Are You Crackers About Cream Fabrics?

It's Crackers About Cream week in my very own shop!!! 
You can never have too many cream fabrics in your very own stash!!
Look what I am doing to help you....
There's going to be 10% taken off all P&B Apple Cider fabrics and, and, and... finish a bolt and we will take off a further 10% from the cost of that piece... (obviously this is one of those 'while stocks last' situations)... 
If you pop in to my very own shop this week, you will find other cream-ish fabrics on the terribly tempting table too, they are mixed in with my other deliciously tempting fabric pieces!! 

Lots of Moda and other makes will be included this 10% Crackers About Cream week too
I am happy to help you enhance your stash... 

Christmas Angel Workshop

November News

It's the week with a first Thursday of the month so tomorrow evening is SPQ night... 

click this link for more information... 

Wendy Lord will be the speaker so, I can pretty much guarantee, it will be a hoot! 

There will be a table top trader with stuff to sell,

 this month it is the new ladies who took over from Tori and Anne with Zig-Zags.

See you all later?...

A Whirlwind Of A Week

Once again it's been a very eventful time round here... Mostly Molly Dog related but all is well now. I hope you have a cup of tea or coffee in hand as this will be a long post with lots of pictures in an effort to catch up with my very own self... and your very good selves... just in case you've missed my more regular posts... have you?

Carol's quilt made for her granddaughter...
We made up the pattern for this quilt with mathemisms and all...  it is a lovely, bright and quite a girly little number, don't you think? Won't you give out a toot toot toot fanfare for Carol's, fabulous and finished, quilt.

Now I have to admit that this is a rubbish picture... It's Lorna's quilt made with delicious Tilda fabrics but the colours are much lovelier in real life... Oh dear... I have not done a good job taking the photo... let's blame the camera eh!!! Toot toot toot Lorna, your quilt is absolutely fabulous and most definitely finished.

You can see the colours of Lorna's fabrics much better in this picture... another toot toot toot is needed for a fabulous and finished cushion made with leftover Tildas and a zip! A pretty, pink, 14" zip... we can do that now... we use all sorts of zips because we know how to make them longer.

Heather came for the beginners workshop and had a lovely day... she told me that!!... then she booked another class in order to finish off her cushion as she was using one of our fabulous Juki HZL 600 machines... so pleased with her new found skills she purchased everything needed for quilted cushion number two... toot toot toot

Milly came to play... her blocks are 24" finished and she was going to add sashing when joining them together... just for an experiment, I suggested she try without sashing... it made a fabulous design with a great secondary pattern... so no sashing fabric was purchased... hmmmm... not sure that was good shop keeping!! ha ha ha

Farmer Lynda completed her first quilted block and I'm happy to report that she loves it... more Dutchman's Puzzle blocks will be made and quilted ready for joining using the wonderful apartment joining method that we love!

Fiona Too made a quick sandwich with her About A Girl quilt... all hands were helping so it didn't take long at all to get the pins in place... Soon the quilting commenced... what a lovely way to spend an afternoon... chatting and stitching... and a lot of giggling!

Wow... what an amazing quilt top... a few more rows to go yet but my goodness... this is a stunning design... it belongs to Dilly who loves the more challenging projects, you must have noticed that though... and she makes them lick-etty-split... only three weeks of stitching here.

Our Sheila made all four of these cushions in the one session. She arrived with all of the fabrics cut to size so they came together Lick-etty-Split. A novel Quilt-As-You-Go method was used... and a workshop will be announced soon for spring 2016!!

Jenny Barlaston is about to lose count of how many wall hangings and Advent doo-dahs she's made... every kiddie gets one all to it's very own self... I think it's fair to say that Jenny must be an expert in this field!!! This panel has been reduced from £8.00 to £5.00 in my very own shop, while stock lasts that is

Sister Susie made a few more of her Sawtooth Star blocks. She's using this No Waste Flying Geese method which his brilliant!! It's easy and almost foolproof... I think Susie needs to make a few more  blocks yet... maybe enough for twelve in total... I forget now...

Lady Judith is ready for us to give out a toot toot toot fanfare for her fabulous and finished kiddy quilt.. isn't it just lovely.... Obviously this one is for a little lady... Judith told us that she is very impressed with the effects of the variegated threads... we were impressed with everything!!

Peggy's lovely Log Cabin quilt for donating to the Donna Louise people.
Peggy is so please with her quilt... she told me she could hardly sleep with the excitement of  knowing she would be bringing the quilt in to show us that it was finished.
Toot toot toot-etty-toot Peggy!!

AnnBacan wanted to use up a few bits and pieces of fabric left over from quilt making... this is one side of her cushion, a perfect match for the quilt it will be sitting with and...

This is the other side of Ann's cushion, also a perfect match for the quilt it will sit with... a double sided quilt with a double sided cushion... toot toot toot Annbacan... this fits the brief perfectly

Fran Cupcake is having a wonderful time making this little quilt... as you can see she's using the fabulous iron on, tear away stabilizer for the embroidered writing.... it works really well and no-one will ever know it was used!! 

Merrily's little cushion panel is coming together nicely... it's got a lot of tiny bits to be traced onto the Sticky Stuff... Heat And Bond in this case... though we do sell a variety of brands ... How lovely to be thinking of those pretty little Snowdrops as the evenings get shorter!!

Di Butterfly found my lightbox very useful indeed... you know we aim to please!!! This Kid's Quilts stocking is such a lovely little project... all the bits were put in perfect places ready for stitching.

