New Projects

My turn to write this week, as Debby has posted the last two blogs, and I will be away for the next two weeks.  We have had a busy week with our sale.  We have lots of lovely new stock in the back of the shop and need to get rid of some of the old stuff to make way for the new.  If you haven`t been come along because we have some great bargains, mostly at £7.50 per metre, and it`s going fast!  Enough of the advertising.

  Our new workshop list is out now and the classes are filling up with several full already.  Debby and I have made most of the samples, but there are still a few to make.  I have to come up with a Christmas wall hanging for our Christmas present workshop.  I am hoping that if Debby see`s this she might oblige as originally she was going to do one!  I have actually made two advent calendars, and Debby one, which I can`t believe.  Although we have some Christmas fabric out, we do have quite a bit more to put out within the next couple of weeks.  One lady came in a couple of weeks ago and bought about 16 fat quarters to make bags to put bottles of wine in as presents, which I thought was quite a good idea.

I seem to have the patchwork and quilting equivalent of writer`s block at the moment.  I keep trying to start new things and then they don`t seem right, so I put it all away and try to start again to no avail.  I had a great idea for a cushion this week for a present, but it wasn`t a great idea when I started to put it together, so came up with plan B which was even worse, so that was abandoned.  The only thing I have made this week is the cushion shown above.  I have made this lots of times.  I am afraid I cheat and just applique the stripes on and then put the heart in the middle to hide the mess!  Anne Baxter has done a fantastic Union Jack shabby chic cushion workshop for us, but it is foundation pieced, which I am just too lazy to do I am afraid.  The cushion is actually square, but the angle I have taken the picture as it not quite right.  I have a new camera, which I am just getting to grips with.  Actually who am I trying to kit, I  never really go to grips with the old one, so I don`t expect I will with this one.

  I said earlier that I will be away for the next couple of weeks.  I am going on my holiday to Italy.  We are going by train and I am very excited about it as I love trains.  Some of you already know about this, so I apologise for boring you yet again!  The reason I am telling you this is because we have a guide on this holiday and he is an ex BBC cameraman whose hobby is photography, and he is happy to give advice on taking photographs, when he is not issuing us with train tickets or guiding us from place to place, etc.  Hopefully I will come back an expert.  Just in case you would like to know, we are going on the Eurostar to Paris, then transferring to the TGV to go to Tuscany via Turin.  While in Tuscany we will visit Florence, Luca and Piza amongst other places all by train, then we transfer to Venice for three days before we come home via Basle and Strasbourg.  This brings me to my new project.  If you follow Shirley`s blog Stitcherydo you will have seen her amazing hexagonal quilt that she has just completed.  I have quite fancied making one for some time, but didn`t want to do one that looked like my granny had made it, and hers certainly doesn`t.  She came in the shop this week, and I showed her a jelly roll that I wanted to do it in called Coquette, but didn`t know what colours to use to go with it.  She had a look around the shop and produced a bolt which matched perfectly for the centres and suggested I did the background in white - sorted.  My grand plan is to take this on holiday while I am on the train, just in case I get bored.  I always do this when I go away, and don`t touch it, but I know that if I don`t take it I will regret it.  I will let you know if I actually get any done.

In my usual way the photograph does not do this project any justice at all, just wait until I get my hands on that ex cameraman!

Trying to find inspiration a customer came in the shop the other day with a book called Making Baby`s Clothes (not a very exciting title I know).  It is by a man called Rob Merrett, but the projects are quirky and a bit different.  She wanted to make a little dress for her niece.  Needless to say I got straight on to Amazon when I got home ordered it, and discovered the author has written several other books including one called Sew it, Stuff it, which was again full of quirky projects, so I had to have that as well.  I am desperate to make the little Russian Dolls on the front cover, but they will have to wait until I get back.  His background is in trend forecasting for the colour, textile, fashion and interior industries, but he also works as a stylist.

So I have a few little projects planned, but I have the desire to make some original amazing quilt but can`t seem to get going.  I don`t want to use a pattern, I want it to be mine.  Lots of people think Debby and I have a great life working in a shop surrounded by fabric all day, and it is great, but we don`t have time to sit and sew all day, there`s always lots of other things that need doing.  When we decided to do a week on and a week off in the shop, the plan was that we would be able to concentrate on projects on our week off, but it never seems to work out like that!  I follow the Material Obsession blog, and the work shown on there is incredible.  I will settle down, now the nights are drawing in, and I will keep you posted on how I get on!

