Sunday 29 September 2013

Merrily's Quilt's On Show...

I told Merrily about all the requests from people who would love to have a real life look at her amazing quilt and she's allowing me to hang it in my very own quilt shop only until Thursday lunch time, that will be the 3rd October. If you would like to see it come on over... because it's worth it!

Are You Ready?

Gail's ready... It's October on Tuesday...
I'm not ready, I never did finish September either...
I must away... retreat to Quilty Quarters to get on with my bats!
More of the fabulous wire hangers came so we've got just what you need to finish the job... Are you making your very own Calendar?... I hope you are keeping up to date better than my very own self!

There's a first Thursday of the month next week so there will be a meeting of Staffordshire Patchwork and Quilters  the page is all updated with reminders for you.

Juki HZL 600F

It's amazing what a sewing machine can do... Patchwork and quilting requires only the straight stitch. Almost all sewing machines can sew a straight line of straight stitches. Appliqué is fun using a basic zig-zag stitch and we love the blanket stitch for the same job. Aside of that... there are often useful and decorative stitches to play with and a button hole programme or two... but do you use them?
When you find a  lovely lady who knows what she is talking about on the subject of your very own sewing machine, you can learn how to do the most amazing things... The ladies had an excellent workshop with Sheila. They went home inspired to put button holes, labels of all sorts, fancy stitches, reversed stitches, different threads and so much more wonderful things on everything they make from here forward...














I plan to hold more workshops for getting to know your machine, it was all so very interesting.

Saturday 28 September 2013

Stitching News

Hoot Hoot Hoot!...
That's an owl-y toot toot toot fanfare for a finish... he he he
Jenny Barlaston made this extremely cute little wall hanging.
It will be gifted and is sure to make someone very happy
Jackie Janome is working on a project that needs lots of strip sets making ready to be cut up again. Dotty is helping her keep them in the right order. This will be a large bed quilt and is Jackie's second patchwork project, the first being the trusty Railfence table runner.
Sporty Sue finished quilting her beautiful Jelly Roll sampler quilt... and didn't she do lovely free motion quilting!! Sue spent the day hand stitching her binding... it's was long way round... but worth every stitch.
Little Annette arrived first thing in the morning with one of our pre-cut 6" squares of novelty fabric packs to stitch. She went home with a finished kiddy quilt top and backing fabric... all ready for making a sandwich at the quilt cave next week... a very productive day.
Barbie is back with us and, after counting up her flower blocks, realised that she'll be needing a further 15 to get the quilt to the size she planned. Barbie has the Flower Festival book so there were still lots to choose from... they're all fun and quirky, don't you think?
Shop News...
The clearance fabrics have been popular all week, there's still a good choice at £5.00 per metre.
Beautiful Blues and Creams arrived from Moda along with the Road 15 collection
A new roll of Hobbs Fusible Wadding has been delivered... it's particularly good for smaller projects, like Sue's Tote Bags... an upcoming workshop in Angie's Very Own Patchwork and Quilting Shop!
It's 96 inches wide and £14.00 per metre, we have various smaller pieces available too.
I'm off to shower... it's out Know Your Machine... Juki HZL F600 day today... a fabulous sewing machine!

Friday 27 September 2013

Stitching News With Tooting

Posh Lizi finished her Stack-n-Whack Kaleidoscope quilt and it's a beauty!
Toot Toot Toot Posh Lizi, your quilt is fabulous...

There's another workshop next week if you would like to make your very own Kaleidoscope quilt.
A few blocks were not needed in the quilt top so, a rather splendid backing was made...
I'm expecting that you can see the lovely quilting easier from the back view.
Kate finished her twin quilts a few weeks ago... I think I confused everyone with my posts about them... I figured that the only way to sort that out was to show both fabulous quilts at the very same time...
Taaa daaa here they are, exactly the same and completely different, just as I told you!
Toot toot toot Kate
New Sue finished another quilt top so a visit to Caverswall Quilt Cave was needed to make up her sandwich. This fabric line is Moda, Little Black Dress and there's a Little Black Dress version two coming soon (March 2014 actually)

Thursday 26 September 2013


In an effort to catch up on all the stitchy news, and there's lots of it... I've decided to do a few shorter posts. I don't know where all the time is going but it's rushshshshshshing by, no sooner get out of bed and it's time to get back in again. The days are lighting themselves later and darking themselves quite early so I guess that could be the reason?
Anyway... here goes...

Princess Jackie finished her fabulous wall hanging. She does the most beautiful machine appliqué with delicious colour and fabric choices. Toot toot toot Jackie, once again... it's another fabulous quilt.

