The Commissioned Quilt.

The top's done... phew....16 hours to make the centre, 3 hours to prepare the borders, add theborders... piece the backing and iron everything ready for a sandwich... not bad... but then if we add the hours and hours of rooting and rummaging, deciding and mind changing.... OK let's not... lets just say 20 hours to make the top... I'll try to make a sandwich at the Quilt Cave tomorrow, the quilting won't take long as the design is a 'known'... there's no mind changing to deal with!

This is the backing fabric... I defy anyone not to smile when they turn to the back of a quilt to find something fun like this...

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Ruth 's table... she makes me smile you know... each of these blocks is cut to give exactly the right amount of bits, one each of 6 colours for each block... fool proof!... Ruth makes up each block set and has left over bits.... we have no clue how or why she has left over bits, she just does is all....
Helen gave me a ticking off for turning her project into a race with Dotty Maureen, who brought in her project finished, sandwiched, quilted and bound! Sorry Helen!... she is still enjoying it though, working with all the fancy stitches...
Gilly Had completed all of her blocks but there were a few little adjustments needed, this is one patient lady.... a lot of people would have left them as were and lost the pointy points, it will all be worth it though...
Dotty Maureen is designing her own pattern this time. As you can see, she's cut up her Clarice Cliff fabrics to use, each square will be bordered cleverly to look like chain links...
Arty Beryl was telling me how much she is loving her Janome machine, she says it's absolutely perfect for her.... she made a sandwich first of all, then bought the wadding for two more quilts that are almost ready, then set to on another Scrappy Bargello, I think it's safe to say that she has joined us on the "Dark Side"...
Annie Pie quilted this whole quilt but forgot to put the walking foot on her machine... really, we should thank her for that as I was able to show everyone what happens when we quilt without a walking foot... I don't think Annie Pie will forget again any time soon... and hopefully the ladies will share her lesson.
Joan The Shop is loosening up! ha ha ha... she's really enjoying doing the free motion quilting, the more she does the more freely she can do it. She started off with tiny, little stippling and now she's doing small to medium size.. Kate calls this 'being loose'!!
This quilt will have double sided binding added on Friday this week.
Lizi stitched the binding onto her huge quilt. She stitched it to the back because she will, very carefully, machine stitch it to finish... hand sewing just doesn't appeal to everyone and that's just fine....
Maid Marion popped in for a little creative meeting.. she wants to use up the fabrics she has left over from the top to make the backing, this is one of my most favourite things to play with!
Shirley Lerly will also machine stitch her bindings, both sides... here, she is joining her binding ends using the very, very clever method... the Brilliant Binding, the tutorial for which is here

Foxy Margaret is making a PMS quilt... that's a Please My Self quilt. The centre is a table runner pattern, with personal adjustments... the outer part is made up of 5" half square triangles so we had to calculate the coping strip... very clever maths!

We meet again on Friday 11th February, 10am - 3pm at Caverswall Village Hall, and you are very welcome to come and join in the fun.

Jeans Circle Quilt

I made this quilt back in 2006, it's just old jeans... you know the ones... they shrink over time, he he he. The centre fabric is silk, what a contrast, posh silk and old denim! This quilt has no wadding, it weighs heavy enough with fabric alone...
The back is great too, especially if you have the time to play with the placement of light and dark denim. I used both sides of the denim because knee areas are just too grubby looking when you have a 'garage lover'
I've decided to demonstrate this at the Quilt Cave today because one of us turfed out more old jeans... it's time to make another one...
You probably expected to find pictures of my Pineapple Blossom commissioned quilt didn't you? Well, I have to admit that I have not added any borders... I have 'writers block'... I have rooted and rooted but I cannot find anything I like for the borders. The lady did give me some border fabric... you know the stuff... but it just doesn't work for me, so I need more time to think about that one....
See you later?

Quilty Quarters Continued

Quilty Quarters at full speed... that's the centre done... don't worry, I haven't lost the plot, what looks like the border is not... that's my crumb quilt still on the design wall... but it would be OK... I think? It's time to take a short break to walk madam with the four legs then I'll get back to it, to make more suitable borders... The lady gave me some fabric that she would like me to use so there is a 'kinda sorta' plan... I'd like to add a little "ME" to this quilt, he he he, 'tis the devil in me, I'm thinking blue.....

Quilty Quarters

A whole day yesterday stitching in My Quilty Quarters.... yes, almost 10 hours... I've been commissioned to make a Pineapple Blossom quilt so every minute is real and necessary work time... so I can justify dropping all other responsibilities, wooohoooo... it's still fun stitching, even though it's not for me... this design is a lot of fun to make... see the little pile of half square triangles at the top there.... they are left over from the pinapppley bits, just one short seam extra at the time of stitching on the corner squares... more later... I better get on... I hope you are finding time for a little stitching today?