Reading this post back it has been a bit me, me, me, so if you are interested Debby is fine.  She has been to the paralympics this week, and thoroughly enjoyed herself! 

Busy week

It has been one of those weeks (couple of weeks actually).  Started off with trying to sort out the stock room as it was becoming a bit of a nightmare.  Everytime I touched something it fell and whilst sorting out the wadding the step ladder fell on the back of my head as I was bending over.  My first thought (remembering that I am a drama queen) was that I might have seriously hurt myself and made a note to let my husband know in case I keeled over later in the day. 

The whole week seemed to be a catalogue of accidents including knocking glasses of water over fabric, the air conditioning unit pouring water on my head  (spent day worry about getting legionnaires) and ending with raspberry juice leaking over two laundry bags I had made which resulted in driving over to the shop at 10pm to cut more fabric for replacements as they needed to be ready the next day. Thankfully Joan was willing to work on Thursday so I had a day out at the NEC which meant I had a break from it all.

I have never visited the Festival of Quilts before always preferring Malvern so was surprised at the size of the whole event.  I went with Corfe Quilters and was pleased to see so many people I knew on the coach.  Shirley, Marie and myself all made a rush for the back seat so we had space for our shopping on the way back.

The show is so big you need more than one day, I ran out of time so missed most of the quilts although I did manage to see the Russian stand and loved these two examples, the pictures were taken on my phone and don't do them justice at all.

 

 

 

Good news is that it is our 2nd year anniversary on Saturday 1st September, we  thought that we would celebrate by having a clearance sale starting on Friday 31st August for one week only. There will plenty of bolts reduced to £5 - £7.50 per metre plus we are also offering 10% off the rest of the fabric in the shop.  So it would be lovely to see  you, we may even have cake!

 

Debby & Joan

 

Olympic fever

If you are Olympicked out I apologise as I have become slightly obsessed and whilst most of the UK (apart from Joan) is in the midst of Olympic fever I thought I would just say about my weekend in London with my husband.

We stayed in a lovely hotel in Hampton Wick (The Chase) which is just across the bridge from Kingston Upon Thames (edge of Londonish) which happened to be on the route of the Cycling. My husband is a big cycling fan and the hotel staff assured us that we could see the cyclists just 5 minutes away in Bushy Park. They obviously walk far faster than I do as it took us 30mins of very fast walking to get to the road, stupidly my husband suggested that we run in case we missed it but I am not built for running and told him so in very few words.  Eventually we got to the road, the bikes passed us in less than 2 minutes leaving us to walk for 30mins back across the park. 

We decided to call in to John Lewis for a cup of tea so crossed the bridge to Kingston Upon Thames only to be confronted with the strangest sight - empty streets at 10am, I have never seen traffic free roads in the London area before but they were preparing for the riders coming back through in the afternoon, even more surprising was that the coffee shop in John Lewis was also empty! After all the exercise I had already done I needed a cup of tea.

 
I thought we would also go to the Olympic Park and after buying two travel tickets for £17 we got to Stratford to be told that we needed tickets to enter the park so we got back on the train and returned to Kingston just in time to see the cyclists passing back through.  Not a brilliantly successful day.

We did have tickets for Wimbledon the following day, fortunately they were for Centre Court so we were not affected by the torrential rain and managed to see Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova and Tsonga.  Lovely day and very well organised, I have never seen so many happy and helpful people in London.



Anyway enough of my trip - back to the shop and sewing.

I have been trying to get new fabrics onto the website but it's proving to be quite difficult, I did send a message to the web people saying that I was ready to jump on the computer (drama queen) as I could not remember how to do anything. Thankfully they are really helpful and I successfully got the Lakehouse fabrics onto the site, so impressed with my success I decided to put another batch on and yet again I couldn't do it but am too embarrassed to ring them so will spend more hours trying to work out why. We need a young child to show us how to do all the technical stuff, they don't seem to struggle at all.


We have had more deliveries including a range called Belle Provence, they only arrived on Friday and by the following Thursday Joan had made a lovely cushion cover using the blues.  These are some of the new fabrics that I am trying to get onto the website.

Our Wednesday group is going well and we have a fat quarter challenge starting next week which should be interesting, it is lovely to sit with like minded people and have time to sew.

Also our new workshop list should be finalised next week, we have sorted out what we are doing and now just waiting for the hall to confirm that the dates are okay. 

Well the weather forecast is good for the next couple of days so I hope you all enjoy the sunshine.

Debby

The sun has got his hat on!

