Wednesday 30 September 2009

Success?.. Of Course!

It warms my cockles to know that so many of you are rooting for me with my new venture, thank you for the lovely messages.
The presentation went quite well with 17 ladies. A few we have to discount though, like.. my mother-in-law and her friend Dorothy who came along to "put bums on seats", that's how she explained her visit, ha ha bless her. She says she doesn't need to learn quilting because I just give them to her... good point!
I did take my camera with me but never got the opportunity to use it, plus I completely forgot!
duh
The photos in this post have been sent to me by Maureen (the first quilty friend I found in the UK).
You might note that she is not a professional photographer, he he he ... she blamed the blurred photos on me!
She says that I was moving about too much and too quickly... that's because I didn't know she was clicking away in the corner!
Except for this shot of my Giant Bunny... carefully posed and feeling very silly...
I love the way the Bunny hides me!
This shot is even better, you see, Ursula (in Portugal) is always complaining that I don't put pictures of myself on my blog, and here I am... in several piccies! he he he
In this picture you can just see a late arrival flying into the room... she had been the fabric shop moments earlier when Simone (the owner) told her about my gathering, she ran down the road to join us... how cool is that? Two ladies arrived in the same manner...
So, at the end of the presentation 4 ladies said they would join me for classes next Tuesday, 2 said they would definitely come but had holidays booked for the next two weeks, one lady wants to join us for some workshops as she already does patchwork and so doesn't need to do beginners.
Since then I have had some lovely emails and a few very touching telephone calls... from all these lovely things, I think it is safe to say, it was a success, don't you?

Monday 28 September 2009

Presenting....

A few of my quilts.....

This is the pile of quilts that I will be taking for my presentation tomorrow morning. The pile is soooooo heavy, I will have to make at least 4 journeys to get them from my car to the room I hired... hope I get to park close to the hotel door,
I've chosen only 26 quilts, from very small to king size, surely I will inspire someone to start classes with me.... I might even find quilty friends eh!

Friday 25 September 2009

Whiston Quilt Group


The ladies who are making the watercolour quilts made good progress this week... they bought in their chosen fabrics cut into 2 1/2" squares ready to decide their placement....
This is Elsie's, you can already see the shape of the stained glass window starting to form......
This is Laura's, with the paper pattern/template at the side you get a better idea. Laura had sewn quite a few pieces together by the end of our session, all by hand. I think all the ladies will be hand piecing....

This is the start of Jennifer's, again the shape is quite obvious, she has some beautiful greens in there eh! The ladies pinned the squares to a base fabric so that they didn't have to start all over again when they got home.... a cunning plan....
This is Laura with Flo, It looks like she is helping Flo but it could just be a chatty moment, these ladies do a lot of chatting... how strange for quilters eh? NOT!
I met Linda for the first time today. She only joined the group in March and considers herself a beginner.... she is making these little treasures into cards to sell at a church fair, at least, I think that's what she said. They have been pieced with a foundation fabric and she is now embellishing them with fancy stitching.

Julie had decided to start another project. It was quite funny because she asked teacher Joan for something a bit more difficult for this quilt... and then kept saying "oh gosh, that looks hard!" he he he... in the end it was decided that she will make a sampler quilt, with each block getting a little more difficult... hopefully Julie won't notice that though... let's see





I did go to the Alton Quilt Group on Monday afternoon. There was a lot to sort out with the planning of the upcoming quilt exhibition. Ladies bought in some of their projects that would be on the 'for sale' table... I was so busy looking at the lovelies that I forgot to take pictures... he he he, I don't like to post without pictures... so I didn't!

Sunday 20 September 2009

Fabulous News!!


Remember back in April this year I was lucky enough to go to the exhibition in Trentham, Quilts In The Garden?
At the end of this post about it you'll see this photograph plus a few close-ups.
It was a spectacular quilt... what am I saying?? 'was'?? it IS a spectacular quilt.
I have just been reading my pamphlet about the Staffordshire Patchwork and Quilting group's meeting on 1st October.... she is going to be giving the talk!!!
The lady who made this quilt... Ineke Berlyn, will be talking to us, The title of the talk is "Landscapes Explored", must get there early to get a front seat eh!! try and stop me!

Thursday 17 September 2009

Whiston Quilters

I went to the quilt group in Whiston again today. Lots of the ladies have decided to make this quilt... a water colour. I made a watercolour quilt in my early days as a quilter, it is the only quilt I vowed I would never make again... I wish these ladies luck with it though, they will look fabulous when they are finished.

As you can see they all bought in their leafy and floral prints... they have a lovely teacher helping them, her name is Joan... if I remember correctly....
that's Joan right right at the end wearing peach, she is a nurse in her other life, she had her work cut out today, helping all 4 ladies decide what will go where..... that's the hard bit though eh!

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Road Trip & News


On Sunday I was invited to go on a road trip with one of my new friends, Maureen. She took me to a
fabric warehouse in Leicester, I know I don't need any more fabric but it was my first invite so I just had to go! It's a long drive from here... fortunately!
I bought a pair of scissors, 3 metres of 50/50 batting to try out and these 1/2 metres of batiks, the stripey fabric was on the bargain counter... £2 per metre, I like using stripes for more interesting bindings.
I'm a member of the club now (it's £5 to join) so I guess I will be returning some day soon.

My other news is that I found a great room to rent so that I can start classes. I negotiated with a fabric shop to get 10% discount for my students and I met three ladies who can't wait to join my new group.
All I need now is to decide when to start, make and display some posters and we're off!
Wish me luck........

