Quilt Sandwiches

Sandwich Saturday, on a Friday! with the Tuesdays. It made me smile.
We can't really make larger sandwiches during normal class time because the tables are all needed for sewing. That's why I have sandwiching days. The tables get pushed together making a good size work area. Then one hour slots are booked. It's very practical and excellent customer service I think.

Pam has been taking her quilts to the Long Arm Lady, Amanda in Stone, but she decided that this one should be easy enough to quilt it herself. It's 1.70m by 1.40m. There's a great opportunity here for changing thread colour to match all the beautiful fabric colours and Pam is looking forward to a bit of thread play.

Rose's heart quilt was sandwiched, great with those lovely border stripes. This is a very eye-catching design and it caught Pam's eye, she started to make a green version last week. Rose has a plan for the quilting using a variegated King Tut thread.

Christabelle's Stargazey Daizies sandwiched and ready for a little free-motion fun. Perfect thread was chosen for the job. It's a bit of a rubbish photo I've taken, I think I must have twitched because, to me it looks a bit blurred. I promise you it is very gorgeous in real life. 

A dinosaur sandwich! Gail was able to make her sandwich during the Tuesday class and as soon as it was done, she chose lovely threads and made a good start on her quilting. She will stitch around the dinosaurs and leaves to start with.

Di has been busy quilting in her newly organised sewing room. It's amazing how a good tidy up can inspire us to sew. During class she stitched the binding in place ready for the hand sewing, a job she enjoys. Just a few top tips were needed for joining the binding. Lots of people bring their quilts in for this job.

Plans are being made for our next sewing retreat at Hawkstone Park. I'm still procrastinating on my decision, as usual. You would think I would be used to it by now wouldn't you. But no, I'm hopeless. Lots of people have made solid sewing plans, with a couple of those 'just in case I finish all my projects' necessities.

I'm going to be taking a table top shop this time. Do you think I can decide what to take for that? NO!

Stitching News

Another fun week in my shop and classroom. The gardeners are back to stitching. Kids are back to school. Nights are drawing in and lights need to be used in the evenings! How quickly it has all changed from long summer days. Christmas Corner is busy tempting people to make things ready for sewing prevention season. Christmas Corner is a little nook full of festive fabrics!

Hours and hours have gone in to this beautiful project and, to be fair, it's starting to feel a little bit endless for Bev. She arrives each week with a little cloud following her... wishing she had finished it so she could start something new. BUT by the end of class, she is totally happy with it again. A sewing Roller Coaster with it's ups and downs. It will all be worth it!

Lesley has started the quilting! She's going to stitch around all of the details to make them pop. Most of the creatures now have eyes too. Little french knots done with metallic embroidery threads. They look like beads at first glance, until you touch them. You know we love to touch a French Knot, so tactile!

Di finished her first pumpkin cushion topper. It's all ready for sandwiching and quilting but I think she will get the next one to this stage first. Such a fun project. Perfect pumpkin fabric for the main border highlighted with a tiny-teeny inner green bit, fabulous.

Sun Bonnet Sue is getting ready for the Autumnal weather. This lovely wall hanging belongs to Deb. She popped in to get backing fabric and wadding so the quilting can begin. It will be done in no time, this lady gets on with it!

There's lots of plotting and planning happening in readiness for our next retreat, with only 5 more weekends to go. It's all part of the retreating fun. Stressful and exciting at the same time. 

As I've said before, this retreat is fully booked. 

I have the Quiltmas Sewing retreat in the planning process too. I am working on a new poster with the details for that. As there are only 6 more places available, at the time of writing this, I might be wasting my creative time! I actually got My Lilly to design the borders of it and it will be perfect for next year if I don't need to use it after all.

It's the best way for us to escape Sewing Prevention Season. We sew A LOT and get looked after very nicely indeedy, thanks to Hawkstone Park Hotel.

Stitching News

Foundation Paper Piecing. Love it or loath it, it's a marvelous method with great accuracy. It's been around for many, many years. Whoever 'invented' it is a very smart cookie! I also think that about the 'No-Waste Flying Geese' method!! Not being a smart cookie helps me appreciate this clever stuff very much.

Sharon Leek feels the same. She is on fire with Foundation Paper Piecing. She's mastered it beautifully. Obviously she has, just look at this block. This is the one she started in class and finished at home.

This is the one she made at home, completely unsupervised! Not that she was supervised in class. All top tips must have soaked in. There's another block in progress too, yellow-ish fabrics already chosen for it. I'm thinking Sharon might a new addiction, who knows?

Our Pam is making great progress with her easy, but you need to concentrate on the fabric colour placement, quilt. Each block looks woven so just one fabric in the wrong place would have needed unpicking, no way round it. Pam didn't unpick any, she aced it.

Do you enjoy the game of "Thread Chicken"

I'm filled with a huge amount of excitement when I play. I sell Presencia threads in my shop (amongst others) it's my favourite thread for piecing my projects, 3 ply, 60 wt. Very strong and fine. I've used them for about 20 years. The cones, each is 125g, last such a long time, obviously, but once the blue cone starts to appear it's sooooo exciting! You just know that you have sewn A LOT!! This was the start of Monday's Thread Chicken Game...

I did a lot of practical sewing. I've been making some bags. Little carrier bags to gift to unsuspecting customers who purchase lovely fabrics in my shop. Just to use up some of my older stash, fabrics purchased in Brazil in the early 2000's. Once they were finished and in the bag! I got back to my very own Foundation Paper Piecing project, this is another Feathered Star block. I will change that centre bit, I don't like it. PMS (Pleasing My Self) because I can

Emptied! No tears...

Can you believe that I cheated???

It got very scary so I decided to make a bobbin with what remained on the cone.

That's definitely cheating! But it felt so good!!! Call me a rebel, I can take it, ha ha ha