Stitching News, Short & Sweet

Chatty Cathy had to ponder her borders, she does a lot of pondering...
Cathy's a retired accountant and likes everything done 'math-em-asticly', it doesn't always work out so my 'chuck em all in' method comes in handy...
Great result either way, we make a good team!

My Wife Beth's Advent calendar is looking rather lovely...
She saw a picture of something similar on a blog a while back and made up her own version.
Beth has to make another now with two young daughters to please.

Jolly Jo only purchased these fabrics last week and already has the borders going onto the quilt top
 It's easy to love the wonky log cabin!

Shelia made this absolutely adorabubble Knobbley Kneed chicken for her Grandson,
I bet that chicken will have a few friends made quite soon... soooo cute and fun.

Brenda Barbara is quilting her Square Dance quilts, I think she made a matching pair.
The oriental fabrics look great cut up this way, don't you think?

I am lead to believe that Sheila purchased this little bag as a kit from out trip to the NEC Festival Of Quilts only last weekend, I hope I get to see it in real life soon, it's very cute and looks quite easy... but then there's that zip!! ooooher

Just Edna popped into my very own quilt shop to show off her latest project. I must say it is quite lovely... and rather large too... I wonder whether it was made in the caravan? I will investigate further.

Thank you for the pictures Jenny Barlaston... what would I have done without you!!
Life is quiet at the Whiston home!

Stitching News

Toot toot toot for Sheila, she finished her mysterious mystery quilt.
All that placement pondering paid off didn't it... what a fabulous quilt, it has your eyes darting all over it following the little paths
It's being gifted to a lucky lady today.

I guess we could call Annbacan's quilt a mystery as well...
 we made it up as she went along and Ann had no idea how it would turn out...
good job she loves it now eh! Just a bit more quilting to be done on the borders.

Lady Judith is nearing the completion of her enormous Stargazy Daisiez quilt... just a few more centres to be quilted on the border daisiez and the crusts will be trimmed off... 11 WOF for the binding!

See all the little labels on the electric plugs just at the top of the picture above? It's over a year for a lot of machines so it's PAT testing time again, hard for some of the ladies to believe they've been coming to classes for over a year already

And, as if to celebrate that news, PM Pam is about to sandwich her 1 year old PHD (Project Half Done) from a Stack-n-Whack workshop last year, by booking the tables for Sandwich making on Saturday this week... Pam's quilt top is sooooo bright... you just feel the world light up when it's opened out! ha ha ha

Road Trip To Festival Of Quilts

Just popping in to tell you we all had an absolutely brilliant day. The road trip ran better than clockwork with all ladies having very good time keeping skills... making for a very smoooooth day! We had a splendid raffle on the coach, some ladies even won their ticket money back... what a great start to their day!
We will go again next year, Sunday 10th August, coach is booked, tickets have been ordered! How about that for organising then... are you coming?? Of course, I will mention it again nearer to the time.
I would like to show you my very own favourite quilt of the entire show.
Made by Jean Ball... Toot Toot Toot Jean Ball, I love your quilt!!!

In the programme guide it says that the quilt is all hand pieced with traditional American piecing, though I'm not entirely sure what that means, it states that it was not pieced over papers... each section is very small, I bet it was tricky.

Hand quilted too. What amazed me was that every piece had been fussy cut so there are tiny little kaleidoscope-icle centres to every single star.
The Prairie Points on the edge are tiny and beautiful.
This quilt "Little Stars" was number 727 and received a little recognition with a "Highly Commended " label.... 
BUT ... for me, it was The Winner!

Stitching News

New Sue made a sandwich with her latest Jelly Roll quilt
This is a great one to remember for making with scrappy strips of 2 1/2"
Do you think it's a little bit 'Blue Peter'?

After confusing everyone about Kate's twin quilts that are exactly the same but completely different last week, I am at it again. This is quilt number two being stitched with a new quilting design that happened quite accidentally but it's one we will use over again.

Toot toot toot
This is no ordinary table runner... Barbara BB has toiled and ridden a roller coaster making it.
She never got cross with herself, never tired of a little unpicking and persevered with a smile every week.
I don't think anyone has ever been so pleased and proud to have a fanfare for a finish...

Barbara BB... happy again but feeling absolute disbelief this time that she made something so lovely in only one class! This Ohio Star block will be made into a cushion for gifting... there might even be a set of three?

Jolly Jo finished quilting her paper pieced Christmas Tree wall hanging floor cushion... after patiently tying off several ends and threading them neatly through her work before cutting them off, Jo realised that, as a cushion, no-one will see the back as it will be inside the cushion... quick as a flash... the process was shortened to threading through to the other side and snipping off... much quicker! 

Stitching News

Stitching news has been a little sparse over the last few days. No excuses for that, it's all down to the silly little camera not being able to take it's own pictures while I busy about with classes and customers (it's like a real shop... folk are popping in and out all the time! he he he) and I don't really enjoy blogging without lovely pictures... luckily, I have a few for today though, and they were worth the wait, take a look!