Saturday 12 September 2009

Birte's Been Busy


What a lovely lady Birte is. A lady in her neighbourhood gave birth to a baby girl and Birte rushed to make this quilt to give as a gift.... It took just 2 days to complete...
As you can see it has lots of Birte's signature colour.... PINK!
It's lovely Birte, what a lovely neighbour you are! x

Thursday 10 September 2009

Whiston Quilters

This afternoon I went to The Whiston Quilt Group.... I met another bunch of lovely ladies...
This is a few of them, as usual I can't remember all of their names. The quilt they are holding belongs to Laura, the lady in a light top on the right of the picture. It's completely done by hand. It has cute buttons of ladybirds and bees and many applique embellishments, I think she said it was called Summer Garden, well it was definitely Garden something.... all fabrics are from Laura's stash.
This is a quilt that Laura made last year for her daughter, wonderful colours and it is also done by hand.
This project is Joy's, I called her Joy field so that I could remember her name, (field for the project, it's not her real name ha ha ha).. she is making this for a friend and it's her own design, she is making it up as she goes along...fun!.
Julie is a new lady too, so I am not the only 'new girl' here.... she is making quilts for her grand children, this is the first, the next two projects are waiting in plastic bags..... I think she will need bionic fingers as they will all be done without a machine, I think.
I sat by Joy (field) and Mary (scraps, ha ha ha, not her real name either) they are very nice ladies, here they are trying to decide which fabrics to use.

Today I was reminded of the quilt cave.... most of the ladies brought in big bags of fabrics to choose from.... remember Amalia?
I thought it was a group shop at one point... he he he

This group meets every week, so....I'm going back next week!

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Mum's Lace


It's been ages since I've been able to post about my Mum's lace. She moved house so hasn't had a lot of free time. This piece is going to be a rectangular table centre which could be used as a tray cloth. It has 60 pairs of bobbins (I calculate that to be 120 bobbins ha ha ha).... she also said that she had to use 3 hundred weight of pins... tee hee, Mum says it is a little too big for the pillow really but' hey ho', it's started now...

The Ladies in Portugal are having their first day with Jenny Bowker today, I can't wait to hear how it went and to see some pictures. They are doing a two day workshop with kaleidoscopes.... I wish I was there, alas I am cleaning house here today!.. can't do it tomorrow because I have another quilt meeting to go to... and, just maybe... some more quilty friends to meet, woooohooooo!!!

Tuesday 8 September 2009

2 Cute Pics


Irene (queen of fiddley things) sent this photo a while ago but it looks like I forgot to post it.
We are meant to be looking at the new red work & log cabin cushion behind Irene's dog, also called Molly.. all in favourite country colours...


Ronny's grandson, Oscar, needed to practice looking after his soon to arrive baby sister, Ronny covered a little basket for a bed and made a perfect little rail fence quilt to keep his doll warm......

How cute are these photographs?
answer... VERY!!

Monday 7 September 2009

I Found Quilty Friends!

I am back now from my quilty meeting. I think I will like it there, they seem to be very nice ladies and I was on my best behaviour, tee hee. They are organising a quilt exhibition and this is the poster with the details...

....like you needed me to tell you eh! 'Tis a little obvious....
I volunteered to help on the day and I have advertising posters to deliver to various places about the town.... the ladies said I can go back to the group again! So.... now, counting the lady from last week, I have 5 probable quilty friends.... siiiiiiigh.... now it feels better!

I had spent a good chunk of Sunday preparing a portable project to take with me, just cutting out the pieces for an applique wall hanging... I didn't do any of it... they are a chatty bunch... perfect!!

Birte's Quilt


This photograph popped into my inbox this morning. Birte made this quilt for her sister's birthday present, lucky sister!... Her birthday is next week so it's finished in good time. Birte just needs to add a label then pop it in the post.
As you can see, it is mostly Birte's signature colour.... PINK! ha ha ha

Saturday 5 September 2009

Another Coil Bucket?


I started another coil project..... this time though, I tried to elongate the centre so that I could make a bag/basket, but I don't think I quite made it long enough, no worries, it's not like I don''t have enough scrap strips to do another after this.... he he he
This time I am using cotton cording, only because I already had it in my "for making curtains" box, I used it in the past to pipe curtain tie-backs.... WOW that must be about ... 13 years ago, BPQ (before patchwork and quilting!)

What I should be doing is preparing a little hand work project. I have been invited to a quilt group on Monday afternoon!!!!! yeeeeha, possible friends on the horizon!!

Friday 4 September 2009

A New Girl

Yesterday evening I went to my very first UK quilty thing... well, maybe my second if you count the Festival of Quilts. It was the monthly meeting of the Staffordshire Patchworkers and Quilters. I was very apprehensive.... it's not easy being a 'new girl'.... walking into a room full of possible quilty chums... tee hee
This group meets monthly, not to sew (as needles and pins are not permitted in the church hall!!), but to listen to lectures, often by well know, accomplished quilters.


After a few announcements and a brief session of "show and tell" there was a presentation from Quilters Trading Post, a quilt shop in Whitchurch, Shropshire.

At the end of their presentation they 'opened up shop' for ladies to enjoy a little retail therapy... and there were plenty of takers!!!
I only found one probable friend, all the other ladies were too busy with the eye candy to notice me....

Thursday 3 September 2009

Fabric Coil Pots

I have had so many ladies ask about the Fabric Coil Pots, what a surprise! even though I made a bucket..... tee hee
I can now share these links..... I hope they work....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5Pbr9zi8XQ
http://www.craftstylish.com/item/33825/how-to-sew-a-fabric-bowl
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/03/fabric-easter-basket.html