Stitching News, Short And Sweet...

Shelia popped in to show us her fabulous and finished cushion, toot toot toot! These were the remaining Half Square Triangles (HST's) after making her table runner. See how Sheila used a most beautiful variegated Metler thread and Juki HZL 600 decorative stitches... lovely.
Oh my word... what a beautiful background I chose for this shot!!

Jeannette only started this Lone Star quilt last week!! She's a full time nurse so I don't know how she does it, I wonder whether she actually sleeps?
I'm loving the sashing, what a great idea!
I think we all thank goodness for beautiful buttons at times eh... he he he

A short post because I'm short on time... so what's new! 
Thank goodness for the wonderful J Team and Thank goodness for My Mum Gwynneth and that very patient Daddy of mine!

Stitching News

Jean Bean is determined to get this lovely quilt finished and gifted this year. She stitched away all day, barely stopping to drink tea... oh no... that would never happen, so I must be exaggerating! ha ha ha. Seriously... she's only got the borders to quilt now, then it's binding time.

Penelope started making her snowman gift bags, three of them. She's using the same method as the Mat and Ruler Bag, a bit smaller and without the ruler pocket! The tutorial can be found by clicking the tab at the top of this blog. 

Morning Judith had finished all of the straight line quilting and spent her morning quilting leaf shapes on each 9-Patch block.
This beautiful quilt is a surprise gift for someone special.

Christabelle made a Christmas tree shaped quilt. Her very own design, embellished with applique and buttons, glitter and other stuff... beautiful. It's very loosely based on fabric post cards...
After the workshop last Wednesday, Christabelle was inspired.
On top of all that....
Another great picture of another corner in my very own quilt shop!!

Jan, a new lady, finished the centre of her Railfence Table Runner, it's a great project for learning all the basics of Patchwork and Quilting... it's also a very inviting doorway to our wonderful addiction!!

Sandwich Saturdays

Sandwich Saturdays are proving to be very useful. With no Saturday workshops booked for December it means that all ten tables are free, so we're able to cater for quilts of all sizes. Like New Sue's latest beauty made with Moda's Mid Winter Red collection. I didn't crop the picture at all... I thought it was a great advert for my very own, and totally fabulous, patchwork and quilting  shop!

Little Annette made two sandwiches on Saturday. She has all of the pockets made for her two Advent Calendars but the backgrounds for them needed to be sandwiched and quilted before the pockets could be stitched on. Yes it's a little bit late for this year's Advent fun... let's be positive... 
Annette's just getting ahead for next year!!

So, like I said earlier, we don't have Saturday workshops in December so there are 3 more Sandwich Saturdays before the holidays. All you have to do is book your slot between 10am and 2pm. I have lots of wadding including Hobbs Heirloom 80/20, 120" and Hobbs Heirloom fusible wadding 96" wide, which is great for bag making and smaller projects. 100% cotton white which is 90" wide and a further Soft & Gentle 80/20 in both 90" and 120".

Sue's Dresden Plate Cushions

New Sue finished her fabulous Dresden Plate cushions. She used a Charm pack to make them. It's Sweet Serenade by Moda, such a lovely collection. Both of Sue's cushions are going to be gifted. Almost everyone who came to our Dresden Plate cuchion workshop has gone on to make second and third cushions... actually, Rose made 4!

Stitching News

Stephanie Iceland popped in to show us her second, fabulous Hunter's Star quilt.
She chose a Friday in particular knowing Dotty Maureen would be there to see it, Dotty had taught the workshop that Stephanie had attended.
What a stunning design the Hunter's Star block makes

Joan The Shop was very relieved to have her tree skirt finally on the right track... we're having to improvise with the making it and, fortunately, it's working out, even with fingers crossed! Looks great now though eh! 

Joan The Shop had to do a last minute dash to finish her Advent Angel.
 There's a lot of 'bling' on this little lady, as requested by the little lady Joan's making it for.
I hope you all managed to finish your Advent projects?