Fran Cup Cake is fun to play with... we 'make it up as we go along' and she's happy to do that. This cushion was inspired by one in a new book. Fran tried her first machined, raw edge applique, her first couching... and a first zip has been done too!!!!

Jean Bean finished the centre of her very special quilt. There will be a very thin green inner border then another wider one, which I think it will be white. The backing is planned and will have something splendid appliquéd to it, of course.

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Stitching News

Cynthia finished her fabulous Log Cabin quilt...
She made this beauty for her brother and what a lucky fellow he is...
It's a large quilt and three ladies were needed to hold it, the photo's taken outside and that easy access ramp came in handy, shorter people on the right and taller people on the left and it all looks quite level! Toot Toot Toot Cynthia... we love it.

PM Pam's tree skirt... The pattern required enlarging by 200% but no-one seems able to do that in Cheadle. We tried to do it with pencil and ruler, tricky... that made prototype 1... We admitted defeat when it came to the swag-gy bits. Pam was able to enlarge the design nearer to her home then made up the pattern as you see it here, prototype 2... Pam only needs to make 4 more fabulous tree skirts because, as usual... the orders are flowing in! ha ha ha
Monday Lyn finished her purple test block. She wanted everything perfect and she worked hard to achieve it with the aid of her splendid new, extra sharp pins.
There was a distraction though... the 10 Minute block quilt was hanging on my very own classroom wall and Lyn was sat next to it... I proved to her that it really takes only 10 minutes for each block so now she will be making those too!
It is a short post... short on pictures for sure... such a busy day. Is it possible to train a camera to take it's very own photos? Sometimes there's just too much going on to remember to snap pictures... you just have to be there to see everything, and there's a lot to see.

Over the weekend, Lady Judith's hubby finished the shelving under my extra large ironing station so, with the help of the
 Fabric At £5.00 per metre Clearance Sale...
 there's a little extra shelf room for the new fabrics... JUST IN TIME!!!

Sunday 22 September 2013

Hexagon Trees Workshop

Just as I predicted, the workshop was great. All the ladies left feeling like they had spent the day at a spa.
Here are the little quilts, all sandwiched and ready to be quilted. Thank you Jenny.






Saturday 21 September 2013

It's Time To Start...

We've been doing Festive workshops for several months, having run out of time to finish off all of our projects last year, we decided not to get caught out again. I've investigated thoroughly and found out that Christmas or 'sewing prevention season' as it's come to be known in my world, is going to be in December again... and now that I've shared that little snippet with you, you could spread the word to your stitching friends so that we don't all get a surprise when we suddenly realise we only have 3 or 4 weeks to finish all the gifts we started making! ha ha ha... that's how it happens round here!

I despise seeing all the Festive things in the shops so early in the year (yes... Humbugs!) but when you are hand making things for gifting rather than purchasing them... you just have to get going, NOW!...
Our workshop today is this lovely little Hexagon Tree quilt and Jenny Barlaston is teaching it. It could be a table centre, a wall or door hanging or even a very posh gifting bag should you wish... We're going to have a great day... there should be pictures to share later....

Friday 20 September 2013

Stitching News

Krafty Karen's blocks are coming along very nicely. She's taking great care to get pointy-points and  her junctions perfectly perfect.
Giggly Gillian made up this practice block. You can just see where she had folded the background fabric in half both ways to give her a good guide for placing the petals and leaves right in the centre

Gail gets a toot toot toot for her fabulous and finished quilt/play mat. 
She chose orange inner borders with multi coloured stripy main borders
This quilt is about to be gifted to a lucky little one. 
We sell lots of the pre-cut 6" square packs, 30 different designs per pack and every quilt made looks really different because of the chosen border prints...
See what I mean... This one is being made by Chris The Foot.
She knows her lucky little person will be a boy so she opted to add blue borders...
doesn't it look really different?
 
Jolly Jo continued making her paper pieced blocks. The quilt was designed by her very own self but she had to leave sewing alone for a while, and now... she forgot the original plan. Inspiration will come once she has them all completed... we hope!

My Wife Beth had ordered a few packs of scraps from somewhere on T'Internet and decided to use them all up to make a rainbow quilt ... all her very own design, well, with inspiration from a rainbow of course
Last but not least is My Mum Gwynneth.
She's been making quilts for the Linus project ever since we had our fun Linus Stitching Day recently, at Caverswall Village Hall. This is the latest finish to add to the pile of 5 this month. Toot-et-ty toot Mummy!


