Stitching News, With Sandwiches

Dilly has one of those clever cutting machines.
She scanned in her pattern pieces and it cut perfect templates for Jeannette to trace round... she arrived for class with all the bits prepared... a good strong cup of tea was needed before the machine was switched on.

Tea imbibed, she slowly and steadily joined the units together...
in the order suggested by the pattern and, yes... it makes a difference... ask Jeannette!
No ironing or pressing just yet...

A whole day!!! This is a tricky block to make. Each one, I am quite sure, will be better than the last... It's a learning experience... we already know that Jeannette loves a challenge though eh.

No I Clare made another memory quilt top...
 see the legs of the jeans... fun eh!
Simple quilting will be done now that the sandwich has been made

Peggy spied her opportunity to make a crafty little sandwich.... smaller quilts needing only two tables are easier to squish in during classes. This quilt will be donated to the Donna Louise Trust... once it's finished, of course.

Merrily is in the process of making another memory quilt, for the last grandchild!..
the quilts never got any smaller though...
Merrily knows very well by now, that she can quilt her projects in smaller units to be joined together... appartmently! this in one third being sandwiched

A smaller sandwich... Sheila has really enjoyed making these pretty little projects... those buttons look great on the Suffolk Puffs don't they, and pretty stitches for the leaves and stems. We chose a most beautiful backing fabric for Sheila's cushion...

This is the 'Not So Quick Table Topper' that Barbara is making...
 with beautiful Batiks... so that's another sandwich achieved.
We are having a run on pinning just lately.

Fabulous And Finished

PM Pam has a fabulous and finished quilt and so we shall give a toot toot toot fanfare, as we normally do... every finished project is a triumph!! Pam used traditional Beatrix Potter blocks with 'just in', modern fabrics with 'on trend' colours...
"It Just shows that everything goes" oh my... I wrote poetry!

Quite an amazing story... This customer purchased one of those Aldi bargain books... you know the ones... they are about £1.99-£2.99...there is a reason why they are cheap as chips!! Anyway, she chose her design from her new book and came to my lovely shop to choose fabrics. There wasn't the massive choice of today back then though, as we had not been open long, unlike today when there's so much choice that customers actually complain!!! Didn't she do well with her choices?... over two years in the making... having never done Patchwork or Quilting ever before...
 Ta-da-aaah Fabulous and finished and massive!!!

My lovely customer came shopping for the backing fabric and wadding...
She needed a lot of fabric as it is a ginormous quilt, so... I asked whether she had any fabric leftover from making the front. She said that she had quite a lot so...
I sent her packing, telling her to use them up, he he he...
no, I jest!! I don't do that really... She was ever so pleased that I had encouraged her to use up the left-overs for her backing... it took more time but saved her money... As a fabric shop, I probably should have sold her new fabric... but you know it...
 I love to keep my fabrics!! That's why I am in such a shelf-space pickle!

Toot toot toot for Just Jan's almost finished, commissioned tote bag... It is finished really but there are ends to be tied in and sorted out... we won't see this Terrific Tote again though. Loving the way Jan quilted... can you see it?

Please Help Me??

I am in another space pickle!!!
I've gone and done it, just like before... New fabrics arrived every day last week so I've had to get the terrific trolleys out again... they are all over the shop
"Trip Risk!!"...
there wasn't another option.... well, I could have cancelled all classes and used the tables for displaying fabrics but, I'm just guessing... I would have been a little bit unpopular!!! ha ha ha. Now, just to make matters worse... I've had notification from two other suppliers that 'my goods have been shipped' and will be arriving tomorrow, Monday... ahhhhhh, there's no room on the shelves!!!
I don't want to do this, I love having too much fabric for you all to choose from... but I have no choice... Starting tomorrow, until I have enough places to put all of the new stuff, there will be 10% taken off the price of the fabric when you empty that bolt.
In the mean time, I'm re-rolling some of the fabrics onto smaller bolt centres... with the help of the lovely J team ladies... those companies that send fat bolt centres are causing the work! they look great on the shelves, I know that... but I don't have the luxury of space to leave them on those fatter-chunky-doo-dads.
There are quite a few bolts with very little fabric on them, you could bag-a-bargain, come on over!!

Stitching News

Just Edna spent the whole day stitching... she chose quite a dense pattern for her strippy blocks so it takes a long time to do each one... they look great, that's for sure... but blimey... it's going to take quite a lot of hours to do them all....
Come on Just Edna... We know you can do it!!

Lady Judith had our resident artist, Jean Bean, draw up a few letters so that this lovely little quilt can be personalised... Charlotte... so there're lots of letters involved. They're now having the blanket stitch treatment on the edges.

No I Clare must have been making Half Square Triangles (HST's)  in her sleep because there are loads to play with now... she made great progress in stitching them together into 9-patch units, and similar... a very cute and rather dottie little design, the plan is to make a lap size quilt. 

Princess Jackie spent a good chunk of her day quilting this beauty... There's a little tiny bit of pressure on Jackie to produce top standard work now that she has her very own Winner Rosette and engraved plate to prove how lovely her work is...
Jackie's applique is always top standard, you must have noticed that?

Giggly Gillian came to class with an arm full of American flag fabric, musical instrument and a few other oddities of fabric, wanting a quilt design to incorporate all of them... we came up with a rough plan and work has started... the quilt will be made and quilted in four quarters then stitched together appartment-ly, to keep the quilt sizes manageabubble

Christabelle searched T'Interweb for some real vintage Winnie The Pooh fabric. It actually came from over the pond and Chris is very happy with it... it's tricky using a fabric that you don't want to cut up and you would like to have some left over!! We did a great job choosing the co-ordinating fabrics didn't we!