Lyn Scatterpin very carefully presses her seams... she lays her giant blocks on the pressing board (not an ironing board!) to figure out which direction the seams need be pressed to.
My new pressing station is brilliant... and so say aaaall of us!

Dam Julie (who always builds a dam of patchwork paraphernalia around her chair) trimmed up 12 of her 36 blocks, sandwiched and quilted them. They will be joined together with the apartment method to keep everything to a manageable size... 3 quilts need to be finished for the sewing prevention season... Go Julie!!

After making a few more fabulous fabric postcards to ease her into the day and the task ahead... Michelle My Belle spent her afternoon quilting this giant commission quilt... such a bright and happy quilt, it makes you smile just looking at it... with a wow!

To say that Barbie is pleased with this quilt top is, most definitely, an understatement. She claims that it's a fluke that it turned out to be so beautiful... I don't think we believe that though, do we? She's finding hidden talents since she got her lovely new Juki HZL f600
Message from Joan The Shop.... there's still time to order one Derek!

When there's not quite enough fabric to make the back wide enough what do we all do in very own classroom? We make beautiful pieced backings... Barbie loves making these braids... add a ladder of left over greens and that makes a lovely feature, she will add two 22" to strips of creamy cream to either side of this centre and the backing will be perfect... almost as lovely as the top.

Almost Finished...

Giggly Gillian added the last two lines of stitching to her outer border using the seam guide on her Bernina walking foot, such a useful little gadget.
I find most machines only include the seam guide bar for stitching to the left of your lines, so we have to improvise, with Bernina you get a doodad for both sides, much easier! Gillian's crusts were trimmed and binding was made, it's almost ready for tooting!

Rose is making two of these Knickerbocker Glory quilts. She's finished quilting the first one, and it had it's crusts trimmed off... Rose then skipped over to her Dresden Plate cushions. I think we will be tooting a twin pair of Knickerbocker Glories very soon  

Another almost finished belongs to Lovely Lyn, binding had been stitched to the front so there's just a little mile or two of hand stitching to be done... the best job for keeping your knees warm with the cooler evenings, don't you think?

Post Card Workshop

Stitching News

Cynthia finished her most splendid festive apron. The letters are from the book "I believe" always a popular book with lovely projects to choose from. Cynthia works in the Victorian Tea Rooms in Cheadle, you'll see her apron there for sure.
I hope you noticed my beautiful Batik fabrics in the background...
I had lots of new shelves built 'specially for them!

Monday Sheila finished her Santa Advent Calendar, just in the nick of time eh! The little pockets need to be filled over the next few days, that's the easy bit.
We sold the last panel on Monday so there will be a lot of happy kiddies when it's day 1... which I believe, is on Sunday this week. 

Krafty Karen and  Early Sue arrived giggling... they came with hand stitching projects in little boxes telling us how light, small and easy to carry they were... tis the best advantage of hand piecing, I must admit working by machine is definitely a heavy lifting game.

 Both ladies are really enjoying making up hexagons by the dozen. See how they both like to used paper clips to keep things neat and tidy... I'm wondering whether Karen's are real gold!

Giggly Gillian finished her Foldy Fun Christmas Tree... I think we must ask Jenny Barlaston to do a few more workshops for this lovely project, next year though... more people want to make it... Jenny, what says you?

Lovely Lyn started and finished her quilting on this baby play mat. She used Superior Threads Rainbow thread to stitch with, shiny and beautiful at the very same time... baby is on it's way so that binding needs to be stitched on Lickety-Split!

Rose, she of delicious scone fame, finished her Dresden Plate cushion at the workshop and has continued to make 3 more. You can make 4 cushions with one Charm Pack... we have lots of Charm Packs to choose from too. There's another Dresden Plate Cushion workshop in the New Year... just a few weeks!

One table, three lovely ladies... all doing their quilting, chatting, giggling and generally enjoying their lovely day in my very own classroom...
Can you have too much fun? I don't think so!