Tuesday 17 September 2013

Stitching News

Monday Lyn had finished stitching her binding by hand and, very kindly, brought the table runner back to show us... I always ask to see finished quilts... besides, if I don't see them finished, how can I give a well deserved, tooting fanfare... toot toot toot Monday Lyn!

Toot toot toot... Jackie Janome brought her finished Railfence Table Runner too...finished and fabulous! She's spending her time pondering and wondering "What shall I make next?"  She went home with food for thought.

Christabelle arrived with mathemisms needing to be done... but that didn't take long to sort out. We had calculated half an inch too much for the main focus fabric square so things weren't working out too perfectly... that sorted, production continued on her memory quilt.
Aileen had purchased a plain Jelly Roll and a patterned one, decided on her design and set about making these blocks. We sorted out a few piecing tricks on the first block then, the main thing was her quarter inch seam... we moved the needle over two pips... after that, the blocks came out perfectly perfect.
Lady Judith, just as Lovely Lyn found, struggled to fit all the detail onto the small background... I think that the next time someone makes this quilt I shall suggest a slightly larger piece of fabric that could be trimmed afterwards... but it's all sorted now. Judith is going to stitch lots of the appliqué by hand.
Longport Lynda rescued these blocks from the round filing system and turned them into a quilt... she needed to make a sandwich but had forgotten her safety pins and so used flower head ones... they were starting to fall out before she even packed up to go home... 
Lady Judith had attended the Bargello Garden workshop a while ago but, now that she has time to get back to it, she had forgotten the plan. We soon had her back on track and excited to see the end result.
PM Pam has been playing and designing at home. Paper Pieced festive themed cards. Each little centre is a mini quilt, very special Christmas Cards for very special people... are you on Pam's card list?
We're hoping to fit a workshop in soon, maybe you would like to make some?
Dotty Maureen purchased this pattern on-line. It's a winter stitchery and is extremely cute. Can you see how the snowmen form a tree shape? It only took Dotty the one week to do all the stitching!

Saturday 14 September 2013

Stitching News With Tooting

 If you read my blog regularly, you will have seen the steady steps of progress with the making of this spectacular quilt. Merrily's now finished it... boy was she pleased with herself!  It's all her own design made with inspiration from a similar picture in an old magazine. The centre took a while and, I think you will agree, it looks just like the Statue Of Liberty? It's made of all HST (Half Square Triangles) and was the starting point for the project.
The border blocks mix all things British with all things American and such a lot of thought has gone into them.
Toot toot toot Merrily, your quilt is absolutely brilliant!

Peggy had to give up on her sewing machine for now... those feed dogs have no right to keep throwing the quilt out and wobbling all over, and why a machine thinks it can change the size of the stitches as it pleases I don't know... It's a good thing we have Juki on hand with their wonderful sewing machines... so Peggy was able to finish her quilting, make her binding and start to stitch it on.
Lyn Scatterpin, who tries so very hard not to scatter her pins any more, had finished making all the components of her large quilt blocks so has started to join them together. the secondary pattern is lovely and, we're thinking, quite clever!
 Lyn keeps bees and her honey is really delicious, thank you Lyn.

Julie Beaver (she builds a little damn of bags and other stitching necessities around her workspace so no-one can get through) is whipping up these snowmen blocks, she needs hundreds of them with three children all wanting their very own snowman quilt! What a job eh... 
Di Butterfly fiddled about with the little pockets on her advent panel. They are quite tricky really, especially to get all the tiny seams level, but they're worth the effort... so I've heard, he he he  
This is a practice block. Merrily has designed another quilt so we are just checking the blocks out. It's often a good idea to make up sample blocks to know that you can do them and that you will enjoy making them before you commit to needing twelve or twenty of them. 

Barbara BB sandwiched and quilted her cushion panel. The Ohio Star can be quilted all the way round the middles and the star without stopping to tie off any ends... which helps to make it a peoples favourite!

Taa-daa, Michelle My Belle spent quite a while deciding on the layout of her blocks trying to get an even spread of colour and fabric design... Success as you can see, it is fabulous! Borders have been chosen too, they're probably on by now.
I have added a few more workshops on the list for 2014, check them out... they're going to be lots of fun so you will need to book your space as soon as possible.... details can be found by clicking the 'Workshops' tab at the top of my blog.
More new fabrics came... I know, what was I thinking... but they are really irresistabubble. I have a man building more shelves today, under the ironing boards!! Then I think I have maxed out on shelving... I thought that last time this happened though!
I have a great selection of fabrics on clearance at the moment... £5.00 per metre so, quite worth a lookey-look ... With shelves bursting... something has to give!