Our Sheila's Hedgehog quilt had the finishing touches added... She used a decorative stitch or two and he turned out very smart indeed. A lovely cushion and a great conversation piece, I'm sure.

Peggy is making festive stockings next... they will also be donated to the Donna Louise people. This time Peggy's work will be sold to raise funds... What a lovely lady Peggy is to donate her lovely projects... She loves making things for them though... so that's just fine.

Gosh... I might need to lie down in a darkened room after all that remembering! ha ha ha
We are up to date now... I will try to post piccies of my design wall in Quilty Quarters tomorrow... I've been playing with a Jelly Roll!

Fran's Festive Bauble Garland

On Saturday 14th November, Fran's going to be teaching her most fabulous Bauble Garland Workshop... another great project for using up your bits and bobs...
Fran makes most wonderful projects and things with 'stuff' we might ordinarily throw away...

You have no idea how tricky it was to take pictures of this lovely project... I hope you get the idea... I guess you could pop into my shop for a better looky-look!
There's no limit to how many baubles you can put on your garland... The more baubles you make the longer the garland would be...

They would look quite lovely, and a little quirky  actually, to have them hanging on your door knobs and handles... with bells attached to them you would start to feel ever so festive every time you went through a door

Maybe don't put one on the loo door though... waking everyone at night would not make you popular!! ha ha ha... and, if you have kiddos in the house, they would think Santa was coming and wake up with excitement!!!

We have a few places availabubble so... what are you doing on Saturday 14th November?

Bag Workshop, The results...

We used the Scottsdale Crossbody Bag pattern for our workshop.
It makes a fabulous bag with zipped pockets and ruched fabrics...
An extremely satisfying workshop, we learned A LOT!!!!
We very much impressed our very own selves!!!

I forgot to take a picture of my very own Scottsdale Crossbody Bag by Bari J. I'll try to remember to sort that out today.

Yes, if you are wondering... I do have the pattern in stock!

A Taster Day For Beginners

Tomorrow, that's Saturday 24th October, we have one of our taster days for beginners. This small project is a great way of learning the basics of patchwork and quilting whilst not committing to weeks and weeks of classes, not that WE make people sign up for courses but some places do.
 This cushion can be completed in the one workshop, but if you don't quite finish it and need a little extra time, you can book and pop in to a class any day and we will help you more. Fantastic customer service!!!
Here are a few pictures of completed beginner cushions, so you can get a good idea of how different they look in lots of different fabrics...

This small project is good an introduction to:-

Accurate cutting using a mat, ruler and rotary cutter.
Sewing an accurate quarter inch seam allowance with, hopefully, straight lines.
Good general piecing skills with top tips to help with seam matching.
Good pressing technique… a very important skill
How to make and a small quilt sandwich.
How to quilt and, if there’s still time left we can turn your project into a lovely 18” cushion with my fabulously easy zip inserting method. 

The workshop starts at 10am and we should be finished by 3pm... what a lovely way to spend a day... then if you find you are hooked... and that happens a lot... you can start thinking about what to make next, and we would welcome you to the dark side!!! ha ha ha

Anyway, just to let you know that we have a couple of spare places. If you fancy a dabble to satisfy your curiosity, call or email today.

Stitching News, With Tooting

Merrily has a fabulous and finished quilt, Toot toot toot!!
This is the last in her series of memory quilts for grandchildren...
Unless any more grandchildren arrive that is!!!
Once again Merrily used the very popular, Apartment Quilting method,
brilliant for making large projects and this is a large project!

Squeals of delight from our Lou Lou... she finished her new bag in good time for taking it on her jolly holiday next week. Zips and gathers and plenty of pockets...
Toot toot toot Lou lou... not only is it finished... It Is Fabulous!!

PM Pam purchased a new magazine and... rather lick-etty-split-ly, ran up these most wonderful Mug Rugs from a pattern included in it...
there's plenty of room for your cup-a-beverage and a biscuit on the side!
Toot toot toot Pam... fabulous and finished fanfares for every finish!!

Peggy finished quilting her latest quilt for donating to the Donna Louise Foundation, here she's hand stitching the binding whilst telling me to get ready for a new project... "I want it to be easy to do" said Peggy... she always says that!

Josie's table looked like she was at playschool!!
Tracing paper, pencil and scissors, sticky stuff and mess!! ha ha ha
She's getting all the bits together for a Kids Quilts Christmas Stocking or two.

Di Butterfly is also making a Christmas stocking. This pattern is also from Kids Quilts, a slightly different design and using the very same, sticky stuff and blanket stitch applique method. I'm thinking that it's our favourite method at the moment!

Well now... as Merrily had finished her huge gifting quilt, it was time to start something new... Unsure for now what she wanted to make... but sure it would NOT be a huge quilt, she set about making a few liberated, Crumbs and Mile-A-Minute blocks... great for de-stressing!

My Mum Gwynneth has had a stressful time of late, I told you about all that... She's lost her stitching Mojo because of it... I wonder whether those blooming thieves know they have that in their dishonest pockets!!...
A quick and easy project might just do the trick and help her find her Stitching Mojo...
Cushions work for me, every time!!

Now then... as we are talking about stress... ha ha ha
Farmer Lynda is making different blocks for a large-ish sampler quilt. Each block will be quilted individually and then will be joined together Appartmently. Flying Geese units, though fabulous, can stress the best of us... but with this method ... all is calm!! I urge you to try it if you have not yet... it is truly LIBERATING!!!