotted a green and cream Log Cabin quilt. That was on a Monday evening. Tuesday during class, she was on a roll! All the fabrics were cut for the upcoming retreat. I suspect she'll be taking approximately 22 projects!!!

Stitching News

 There are many lovely patterns available online these days. Instantly download-a-bubble, PDF patterns. It's dangerous! Our Pam loves cats. She loves dogs too but lately has been enjoying cat themed things. Her birthday was approaching when I came across this website sewfreshquilts.com There are so many patterns to choose from. I decided to purchase a pattern for Pam's Birthday gift. I chose this one.

Pam loves a cuppa and adores cats, so an excellent pattern!

But, a printed PDF pattern doesn't look good as a gift, in my opinion. 

When you purchase a paper pattern it looks like a proper gift, don't you think?

I decided to make up a Kitten In Cup block to wrap the pattern in, instead of paper. Genius? It took me a whole day to choose the right fabrics from my home stash, cut up all the bits, lots of little bits that all needed labeling, and sew them together. It was so cute, I decided to make it into a nifty little bag for Pam to use for her Juki DX7 Foot pedal and cable. I was very happy with this gifting idea, it looked much better than a printed PDF pattern.

Pam was very happy with her new Kittens In Cups, printed PDF pattern and the nifty bag. But she refuses to keep her Juki foot and cable in it. She's going to use it as a bag. If I had thought that, I could have made it a bit larger, and probably more useful, hey ho. It's displayed in Pam's entrance hall, for all visitors to admire. 

The pattern has two different sized blocks, this was the smaller one @ 10" finished. 

It was an easy enough make with easy to follow instructions. 

Remember though, I did say there were lots of patterns to choose from on the website.

I will not be held responsible for your new pile of patterns, convenient, printed PDF patterns!

I'll be happy to help you choose fabrics from my very own shop though, ha ha ha.

Stitching News

 You will need your trumpets poised for a fabulous and finished fanfare

Cheryl Cheryl's fabulous gifting Quilt. It's called Daydreamer and is a free pattern from the Tilda's World web page. The background fabric is a Moda Grunge, very popular fabrics with my customers. Cheryl wanted her quilt to be larger than Tilda's so the flying geese borders were just the ticket. Toot toot toot Cheryl, a fabulous finish and quilted all by her very own self.

Sue decided she's not quite ready to make a larger project and wants to make a few blocks, to gain confidence. We all learn in different ways and this will be Sue's way. This block book is quite old, it's a favourite of mine, it's only available as a used book now but well worth owning, all the instructions are easy enough to follow. One fabulous log cabin block went home with Sue.

Bev had never tried patchwork but during the Covid lock downs, like many others, she purchased a full kit to make a beautiful quilt. Opening the box she was delighted with the beautiful fabrics. She looked at the instructions, put them back in the box, immediately. She went in search of help and found my shop. Having now made a few quilts and projects she feels more capable of tackling the Kit quilt. As you can see, she is nailing it!!! Block 1.

Stitching News

I used to write these blog posts early in the mornings. People often messaged me asking why I was on my computer at silly o'clock each day. I just wake up at silly o'clock, I know there are plenty of quilters (and normal people!) with that trouble. I'm still waking up at silly o'clock, sometimes even at stupid o'clock so I could write blog posts, but, I'm going to confess now. I've started knitting stuff instead. Good grief, it's keeping me very entertained too. I aren't very good at following knitting  patterns so I have to concentrate. Post it notes everywhere with all my row counting, but... now I am late doing necessary things most mornings and find myself rushing to my shop wishing I had watched the clock more closely. So you see, no time to turn the computer on, let alone write stuff or look for photos in my phone. So many things to create and not enough hours in a day, sound familiar?

This gorgeous quilt sandwich belongs to Princess Jackie. She sleeps with the silly o'clock too and has been making these little three quarter inch hexagons for a very long time. Suddenly, last week, she booked a sandwich making session and WOW is it just fabulous. This was the first time I had seen it, just wow!

