Stitching News

Quite a lot of photos to follow. I hope this is a good catch up for you. 

Jean Bean has continued making her Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope blocks. Aren't they looking fabulous? The tiny pink highlight strip is perfectly 'popping' all of the other colours, and there are lots of lovely colours! 

Gail was very lucky to find just the right amount of just the right fabric to make the binding for this lovely quilt. There's a longer story involved but I'll be writing a separate blog post about that with more lovely pictures, it will be very soon, when the tooting moment arrives.

It seems quite a few folk are determined to finish some of their shelved projects. Rose had kept this quilt for working on during retreats, a few years of retreats actually, but now, with the top complete it will be finished.

Joanne wanted to 'have a go' at Half Square Triangles. I don't know why people are hesitant with triangles but, it's a fact, they do cause stress, ha! By the end of class Jo could see the stress was all for nothing, they really are very easy to make, accurately.

Sarah has been waiting for weeks to find time to make her latest sandwich. Work really does get in the way of quilt making. Doesn't matter now, she is over that hurdle so the quilting stitchery can begin. Sarah noticed that each of her quilts seem to be getting larger, it is a thing!

Clare had decided on the layout of her Moda Jelly Roll blocks at home, where she laid them out to check, and label them carefully to be stitched together in class. The direction for pressing the seams was quite important. A white-on-white border was added after this photo. A successful days work.

Farmer Lynda is making two projects at the same time. One is a sweet Sampler quilt following the instructions from her new book and this lovely Hexagon pattern, by Jen Kingwell, is the other. All Lynda's blocks are made for the Hexie one and she's sewing them all together, it will be quite large, but done't tell her, I don't think she's noticed yet!

Joanne came to make her lovely pastel sandwich. This is her first large quilt. Jo's going to stitch both on her new Juki and Big Stitch Hand quilting. Pleasing herself and doing just what she wants to, always encouraged in my classroom.

It's tooting time for Rose next. This adorable play quilt has been made for gifting. Rose has used a few elements from her applique pattern collection with the addition of a little free thinking, more PMS!! Toot toot toot Rose, another Fabulous and Finished, original baby gifting quilt.

I had to show you the back too.

My wonderful shop just happened to have the perfect Elephant fabric!

Bev added another lot of 'sticky stuff' applique shapes to the next border. It's all ready for blanket stitching. That's a job she's saving for our next retreat. Not long away now, so it's time to get our plans together. This wall hanging will need pride of place when it's finished.

Oooooooh and Cheryl managed to sew all of the segments together for this Boho Heart quilt top. Isn't is wonderful. See how Cheryl chose all those lovely pastels for the strippy bits, just lovely! She's going to consider whether or not to add a border or not. Tricky!

This quilt belongs to a shop customer who purchased most of the fabrics a few weeks ago. What a fabulous design, I love all the circles making the sheep (!) body bits. I think the idea is something to do with football, don't all shout at me, ha!T oot toot toot for the fabulous finish

And in my very own Quilty Quarters?

 This top is now complete and backing is being decided. 

The fabric I wanted to use is not large enough.

 Mathemisms and clever thinking are required.

I'm just about finished quilting and adding the binding to this project.

More about Quilty Quarters soon.

June's Sunday Sewday was a success. It was good to catch up with everyone with the last sewday being in February.

Our next 3 Sunday Sew dates, taking us to the end of 2025 are:-

28th September

26th October 

30th November

Festival Of Quilts 2025

Festival Of Quilts 2025

Coach + Show Entrance ticket 

£36.00

The last day to book your place to include your entrance ticket

 is 

Wednesday 9th July

To book coach only it's £21.00 

 I can take bookings until the coach is full up.

Our Coach will be leaving:-

Leek, from Robing Hood Coaches @ 8:15am

Cheadle Main Car Park @ 8:45am

Picking up in Tean High Street & Checkley Village Hall. 

Last pick up in Uttoxeter Bus Station @ approx. 9:10am

Payment by either cash or Bank Transfer please.

Any other info you need?

angiequilts@gmail.com

WhatsApp or call 07807530441

Stitching News

The blooming computer (and blooming mobile phone) did more amazing (?) updates. I wish they would stop. I only just get used to a new thing and it changes. OK, I am lying, I can't keep up with the changes, so I don't turn my computer on much, ha!
There are some amazing projects being made by my customers. I am very lucky to be able to help with all sorts of decisions. Easier piecing methods, fabric colour choices, fabric design, border treatments etc. I even help out with cutting at times. I do an awful lot of 'Mathemisms' too. I do my best to give great customer service. It's lovely when people show their appreciation, (insert big smiley face) and they pop in to show me how pleased they are with their projects or they post pictures on their 'Socials',

"Look what I made!" Makes me proud. I even get an occasional mention sometimes. Whooop Whooop So Far, no-one's been in to say "Angie, what were you thinking, I hate this colour!!!" hahahahaha 

Here goes on the photos I found in my newly updated phone.

