Stitching News

 A snippet of quilting news,

This lovely Reading Pillow has been gifted now, so I can show it to you. Di made it, she had been commissioned by a very important lady with only a brief, brief, "Motown please"! Di arrived for class with an idea of the design and her box of letter templates, then went with her creative flow. Hasn't it turned out well. Toot toot toot Di, a fabulous finish

Pam! Started yet another project!! Another commission job.

It's a simple design so Pam was soon ready to make the sandwich! I bet it's already quilted by now?

We had a lovely day at Checkley Community Centre yesterday. Sunday Funday Sewdays are a great introduction to retreat sewing, except you have to go home at 3.30pm, back to those waiting home chores!
I'm only mentioning that because next Monday, 7th October, we're off for 5 lovely long sewing days, on our retreat to the Lickey Hills Country Park, with no need to even think about chores!!
Obviously that means my shop will be closed after Saturday 5th and re-opening on Saturday 12th October, and I am not even going to apologize about it!

Stitching News, Christabelle Style

Christabelle finished her massive gifting quilt, it's trumpet time! Are you polished up, shiny and ready to toot? It's really tricky to fit the whole quilt in the photo but I'm sure you will get the idea.

The 3-D design shows up so well. On one side, Rose is holding the quilt up, she's on the photo step, right up high on her tippie-toes and Chris is at maximum stretch on the other side, I don't normally offer a quilty work out, it was a special offer!

This magnificent quilt is now ready for gifting. There's a retirement coming up, lucky spud!!

Toot toot toot-itty-toot Chris, a fabulous finish.

Time to toot again now for Chris

 She made her very own self a lovely new, everyday, tote bag. 

It's Personalized too. (the wonders of Amazon!)There are lots of pockets and a dividing piece in the middle which will come in very handy, I bet.

Stitching News

You must have heard me mention before that things can be the same, and completely different at the same time? Shirley had been quite taken with the idea of the Friendship Star block. She knew she wanted new sofa cushions, not just to take a break from huge quilts I might add, and decided to make 3 of them, all different, all with the same fabrics, all the same  finished size of 18", and all using the Friendship Star block, take a look...

One huge 18" star block, with 6" units.

4 Smaller blocks of 9" stars with 3" units.

and one On-Point 12" star block, with 4" units. Quilty math is fun!

Like I said, all them are the same, and yet all quite different!

Judy loves a bit of applique. She attempted this beauty a few months ago but it was all too fiddly so it got filed away in the round container (bin). Not to be defeated, she's doing it again now. I introduced her to Steam A Seam 2 (lite) It's a little more costly but is the very best thing for tiny and intricate applique. The tiny pieces can be stuck in place on a piece of baking parchment, allowing the original design to be visible underneath it, for placement. 

Then almost the whole flower was lifted from the parchment paper and stuck to the linen background fabric. Stuck but not permanently until Judy was happy to place the iron on top (with a piece of baking parchment to protect my iron) making it a permanent stick. She was extremely chuffed how easy it was too. Now to do the teeny-tiny stitches.

 

Stitching News

There are no regular classes on Fridays in my very own shop. My classroom can be booked for small groups, as and when needed so it's a perfect opportunity to have an occasional Sandwich Saturday session, YES, on a FRIDAY, ha!

Rose booked to make her large sandwich as she's ready to tackle the quilting. It doesn't take too long with two of us pinning. Rose thinks that simple straight lines of stitching will be perfect as she wants to keep the quilt modern looking.

While the tables were all pushed together, Norma was able to lay her blocks out. She knew the blocks were large, 14" each, and she's seen my quilt sandwich too, but she was still shocked how large her quilt will be. We are daft, us quilty folk. It's looking fabulous Norma.

Another of Christabelle's Stack-n-Whack block layout ideas. It's not easy to decide which layout will be the best one when they all look just fabulous. 

Stitching News

I know, I know. I couldn't get my computer to work properly. It turned out to be the batteries in the keyboard. The had corroded and made a lot of mess. On top of that, Blogger has changed how I add photos, why must they change things? It drives me nuts. My computer did an update, I know they have to but that drives me nuts too! It's a good job my Lilly can help me out. You'll be pleased to know that eventually, I found where the photos were hiding. I can only add them one at a time so it takes a while.

Lets catch up

Princess Jackie finished her Toy Time Circus quilt. Quirky, bright and fun. Perfect for baby gifting. Jackie has decided to add a few more quilting stitches to her borders but it's technically fabulous and finished, toot toot toot

You may well be thinking that you have seen this Santa Runner sandwich before? Gail has made 3 or 4 of them in the past. The secret is not to show them to people so they can't request one for their very own selves, ha ha ha. It is a fabulous project but Gail declared that there won't be any more made, lets see how that goes! 

This lovely snowman runner is next up for a fanfare. Fabulous and finished and ready for gifting in good time for sewing prevention season. Toot toot toot Gail, I wonder how many more of these you will be making.

Pam is continuing with her Log Cabin blocks. After declaring that she would not make any more large quilts for a long time, this one will be large!! She can't help herself!! I think she's made 25 blocks so far

and here's the evidence that many more are planned.

More pics tomorrow, fingers crossed!

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!