Rose finished her gifting quilt top. A very modern design which has taxed her brain a bit, it's perfect for the guy she's making it for. There were a few fabrics left over so Rose is making a co-ordinating cushion to go with it.

Shakespeare In The Park has returned. Gail took a little break from quilting this large project as she had other projects needing to be finishing first. Now with her brand new Juki (DX2000) she's all inspired to get this beauty finished.

Princess Jackie is working on a new baby gifting quilt. It has a circus theme, did you guess that? Jackie always saves all the thread ends to do in one session, rather than tying off as she goes along. She loves that job, Unlike my very good self, it would drive me nuts.

Beano has been having a jolly good sort out in her sewing studio. She found all sorts of packages and tubs of projects that she had forgotten about, as we all do! A tub of blue and white fabrics 

After a little further rooting, Beano found bits of paper that helped her remember what it was all for, helped by a few complete blocks, how lovely are they!

Placing out the blocks, it's easy to see a secondary pattern forming. Beano is going to continue making the blocks until she runs out of the fabrics. The quilt will be as large as it can be. But, she also found another project that will be finished first, a photo of that beauty will be taken soon!

Next Sunday, 4th August, we will be going to the Festival Of Quilts for our annual Pilgrimage.
2 tickets have become available so let me know if you would like to join us, 45 ladies going already. It should be Fun!

Catching Up With Stitching News

I'm not sure where to start really. Catching up with two weeks of stitchy fun is tricky. Digging into my memory, without photos to remind me what we've been up to, is pretty hopeless. I do have a few photos, thanks to the ladies who remember to suggest I take a photo!

This is Princess Jackie's Gypsy Wife quilt top. The pattern is still available but it's been re-named Wanderer's Wife What a riot of colour it is too, as we have come to expect from Jackie. She's learned a LOT while making the blocks, one half inch can confuse everything.

This is a trumpets up picture. 

Christabelle finished this fabulous quilt. It's an Anna Maria Horner design but Chris decided to quilt each block, with free motion quilting, individually and joined them all together, apartment-ly with sashing strips. Absolutely gorgeous!

This is the back, obviously. By opting to use a contrasting fabric for the sashing, which worked extremely well, Chris has a double sided quilt, very different either side.

Look how fabulous the quilting is.

Toot toot toot Christabelle, an amazing job!

We joke about quilting being rather addictive, it's actually no joke!! Most of us slide right over to that 'dark side' But Julie? She jumped on the diving board then somersaulted right into the deepest end! I can hardly keep up with her progress, quilt after quilt after quilt! 

This top is from a pattern in the Material Obsession book (which is out of print but still available as used copies) Julie saw my quilt (called 'Garden Retreat', which now I'm looking for it I see I haven't put it on my blog!!!) hanging on my classroom wall. She ordered a copy of the book. The following week she purchased all the fabrics the next week this is it, a finished top! So summery, beautiful and bright. 

I found a blog post about it from 10th June last year, My Garden Retreat quilt top! Just the top as I haven't even taken a photo of the finished quilt, shocking misdemeanor! I will, soon!

Jan has found it really tricky to achieve accuracy with this project. All because of the silly edges on the Moda Batik Jelly Roll. It's all very well saying to use the outer peaks for the accuracy of two and a half inches, but that only works if you can see them! It's a good job Jan knows how to fudge! This first strip is looking fabulous though.

Toot toot toot for Mrs. Lou Lou. A fabulous and Finished Pineapple Blossom Cushion!! Lou Lou has forgotten when she started this project, we estimate it was at least 2017, All she needed to do was finish the quilting as the back was already made. We all do it! but it is finished now. There's blog evidence that Mrs. Lou Lou made her first Pineapple Blossom cushion in September 2015 It was lovely to go back searching.

Deb has been working on her Snowman Collector blocks for a while. But that was done purposefully, keeping the project rolling on as an in-between-y sewing thing. They are all finished now so there will be borders next. Two around each block to start with. I'll show you as it progresses.

Oooh, that's it for today. Almost out of photos!