Gail is making a Reading Pillow for a Dinosaur loving little-un. She had been watching Rose's dinosaur quilt making recently and had the urge to to make a Stegosaurus, as you do. That happens a lot, everyone's work inspires someone else. Gail is very pleased with him, I'm guessing its a him? He's an Elizabeth Hartman Dinosaur.

 

Pam finished this kiddo quilt top in record time. She really enjoyed making it. The pattern is in an Annie's Quilting book, excellent value books  Fast & Fun Quilts for Kids available in my very own shop, of course!  

Christabelle is so very, very happy with this gifting quilt. It's for a special little lady named Robin, I hope you can spot the Robin blocks. Each block has been made especially with Robin's home life in mind. She loves Ice-Cream (who doesn't!) she lives by a lake with her family and loves to 'boat'... that kind of thing. What a lovely gift. Huge toot toot tooting for this one Christabells, so much thought has gone into making it. Fabulous and proudly finished.

I have hosted many sandwich Saturdays recently, but on Fridays. This one belongs to Princess Jackie. Isn't it cute. This one has a double side Cat theme, I might have mentioned that in an earlier post. You will see the other side when it's toot-tooting time.

This is a shop customer's project. We had spent quality time choosing all the fabrics figuring the pattern out together, and it shows doesn't it. It's a fabulous Highland Cooow. Thank you for bringing it back to my shop and Toot toot toot, for your fabulous and finished, quilted cushion.

This was a huge Sandwich to make. That's really obvious! We had to pin it in two stages. Almost all of these fabrics are from my very own shop, don't they look great? This Snowman Collector quilt is a very happy make. The quilting will be a hefty task, but Deb is up for it! 

Bev is very pleased with her current project. Applique is a bit like Marmite, Bev is a lover of it, are you? She's never made Prairie points before either, the absolute pleasure when she produced 4 Corner Stones, with perfect Prairie Points, was palpable.

Sharon is a labeller, yes, that is a real word... I just wrote it! She wanted to make a Stained Glass Window effect quilt, like the one that was hanging in my shop a few weeks ago. I explained how easily it can all go wrong, so she tripled up on the Post-Its!! What a smart cookie she is!

Merlot, our newest Grannie is planning to be showering her little angel with quilts, quilts and more quilts.  All of the applique pieces have been chosen and stuck in place so there's just a million hours of applique stitching to be done now. So cute!

Joanne hand appliqued the hearts for this quilt top. Since then she has treated her very own self to a Juki DX7 and is absolutely loving the blanket stitch, it's a game changer! The top is ready for sandwiching and that will happen soon, fingers crossed.

I emptied out the 'Rooting Rack' just to give it a good sort out as it was getting a bit messy after all the customers rooted in it. Just because I remembered to, I took a photo. It's the window side of the classroom, with a naked rooting rack!! It's been filled up again now.

A Bit Of Housekeeping

Dates for your diary.
It might seem a bit early for some of this information but people have already started to book places. So it's only fair I list what's up for grabs in the fun diary.

Sunday 29th June is a Sunday Funday Sewday. £20 paid in advance and £25.00 to pay on the day.
9:30am - 3:30pm. Lunch and refreshments are included. Please book and pay for this before Wednesday 25th June

There's the August Retreat at Hillscourt, 21st - 24th August. I've recently given you all the details for that.

Our Annual Pilgrimage to Festival Of Quilts at the NEC.
Sunday 3rd August. £36.00 includes your return journey and show entrance ticket. Limited places but there are still plenty at the moment. Please book and pay before Wednesday 9th July. All details are the same as previous years, it runs like clockwork!

Sunday 28th September will be a Sunday Funday Sewday. £20 paid in advance and £25.00 to pay on the day. 9:30am - 3:30pm. Lunch and refreshments are included

October Sewing Retreat at Hawkstone Park . 
Monday morning, 6th October to Thursday afternoon on 9th October.
This retreat is £485 per person. Single occupancy, fully catered. This is proving to be a very popular retreat. 

Sunday October 26th will be a Sunday Funday Sewday. £20 paid in advance and £25.00 to pay on the day. 9:30am - 3:30pm. Lunch and refreshments are included

Sunday 30th November will be a Sunday Funday Sewday. £20 paid in advance and £25.00 to pay on the day. 9:30am - 3:30pm. Lunch and refreshments are included

And to conclude a fabulous year of stitching fun, we have the December Sewing Retreat. 

Quilty Quarters

Yesterday I went to visit the venue for our October Sewing Retreat in Shrewsbury. I's were dotted and T's were crossed. Decisions were made on the sewing room and table layout plan, food options, room allocation, bar availability! etc. Which means that that retreat is now available for booking.