At last we have some sunshine!  Typically it`s my week to be in the shop, but never mind, even though I am not outside enjoying it, just seeing it makes me feel happier.  The shop is always quieter when the weather is good, but that gives us a chance to catch up with our sewing.  Bunting is so popular at the moment, everyone seems to be making it, and fat quarters are ideal.  I have been making up an order today with the alphabet on it.  Usually we get asked for a name, although we have been making lots for weddings with the bride and groom`s name and the date on the flags.  I sometimes feel I could make it in my sleep!  The most I have made so far is 50 metres.

We have started our new quilt group at West Buckland, and have now had two meetings.  It has been so popular that we already have a waiting list.  It`s great to spend an evening with like-minded people, some of whom are old friends - not literally you understand!  It`s great to meet new people and share skills. We have all levels, and the work is inspiring.  We already have a list of things we hope to do.  A fat-quarter swap was a popular idea, we all have ones that we don`t want.  We are also going to have a fat quarter challenge.   I love to see all the ideas people come up with using the same fabric and theme.  We are even talking about an exhibition next year - lets see what happens there!

I ran a gift workshop last Wednesday.  I think some people have started making gifts for Christmas already. I brought along several ideas, one of which was the little sewing holder above.  I love to use linen, as I find it seems to take any colour well.

These little drawstring bags are always popular, in fact I have made four today.  When we sell them in the shop we customise them with a name if that`s what a customer would like.  The posh pants bag was featured in Sew Hip a few months ago.

I found recently the pattern for the slippers in a book and just had to make them.  I have a children`s pair cut out, but haven`t got round to making them yet.  They were quite successful, and at present are in the window.  I have heard quite a few comments about them as people walk past, luckily all positive.

We were asked to go and talk to West Buckland WI a week or so ago.  We were rather nervous about this, but everyone was so kind, and I think they enjoyed it.  We took lots of quilts with us, and talked about how we met and how we acquired the shop.  We then talked about the quilts.  Afterwards we were asked to judge the handicraft section.  It was really hard, everything was so beautifully made, in fact the judging was more difficult than giving the talk.  Finally we were provided with a light supper - all I can say is if that was a light supper, I wonder what supper would be like!  Needless to say because it was all made by the WI, it was delicious - no shopmade stuff there!

We often get asked if our fabric is suitable for dressmaking, and it always amazes me that people don`t realise that it is.  They seem to think that because we make quilts that`s all you can do with it.  I`m not quite sure how we put the word out there.  We often have garments in the window, I make and wear what I have made.  At the moment we have a lovely dress in the window made by Jane a customer of ours who is a I trained designer, and at one point designed for Next. We have had loads of comments about it.

A few weeks ago Mandy who comes to our Thursday morning class said could she make a garment, to which, of course, I said yes.  She had never made a garment before, but it was very successful as you can see below.

Alice who comes to the class has lots and lots of fabric - I don`t think she ever throws anything away.  She loves to try new techniques, and often attends workshops.  She then uses her new found skills to make small quilts which she gives to the special baby care unit at Musgrove Park Hospital.  Above is one she has been working on using Anne Baxter`s Chop Suey technique.  I absolutely love the fabrics, they are not new, but date from the seventies, real vintage!  She thinks it`s a bit bright, but the rest of the group think it`s great, what do you think?

Anne is another one with lots of fabric, in fact I think she could open a shop of her own with what she has!
She has been making these pieces which she is cutting into squares. I am really looking forward to see how it has gone this week.  She will probably have finished this quilt and started on the next one, I think she spends her whole life sewing, she once told me that she stitched on Christmas Day! 

I have taken several other photographs of what people have been up to on  Thursday morning, but I will show you them next time.

I don`t know how many of you are looking forward to the Olympic Games.  We had been going to do a window, but are too worried, that we might break some silly rule, so have given up on that idea.  I am sure I will watch it, but I am not too bothered about the sport. However, I will be able to tell you all the gossip, because I love that side of things. I listen to Radio 5 Live most days.  I have cancelled my Friday night visit to the pub, because I am so excited about the Opening Ceremony, I always think that`s the best bit, apart from the closing ceremony of course!

Debby has tickets for the tennis next week, and John my husband is going to watch some of the swimming heats.  He really wanted to watch the cycling.  He has followed cycling for years, and in fact we have in the past arranged our holiday in France around the dates of the Tour de France, so we can watch it.  Personally I think the bottoms are the best bit, but if you blink you will miss them, they go past so fast.