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Brenda Barbara (our very own paper girl who deliveres magazines to your table... that and our free range eggs from Gilly...it doesn't get more convenient than that you know...) had finished the top of her play mat quilt... the bright yellow inner border makes all the colours 'pop', don't you agree, perfect choice me thinks. She made a fabulous backing for this quilt but the photo was very blurred so you'll have to see it next week. Brenda made a sandwich with the help of my Mum(Gwynneth) and Dotty Maureen... now to quilt it....
This could be Joan The Shop's fastest ever project... she only started it a few days ago and she's adding borders already, with mitred corners done beautifully...
Helen has caught up with Dotty Maureen... and that's quite an achievement... it's quite possible that Helen is actually winning now, not that it's meant to be a race... she's getting very good at hitting the corners perfectly with the fancy stitching...
We trimmed up Maid Marion's blocks to 7 3/4"... a funny size I thought, then Marion cut the bright yellow sashing with lovely blue corner stones and set to work getting the tops made... yes topS.. she's making 2 cuddle quilts at the same time!
Shirley Lerly's very chuffed to have finished most of the quilting on this lap quilt. There's already another sandwiched waiting for the walking foot treatment.... it's kind of... the same, but different!
Barbie's had a whole lot of trouble with her sewing machine. Lots of the quilting had puckered up so she had to spend quite a while unpicking it all. Bernina Aurora to the rescue!!! After no time at all the project was back on track... which made Barbie happy, with only a week to go to the deadline!
Lizi finished quilting the centre of her huge quilt and moved onto the borders. Stitch number 4 on the Bernina is a tiny curved zig-zag, but if you lengthen the stitch to number 2.8, or there abouts, it makes a fabulous wavy line... and this is how the borders were done.. they look fabulous, trimming up and binding next time.

We meet again on Wedneday 9th and Friday 11th February, 10am - 3pm. I'm expecting new fabrics to be delivered for my Table Top Shop next week and more King Tut thread should be here too... oh we love the variegated threads!!
See you next time.....

Caverswall Quilt Cave

Another fun packed and busy day in the Quilt Cave. Kettle Corner was busy all day with one quilter and another. Arty Beryl was making lots of Log Cabin blocks, she's going to piece them in 4's so that she can do quilt-as-you-go, this method is proving to be very popular with my ladies. Here she's squaring up the individual blocks.
Shirley Lerly continued quilting one of her half square triangle quilts. She's made two and some lucky pumpkin will be receiving them as gifts sometime soon....
Lizi got to play with an Aurora today, what a treat! She's done a lot of the quilting but there's still plenty to do yet....
Joan The Shop was able to make a start on her quilting, she's doing free motion because all the turning, pushing and shoving of the quilt to use a walking foot is just no good with a frozen shoulder... I'd never thought of that really... I heard Joan say that she didn't used to like the quilting part but now she quite enjoys it...brilliant news!
Irene's coming to the end of making the Log Cabin blocks, she'll soon be able to do the other blocks... ooooher, I forgot what they will be... you'll just have to wait eh....
Here we go again... Dotty started another project... by now you cannot be at all surprised by this news... She and Helen are supposed to be working on this project together... good luck keeping up Helen!
Diane has been busy quilting at home, she's just to quilt the edge triangles and this centre part will be ready. Two more thirds, the edges, will be quilted separately and joined in the apartment style... I think, Diane is considering all the alternatives first.
Wendy worked on this rather brightly coloured quilt, she has changed the pattern a little bit, to suit herself.. we love PMS Patchwork!!! (Please My Self) She described to me how the back will look and it sounds great... with fish and weeds/reeds and bubbles etc
Ruth continued with her 'stained glass' blocks... it just takes a flick of a piece to get you in a mix up... and flick she did, good job she had the paper template to refer back to... this is going to be a huge quilt by the looks of things...
My Mum (Gwynneth) continued to quilt this lovely number. She's going diagonally along the little squares with a few curves on the bigger squares, it looks great... she's getting quite adventurous now eh...
Foxy Margaret is also changing the original design a little (oh fabulous... more PMS!... and there's no arguing you know!) She was intrigued to discover how easy it is to add corner stones to a border. Now she will work on half square triangles, hundreds of them, which will be used to make this table runner into a lovely bright quilt... watch this space!
Annie Pie sandwiched this bordered fabric so that she could practice her free motion quilting. She followed the line of the trees and bushes... which is quite difficult to do... she decided that she didn't like it though... one good thing about stitching is that it doesn't have to be permanent... we all have a seam ripper!!!
Annie Pie also made a sandwich with this blue and yellow number... we still can't figure out why this block is called the "Economy Patch"?
Wendy's finished her quilt made with Civil War fabrics...She made a lovely pieced backing too... here it is.... My pictures are not brilliant, the lights in the room make the quilt and back look darker than they actually are.
Quite a long post and not everyone has been mentioned. I am quite amazed that I remember so much about each project as everyone pleases themselves and works on whatever they fancy. Today's demo was easy curved piecing... lets see if anyone decides to have a go some time soon.
We meet again in our lovely Caverswall Village Hall on Friday 4th February, 10am - 3pm.
There's usually a few tables to spare on a Friday if you fancy a luxurious day of stitchy fun... Don't forget your packed lunch now....

Uttoxeter Quilt Class

Gillian made miles of binding and stitched it on, she will do the hand stitching at home and the label is ready and waiting. This quilt is a "stunner"! It is huge, heavy, beautiful colours... and done! She is now struggling with the possibilities.... keeping it or giving it... I know what I would do... bet you can guess too... no surprise eh!
Jenni's only got 6 blocks left to complete, she has a hard time doing any stitching at home so she was very industrious all day, making the most of her "Me Time". These blocks are quite a fiddle to make.. the pattern is here.
Lizzy is also coming to the end of the block making process, she needs 64, 8 rows of 8.... I bet we'll be joining them all together next time we meet.
Messy Maureen finished her cushions, unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture.. but... this pile of fabric pieces will be used to make her next project... you wouldn't think they would go together really would you... believe me... they do! We chose the design, we cut out bits and pieces... we stitched one block together to try it out... it's going to be wonderful... you'll see!

We meet again on the 15th February, 10am - 3pm at The Bank House Hotel in Uttoxeter