Returning from that chore, earlier than I expected to, there was time...

To make my sandwich, so I did!

I now have two sandwiches waiting to be quilted.

During our March retreat, at Lickey Hills, I completed all of these 6" blocks, over 130 of them actually. I had cut all the pieces and put them into little 'block kits' ahead of time, so it was just a great mindless sewing project to do while being entertained by everything else going on. The blocks were put on one side when I got home, waiting for their turn in my project queue. It is now their turn. 

The book has these blocks set on-point. 

I liked it a lot, in the book. 

But I didn't like this setting in my choice of fabrics.

So I played with the blocks and decided I prefer this setting. 

I love my design wall for this very purpose.

Time to sew them all together.

I'm taking my time finger pressing all the seams in the right directions so that I can twiddle the middles. Do you Twiddle your middles? No-one will ever see this in the finished quilt, But I will know!

The left side is all sewn. 4 blocks by 12 blocks

Almost half way done! That's on a positive note

Still well over half to go! on the slightly more negative note, ha!

I'm in no rush.

Quilty Quarters

 A bit more from Quilty Quarters

I made this quilt  to use up some fabric samples a rep had given to me. It was a fun make and I really enjoyed the quilting, Changing all the thread colours and taking the lines into the borders, small things make me happy, ha! (There's a blog post about it here) I had quite a few smaller pieces of the bright colors left over. 

So I ended up making this quilt top. There is a mistake in the piecing in this picture, which has now been corrected, of course. Can you spot it? It's not that the backing is too small, I was just measuring it up to see how much more fabric to add to the backing, when I spotted the piecing error, very annoying!

This is going to be the backing. It's made up of two different Moda, digitally printed, ranges. A fabric rep. had given me two sample sets, ages ago. I took out all the staples, chopped off all the cardboard toppers and sticky bits of information then joined them together. I have to say, I am very happy with the outcome. This projects might just get pinned up today, A private Sandwich Saturday, on a Sunday!!

Quilty Quarters

Yes, news from Quilty Quarters! I have been sewing. I sew quite a lot really, in short bursts of time, but I don't seam to say much about it. Going on a few extra sewing retreats recently (I'm sure you have noticed that little tit-bit of news) gave me a kick up the doodah to get on with my projects. I'm an expert procrastinator.

I started making these wonky Churndash blocks on a retreat in March 2024, just to use up some very small strips which were the left overs from cutting my Beautiful Batik Six Packs for the shop. I also had a few metres of the black fabric, purchased about 20 years ago, that I'd never used because I didn't like how thick it was. It's good quality fabric, Free Spirit in fact, I just didn't like it, but it really needed to be used so it got chopped up into 41/2" squares. 

Once the Wonky Churndash blocks were all made, I had completely run out of the black, excellent! You can see in the first picture I had started to choose random Batik strips to use for sashing. I didn't like it though. I wondered about making random triangles for the sashing, I liked the idea but, weirdly, not the wonky-ness. So I made some very accurate half square triangle strips, and loved those.

Okeydokey, that decision was made BUT, I didn't have any large enough batik bits to make all of the HST units, so in a mad moment, I decided to make the sashing strips Foundation Paper Pieced. Not my favourite piecing method! But many hours later, and after digging into my very own Beautiful Batik Fat Quarters too supplement the scraps, all of the sashing strips were complete, including around the perimeter.

I decided to make a further pieced border using this design...

Obviously using a different black fabric. After making this one block, I wasn't keen to make 40 or 50 more!!! So that plan was dumped! I decided just to add a plain black border. The quilt top actually looks great with no further piecing. I won't waste this block though. It will become something.

I needed to play Thread Chicken too. With just those few inches to sew on the last border, the bobbin alarm was bleeping on my UX8, it's a clever little sausage you know. It says 50 stitches are left on the bobbin. I sewed a bit slower!!! Yes, do you do that? In my head, if I sew slowly, the thread goes further! Ha.

Anyhow, I just about won that game. That's how much thread there was left on the bobbin, 3 inches or so. My Colourful Black Quilt top is finished and, once I decide on the backing, it will be sandwiched.

Our August Retreat Plan

Sewing Retreat August 2025. Hillscourt Hotel, Lickey Hills. B45 8RS

Arriving Thursday 21^st August from 11am to set up your sewing space.
with Morning refreshments. (Room Check in after 2pm) 

Full Buffet Lunch @ 12.30pm
Afternoon tea, coffee, biscuits.
3 course dinner served @ at 6pm

Sew into the night?

Friday 22^nd & Saturday 23^rd August
Full Breakfast menu, available from 7.30am - 9.30am

Mid-Morning tea, coffee, biscuits.
Full Buffet Lunch @ 12.30pm
Afternoon tea, coffee, biscuits.
3 course dinner served @ at 6pm

Sew into the night?