Happy sewing

Rain, rain go away!

I have been in France for a holiday and came back last Tuesday morning, it seems to have rained ever since, apart from Sunday.  We took the family to Brittany and had a really lovely time, we haven`t been back to that part of France since our children were young, and now we have taken them back with their children.  That makes me feel really old!  We had good weather, and as my daughter said consumed our bodyweight in cheese, wine and lovely food.  Just in case we brought a bootload home to keep us going.

Debby soldiered on in the shop, and got rather fraught as several fabric deliveries arrived.  She just got one lot put away having re-arranged everything and then another lot arrived, and so it seemed to go on.  To cap it all on Friday the bulk of the Christmas fabric arrived.  I haven`t told her yet, but some more arrived today.  It`s all in the stockroom, because there is no room in the shop at present.  We will have to get our heads together on Thursday when we are both in, because surprise, surprise people are already asking for it. It all looks very nice, but I`m not sure I`m ready to think about Christmas yet, I still have another holiday to come in September!

We have had some great new fabrics delivered, so thought I would show you some of it.

This is one of my favourites it`s by Sarah Watts and called Feather n Stitch.

This one is Lucy`s Crab Shack by Sweetwater for Moda.  We only ordered a little bit of this range, but have charm packs.

These fabrics are by Lakehouse.  There are lots more of them, too many to show really, but there are other colour schemes.  I love the tea cups, and am trying to think of something to do with them, but not sure what yet.

A week or so before I went away I did a bag workshop, and thought you might be interested to see what  was produced on the day.

This bag proved to be the most popular on the day.  Jane made this, and went home and made about three other bags the next day!

These were made by Jacqui and Rachael, and again Rachael went home and made more.

Sarah-Jane as usual made not one, but two bags, everybody loved the doggy fabric.

  Suzy didn`t quite finish her bag, but it was looking good. She was going to put a red binding round the top, which we all thought would finish if off beautifully. She had intended to make a simpler bag, but when she saw what everyone else was doing decided to go for it.

There were some other lovely bags made, but unfortunately I left it a little late to get out my camera, and they were  gone.

The next workshop is a day of gifts.  I have completed all the samples, and will show you what is produced afterwards.

We had another project featured in a magazine a couple of weeks ago, in the revamped Sewing World.  This is a magazine that has been around a long time, so we were thrilled to be asked to contribute.  Debby has a bag in the August issue.  We have produced a kit for this design, and have sold quite a few already.  Take a look at the magazine, there`s some really nice projects in it.

We have finally got our website working which caused us great excitement.  We have lots of new fabrics to add to it, and Debby is working on that at present, but have a look at it, we are really pleased with it.

It`s an interesting life having a shop.  Today a lovely lady and her husband came in.  They were from the Wirral and were down here on holiday.  We were chatting, when another couple came in.  I heard them talking and realised they weren`t English.  The lady from the Wirral suddenly said hello to the other lady in Spanish and they then proceeded to talk to each other in Spanish, while the two husbands talked in English.  I have no idea what was said in Spanish, apart from at one point jelly rolls were mentioned and the nice English lady was showing the Spanish lady what they were and discussing what to do with them - I think.  The Spanish lady bought a kit for the cushion mentioned above.  Anyway it was an interesting interlude, I felt rather like a spare part.  When the Spanish couple left the shop they all started kissing each other, like long lost friends - that would never happen normally - I was a bit put out because I didn`t get any kisses, but heyho!

Last Wednesday was the first meeting of our new quilt group at West Buckland.  We were rather overwhelmed by the number of people interested and had to have a waiting list. It was a good first meeting, and lots of interesting projects going on.  Hopefully next time I will remember to take my camera and show you some.

Thats is for now, happy sewing 


 

Summer is here!!!

Given Joan a week off from the blog so don't worry if this makes no sense.

Decided to change the window last week in the hope that Summer may make an appearance although whilst doing the window the heavens had opened and it was torrential rain outside.  I was quite pleased with the final design even though originally it was just a mish mash idea in my head.  A large amount of wire was used to make everything stays in place, particularly the flowers in the window but as soon as the door opens they all turn the wrong way round.

Also had a delivery of small prints last week, all deliveries cause a major problem now as we have to find yet more space.  When the postman arrived I did tell him that I used to look forward to his visits but now he just sends me into a panic - not sure he knew what to say to that.  So made a decision to clear out everything under the button table (which I just haphazardly placed out in our tiny store room) and replaced it with the new bolts of fabric. Poor Joan came back into work last week to be greeted by this huge mess which you had to jump over to get to the sink or the loo.  I called in on Monday morning and it was all sorted out and organised - thank goodness. Sorry Joan.