Princess Jackie makes the most stunning appliqué blocks...
She's so good at looking for just the right bit to cut from her fabrics to get an absolutely fabulous result... Look closer at the detail...
Jackie is an applique fussy cutting genius!
I'm thinking her fabric must look like moths moved in!

Sporty Sue had finished her walking foot quilting so she attached the darning foot to the Juki Beast (TL 98) and stitched fabulous loopy leaves trailing through her background fabric... Didn't she do well!!!

Rose's carefully chosen fabrics are gorgeous...
There was a lot of stitching done during class... all these blocks were stitched into rows with a background square added to each end, followed by the setting triangles...
It's soooo lovely!

Lovely Lyn's project had us all 'oooooh-ing'... the main blocks didn't look too exciting until Lyn added the alternate blocks to them...
see how that little tiny corner triangles work, a very clever design...
You have to be careful and concentrate to get the colours in the right places.
 I think we will see more of this pattern over the coming weeks.

Last job of the day for Princess Jackie was to move a few tables around in order to make a sandwich with this sofa throw... it seems Jackie has a few sandwiches made and some waiting to be pinned...
I think hope she's planning a quilting frenzy? 

You might have noticed that our up coming coach trip to the NEC Quilt Festival is full up, all tickets have been sold so it looks like we will have a fun journey there and back... I expect the show to be great too! ha ha ha.
I do intend to organise this trip with tickets again next year too... the coach has been provisionally booked... we might even need two! I hope you are able to go to the 2013 Quilt Show... I'm very excited, just a few more sleeps!

Toot Toot Toot... for Me!

In my very own quilt shop I have started to cut little square packs of novelty fabric. They are ideal for making kiddy game quilts, like 'Eye Spy...' or 'Find The Pig, sheep, train???'. Each square measures 6" so, with 30 squares, one pack makes a good size play mat. Borders are not included but we can help you choose those fabrics if you like. One width of fabric is perfect for backing too... a cunning plan!

 My Mum Gwynneth made this quilt from one of the packs for me...
 I have a family baby to give it to but it can stay in the shop for a few days

I finished stitching the binding on this quilt...
it's become known as Lovely Lyn's different fabric quilt.
Of course, even though she abandoned it... she likes it now it's finished...

It got rather cool Hexagon backing... 
I thought you might want to see it for your very own self?
It's very clever how the Hexagons are made... great for a Layer Cake!

Merrily's Charity Stitching

A while ago, Merrily told us about Wiggley bags. She and her daughter make them regularly. I offered to make some too, so Fiona sent me the information. Weeks went by and I still hadn't produced any... not wanting to let the side down I proposed that if I supplied the fabrics would Merrily please make some Wiggley bags on my behalf... luckily, Merrily was happy to help me out. We chopped up several half metres of fabric and Merrily set to, making the Wiggley bags, that's one in the centre of the photo. There's another type of medical tube carrying bag needed as well, top right of the picture. Also there's a hospital collecting premature baby clothes so Merrily used some fabric to make the beautiful little clothes you see in the picture, they are only about 8" long.
What a lovely lady Merrily is to make such lovely things for donating.

Stitching News

Merrily needed to make a sandwich with her Statue Of Liberty. After all the pinning we discussed a few possibilities for the quilting, ranging from shadow quilting to sea like lines with ships passing by maybe with seagulls flying over the top... how about quilting a skyline of buildings...
I don't think we helped Merrily much actually... he he he

Jolly Jo has decided to finish her paper pieced Christmas Tree wall hanging but to make it into a large floor cushion, what a great idea! It was our hottest day so far this year so it was amusing to be talking about sitting on a festive floor cushion by a roaring fire! 

Michelle My Belle started a new Jelly Roll quilt from her Jelly Roll book. The pattern suggested sorting the Jelly Roll into lights and darks first of all, but the sorting was tricky because there were so many to choose from... 42 x 2 1/2" strips! Eventually the task was complete so Michele started stitching blocks. Lovely aren't they?

One of our new quilters, Jo was very excited to have finished her delightful Railfence table runner quilt top. Next time she's going to piece her backing and, hopefully, make a sandwich and start quilting... if we can get a walking foot to fit her machine.

Another beginner, Jackie, had a few tricky bits to fudge but all the hard work paid off, and the inner border fitted perfectly... she will add the outer border next time, and possibly make the backing.

Nicola, also a beginner, with the tiniest little red sewing machine, made great progress with her strip sets and blocks... she's going to finish stitching them together at home so we will be adding the borders next time.

 Peggy... you can see she's a beginner because it's a Railfence table runner... or is it? This one might be turned into a lovely little lap quilt. No need to decide yet so we will carry on to see how big it grows.