Back in August 2014, Jean Bean told us all about the Festival Of Quilts Linus Quilt challenge for 2015...  read about it here  She's collecting Homes and Gardens blocks and will deliver them to the Linus ladies on 9th August...
This is Just Edna's block, quite lovely it is too.
If you want to join in with the challenge, but you are not able to go to the Quilt Show to take your own block(s), you can bring them, or send them of course, to my very own quilt shop and Jean will take them for you.

In between helping all of our lovely customers with their purchases (and badgering them into making house blocks) on Tuesdays and Mondays, this is what Jean is making... extremely cute little Churndash blocks, made with a Charm Pack. There's no rush to make them so Jean is taking her time... well... it's gardening season so there's not going to be much stitching done at home!

Fabulous Finishes

Gail finished her beautiful Bargello... the one she made to match her green carpet?
How funny, lots of people re-decorate after making an amazing quilt you know!! Bargello designs always impress... this is no exception...
Toot toot toot Gail, it's a fabulous finish.

Princess Jackie needed a kiddie quilt making Lick-etty-split so she surfed on T'Interweb to find a pre-printed panel to help speed up the process. Luckily I had just the right border fabrics in my very own shop to make this fun project unique...
Toot toot toot Jackie, a fabulous, fast-ly finished quilt.

Christabelle brought in her little baby pram play mat.. do babies play in prams.... nope, not really... but it covers me by not saying it is a baby quilt! ha ha ha This is a lovely little project Chris made to have a go at hand quilting... another talent she now knows about! toot toot toot Chris, fabulous and finished, ready for gifting.

Sandwiches... And A Place Mat!

Rose came to make her sandwich. This is a commissioned project and was made with a Moda Layer Cake, Printemps I believe... The pattern is from a book... This design was super quick to make... we just need to come up with a quilting plan now...

Brenda Barbara came to make a sandwich too... 
this is the back of her quilt... What a fabulous centre panel!!!

And here's Brenda's super sandwich... plenty of pins to stop the layers from shifting as she tugs and puffs to get it through the 'hole' in her sewing machine... decisions will be made about the quilting next time, there might be a little free-motion too...

Made by Christabelle .... Toot toot toot, for this fabulous and finish. 
It's a placemat... what a very good idea to use the 30 degree triangle ruler to make placemats!!! Chris used Moda's William Morris fabrics, lovely, evidently there was a little skillful fussy cutting involved. The result it has to be said, is quite chic... but wait... I'm thinking Christmas-sy fabric... ooooh-oh I see them now... Christmas tables will look fabulous with a set of... what do you call a shape with 12 sides? A Dodecagon apparently... We could make them with Dresden Plate rulers... 20 sides, Icosagon?... It'll beat talking about the turkey!!! ha ha ha

Festival Of Quilts 2015... Road Trip!

It's getting closer... 

The annual pilgrimage to the Festival Of Quilts 2015 at the NEC Birmingham.

Ticket prices have gone up this year, I just checked... 
£14.00 (£13.00 Concession) if you purchase in advance... 
£1.50 admin. fee has to be added.
£10.00 for parking your car. Yup, parking has gone up too 
£14.00 + £1.50 + £10.00 = £25.50 
and let's not forget... plus your fuel!... 
I know you could share expenses with your friends... but
Then there's...
£16.00 on the day/door (£15.00 concession) 
£10 for parking your car...
 £16.00 + £10.00 = £26.00 plus all that fuel! 
That's enough math for a Sunday morning when I could be stitching! ha ha ha

Purchasing tickets for groups is more economical so I have 60 tickets!! 
£12.00 each if you want one or...
I booked transport too...
£23.00 gets you there and... gets you into the show... and brings you home!
IF you book seats on our coach. 
Sunday 9th August. Limited seating. Payment in advance.

Stitching News

Fiona Too has a fabulous and finished cushion.
Perfectly pieced and beautifully quilted
toot toot toot

This is the back of Fiona's cushion...
There's a zip under that beautiful strip of Art Gallery fabric
We love cushions with zips!

Sister Sue also has a fabulous and finished cushion.
Perfectly pieced and beautifully quilted in Dutch Chintz design fabric
toot toot toot

This is the back of Sister Sue's scrumptious cushion... 
There's a zip under that beautiful strip of Moda fabric
It's such an easy way to insert a zip!

Yeng's cushion top has been made with Tilda fabrics
A very pretty cushion it is too.
The quilting was started, it will be finished for homework
Yeng likes a little homework!

Barbara Bew started off making the very popular Quick Table Topper...
but she wanted a star in the main block... so we made an Ohio Star.
Then she wanted to make it a little wider, so we added the little squares at each end of the strips... she says she loves it... but will make it much longer...
we could add borders too... lets see what Barbara gets up to next...

Morning Josie finished quilting her poppies, changing the threads for each part to get the best results... the cushion back has been made too, yes, with a zip!
The base for Josie's cushion is a Lovely cotton/linen mix from Moda.. very special! 

Jeannette Dilly made this cushion to practice some complex piecing. It's a Jen Kingwell pattern and should be hand pieced.... blaaaa! Jeannette doesn't do hand stitching, so we converted the pattern... that sounds grand but we just added seam allowances! ha ha ha Dilly learned a lot with this practice block and now THE REAL blocks will be tackled... those are the chosen fabrics to the right... more as it happens... and it happens pretty quickly with Jeannette! 

I finished quilting my latest project... I love Art Gallery fabric... I think I might have mentioned that before? I have to choose binding fabric now so that I can get it finished but I wanted to show you that I made matching cushions... I love cushions and I love them more with zips!!! ha ha ha ... more orange, I think I've been Tango'd