Thought I would show you a very simple jelly roll quilt which has been greatly improved by the long arm quilting 

Quilting was done by Sue at School House Quilting in Newport and has really given it some texture.  The quilt design is from the Jelly Roll Inspiration book by Pam Lintott and the fabric range is Oasis  from Moda.

This week I have had a few days off and have been a passenger in a Corvette Stingray which was noisy, bumpy and even though I don't want to admit it also slightly exciting.  I had booked the car as a present for my husband for his birthday but it has taken over a year to find a time when we could actually use it. 

He was absolutely in his element and when young lads were shouting to him "love your car mate" he was chuffed to bits (small things). Not so good for both of our knees, particularly when getting in and out, after three days I practically rolled out of the car rather than struggle to get out elegantly which I had been trying to do.Unfortunately I have now created a further problem as he is now searching on ebay for one that he can afford (he can't afford one) but I suppose this will keep him occupied for a while.

Our new website is now live but the pricing structure is not quite right, the designers are in the process of changing this section so hopefully it will be completely finished by the end of next week.  Feedback on the site so far is quite good, would be nice to know what you think. Down side is that I now need to use Twitter which I find quite difficult, love to follow people but can never find much to actually say so please excuse any inane comments as I am still learning.

Debby

Torch, Jubilee, Bags and More

In my last post, I said I was off the the County Cricket ground here in Somerset to see the torch arrive.  It was a lovely evening, we sat in one of the stands in the sun and watched the proceedings eating chips and drinking cider - well we do live in Somerset.  It was quite good fun, but I am not sure we had quite the atmosphere that was out in the street, although there were 6,000 people there.  The best bit was when the torch arrived, mainly because there was a fanfare from the Royal Marines!

I have finally got all my bags together, and am now ready to run the workshop, and hopefully everyone will like them.  The two above are the same pattern, but look very different.  I have shown the linen bag with the hearts before, but decided to include it because it has been so popular, the stiped bag is exactly the same pattern.  These are very simple bags to make, but they are good for someone who has not done much sewing, as it includes all the basics, such as handles and lining.

This one is another simple shape and great for using up all your scraps.  I partcularly liked this one.  It`s very quick to put together but looks good.

This bag is a little more structured, again it is simple to make, but includes some more techniques, including pockets, and binding.

 Again this one is more structured and the most difficult one to make.  There is a patch pocket on the back  in the same fabric as the pockets on the sides.  I used pellon rather wadding, and it certainly makes a difference to the structure of the bag.  Once I actually got into making them, I quite enjoyed myself!  The next lot of samples I have to make are Gifts, but luckily I have until July to make them.

I also said in the last post that I had made a camera strap that was featured in the last issue of Modern Quilting and that I would take a photograph of it, so here it is.  It`s very exciting to see your own work featured in a magazine, especially when your work stands alongside so many excellent quilters whose work you have admired in the past.  It is such a shame the company went into administration after only two issues, but I understand they have been bought out, so hopefully we will see the magazine again fairly soon.

A couple of weeks ago Shirley from Stitcherydo came in and was telling me that she had seen on another blog how to make pinwheels quickly.  I thought I would have a go, and was really impressed with the result.  I thought I would share it with you, so have taken photographs so you can see how easy it is -

Believe it or not, this is 2 x 5" squares with right sides together, and then stitched all the way round with a 1/4" seam.

You then cut the pieces as indicated in the first photograph above.  You then open out and press as shown above, how clever is that!

Finally turn them to make your pinwheels and stitch together.  Apologies if you already know this technique.  I have been surprised that quite a few people knew it, but a lot didn`t.

This is what I have made using the technnique.  I have used a charm pack from the new Moda Cabbages and Roses Athill range.  I have been slightly irritated with the darker red bits, and am even more so now I have taken the photograph, although the photograph does make it look much darker than it is in reality.  I am now hand quilting it, and will put it up in the shop when it is finished.

We have been doing a roaring trade with jubilee fabric the last week or so. Everyone seems to want to celebrate.  I am off to London after I close the shop tonight, and intend to go to the Water Pageant, it`s a shame about the weather forecast, but hopefully the rain will stop for a while.   We also intend to go to the procession on Tuesday before we come home. Debby is also going to be in the South East - her mum is holding a tea party.  Hope you all have a good long weekend.