Quilty Quarters

That's it then... the end of my mini break for Easter 
I have sewn and sewn and sewn... 
of course I have cooked and cleaned and and washed and dried and and and... a woman's work is never done! Here's my finished, Batik Beauty quilt top... 
I couldn't fit it on my design wall... as you can probably see... I had to tuck it behind my cutting table...
It's enormous! The back is ready too, I found the perfect 5 metres total of fabric, mostly  from the temptation trolleys in my lovely little quilt shop!!! So, what's next? If I find time today whilst playing shop, I will make a huge quilt sandwich so I can start quilting... though I haven't decided how I will quilt it yet...
Secret sewing has been done in Quilty Quarters too, oh so cute-etty cute!!

Quilty Quarters

Yesterday, I finished all the blocks I needed to square up the Beautiful Batik quilt... when I say square up I mean rectangled up! ha ha ha.. I'm not a big fan of square quilts... Anyway... the lovely little quilt shop is closed on Wednesdays (today is Wednesday) and I need/want to choose my borders for this beauty... Oh... wait a minute... I have my very own keys to my very own quilt shop...!!! Guess where I am going now?

Blimey and good-goodness it took me a long time to press all of these strip sets... I emailed Jan Hassard to ask her preference for the direction of pressing. Lovely lady emailed directly back suggesting I press them all in the same direction and she said that we can flip the seams as and when necessary during the workshop... so, this little devil pressed them all open! ha ha PMS, I Pleased My Self! 

Super Strippy Square Bags

Bridget and Rachel came to Jenny's bag workshop recently.
They sent pictures of their fabulous and finished Super Strippy Square Bags
Both exactly the same and completely different, at the very same time...
Just like Bridget and Rachel actually! toot toot toot

Sandwiches

Sporty Sue made this project with one of the collectable Moda Frivol Tins... 42 x 7" squares of fabric, just like a Charm Pack or Layer Cake but with different sized fabrics and a cute tin to keep for ever... and we love cute tins!

This sandwich also belongs to Sporty Sue... It's been made with Moda's Little Black Dress 2 fabrics and the fabulous design, with double needle appliqued circles, was a Craftsy Class Sue signed up for... Woop woop for Craftsy!

This sandwich belongs to Rose... the Tuesday one. It's a pattern from one of the Jelly Roll books and Rose had decided to make it with a Jelly Roll... She wanted to practice and improve her skills for better piecing... looks like it worked too!

Technically, this is not a sandwich as Annbacan isn't using wadding/batting. She is going to make a Duvet cover out of this giiiiiant quilt top so wadding is not required... it will still be quilted though, to hold all the seams from coming undone.

Quilty Quarters, Holiday Sewing

So the holiday weekend got off to a great start... too rainey to do the blooming garden... such a shame for me... NOT!

I retreated to Quilty Quarters!!!

The beautiful Batik strip sets have been sitting waiting to be cut up for months. I started this project on the 18th November last year and I've kept re-visiting it, in between making other things of course... and as time allowed. Once I found the pattern to print off again from the Moda Bake Shop website...  progress was made...

Taaa-dahhhh... I used up all of the strip sets... except, I somehow decided that the quilt needs to be enormous so I have run out of Beautiful Batik fabric. I need 14 more units ... I decided to move on to the next waiting project

I managed to get myself a place on the Jan Hassard Workshop being run by SPQ (Staffordshire Patchworkers and Quilters) in May.
We've now received the requirement list and there's homework to be done before we go. we need to make 6 strip sets in different colourways... I got carried away and decided to do three of each strip set so I can make the quilt as big as I like...

I finished that job too...
Except now I want to play with the stip sets... I have the urge... a very strong urge to cut them all up and start something new.... ha ha ha Will I resist???

First I shall pop down to my very own quilt shop to pick up a little more of the Beautiful Batik fabric... I really should get that Batik Bargello-ish project done... but my new urge grows stronger!

Stitching News

Sally was thrilled to have this quilt ready for sandwiching..
it's been a long term project and she's learned a lot making each block...
lots of them have been stitched by hand...
 Sally made a good start on the quilting too so she had a great day.

Monday Sheila made this bunting using cloud fabric from Makower...
What an inspired idea to use my rainbow ribbon to decorate the 'Bunts' with...
cute-etty-cute... There are some beautiful fabrics in the background too....
I hope you had noticed?

Fanfare toot toot tooting time....
For Princess Jackie's fabulous and finished gifting quilt...
Very cute fabric and perfectly neutral for any colour of baby
neither Pink-etty-pink nor Blue-ishy Blue!

Lots of the leftover fabrics have been put to good use...
we love using spare fabrics to make great pieced backing...
 it's liberated playtime!

Angela, the lady who will be teaching the new Block Of The Month quilt, brought in another block of the month quilt so that people could see just how different a project can look using different fabrics... these are mostly French General from Moda.
I don't remember us giving a fabulous and finished fanfare for Angela when she finished this beauty... so... toot toot toot

Super Strippy Square Bag Workshop

60 Degree Triangle... I love it!

So... I thought I would show you better pictures of my latest finished quilt... When I showed it to a few customers in my very own little quilt shop, they were surprised how much more vibrant it was than when they had seen it on my blog post, that's why I took another snap or two... actually.... it does look a lot better in these pictures than it did on my garden steps!
I still haven't decided what to call it...
A strange thing though?... it seems to get brighter every time I look at it. When I first started to chop into the Jelly Roll by Malka Dubrawsky I thought it was dull and dark.. weird eh?
I plan to make more projects using the 60 degree Triangle... It's all a new game for me.
Using a Jelly Roll I couldn't have made the quilt any larger without losing the continuity of the diagonal straight lines... anyway, it is big enough to snuggle under on my sofa...

I joined the left over Jelly Roll strips to make these diamonds..