Sunday 24th
Full Breakfast menu available from 7.30am - 9.30am. 
Room Check Out 10am.

Mid-Morning tea, coffee, biscuits.
Full Buffet Lunch @ 12.30pm

Sewing into the afternoon
You can leave any time after lunch, before 5pm 

The total cost is £555.00 with a £50.00, non-refundable deposit when you book.

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

For more information: angiequilts@gmail.com or call me 07807530441

Stitching News

I've been battling with my computer gremlins again this morning, just for you! So that you can see how very marvelous the projects are, done by some wonderful customers of my very own, rather glorious, quilt shop. That's a bit of happy cheese for a Sunday morning! 

In no particular order, here goes a catch up...

Christabelle is continuing to piece her Pie In The Sky Daydreamer blocks. It's a free pattern from Tilda's World free pattern web pages. There is a lot of piecing, lots of tiny bits but well worth it and Chris has a lot of patience, which helps.

Our Pam started, yet another, baby quilt top. The pattern is in an Annie's Quilting book, excellent value books  Fast & Fun Quilts for Kids available in my very own shop, of course! Pam was concentrating to make sure all the football blocks were the right way up, a thing she tortures herself with sometimes!

Shirley loves all the French General from Moda fabrics. Rich reds and creams, you can't go wrong really. These are just a few of her multi sized Churndash blocks. She's making her own version of the lovely Churn Baby Churn quilt. 

Jackie has started to make blocks for a sampler quilt. She is very keen to perfect her piecing skills and this project will certainly help with that. A few Tilda Fat Quarter bundles were a perfect and irresistible starting point. So many tiny pieces to be cut.

Clare is a new arrival in my classroom. Another lovely lady joining in the Thursday crew. She pleases her very own self, which I encourage, a lot, but sometimes I have to bite my very own tongue. especially when Clare didn't trim her crusts off before adding the binding, I think she might be a rebel.

2 quilts in one day for Clare. Both were for gifting and needed to be finished Lick-etty-split. No wadding between the layers but that soft, baby-fluffy fabric on the back should be fine.

Jackie came to make her huge Log Cabin quilt sandwich. As you can see, the quilt was too big for all of my tables so it was pinned in two stages. Same result though. We discussed lots of quilting design ideas and Jackie went home to flex her muscles in readiness for the quilting process

Apparently, Beano started this Stack-n-Whack project back in 2014. She can't remember why she stopped making the blocks. All the fabrics are cut out and kitted up. Packing them away helped them to be un-remembered! Like forgotten, but less tragic. No matter now though as Beano is back on the Kaleidoscope train/horse!

Norma had collected two of her quilts from Amanda in Stone so she spent the class time making miles and miles of binding. All stitched on by the end of the day and ready for hand sewing to the back,  a lovely sewing job that Norma enjoys. I'll have to give you the pattern/book details another time. Probably in Norma's Toot toot post.

Norma used a solid white fabric for the back so that the coloured thread would show up the wonderful quilting Amanda and her trusty Long Arm machine stitched.

Norma's second quilt, tadaaaaah. Boho Heart, by Jen Kingwell. I have quite a few ladies making this pattern. Like the Gypsy Wife, it's a great one for using up, and creating more, scraps! Norma enjoyed making it so much that she has decided to make the Gypsy Wife one too.

Sue wanted to learn how to do machine applique, the sticky stuff method, my favorite! This lovely design is in the book Wild Blooms and Colourful Creatures Isn't it sweet! The book patterns are for Wool Felt but we just please our very own selves and use quilting cotton, because we can! Sue will make a few cushions with this design before making a quilt.

Merlot has been rooting in her piles at home. She found several panels, 12 actually. She can't remember buying them, she can't remember what she was thinking she would use them for either, they must have been an impulse purchase, but now, all 12 are in the process of being made into lovely cushions.

They are lovely, Merlot has been artsy with her quilting too. I'm not sure you can make the stitching out but click in for a better look, there's a bucket and spade on one of them!! Toot toot toot Merlot, 2 fabulous finishes so far.

Deb has been working on this quilt top for as long as she liked. She has very much enjoyed the whole process. Every block with carefully chosen fabrics and embellishments. It's the Snowman Collector Quilt that was a block of the month back in the 1990's. Deb spent her class making a fabulous backing in readiness for making her enormous quilt sandwich on a Sandwich Saturday, which, as you know, will be on a Friday!

That's all for this post.

Just please remember that it's time to pay your deposits for the Sewing retreat in August. I'll post the details for you again shortly. I think there are 4 places remaining.

Also, if you plan to join us for our next Checkley Funday Sewday on 29th June, it's time to pay for that too.