Time to Quilt

Since I last posted, the weather certainly took a turn for the worse.  Last Friday we woke up to snow, I didn't really believe it would arrive, but it did.  I decided I wouldn't drive, but catch a bus, if they were running.  Luckily they were.  I had been having a really busy week, but that day everybody disappeared, quite sensibly I would say!  I got a lot of fat quarters cut that day.  Saturday the weather was better, and everybody came out again.  We sold lots of wadding last week, which is very sensible, what better thing to do than sit and quilt, especially this week.  Luckily for me I haven't been in the shop this week, and Debby has had to battle the elements.  Yesterday which was the worst day, she got into work, but it kept snowing, there were no customers, and she was worried about getting home so she shut up shop.  Today I did go in with her, and we have had a busy day again, still selling lots of wadding.

Yesterday was to have been the first workshop this year, and we had to postpone it which was a great shame.  We have managed to get another date next month, so hopefully all will be well this time.  This meant that I didn't need to go to the shop yesterday, so I spent the day sewing.  I have been working on some cushion ideas for a magazine that would like to feature some of our work.  I am quite pleased with them, and if they don't like them I will show them to you next time, if they do like them you will have to wait!

Last time I wrote the blog, I mentioned some blocks I had started work on for a quilt as you go quilt.  I want to make 9 blocks and so far I have completed 7.

I have made the circles from a charm pack we got in recently, and there are just enough for all the blocks.  The completed blocks will be 12" square.  I have chosen a spotty fabric for the binding.  It will only be a little quilt, but it is to go in the shop, and we don't have much room for large quilts.

I have also photographed my quilt top for the Dunkirk Memorial Nursing Home which I mentioned last week.  I have yet to quilt it, and I will probably quilt it on the machine to save time.  Again it is quite a small quilt, but they are lap quilts.

It is rather pink, but although there are a lot of men at the home - it is for ex-servicemen - there are quite a few women who live there too, which is just as well or nobody was want to use it!  It was a really quick pattern to do, and I would have liked to have made something a little more complicated, but it was a question of time, as usual.

I finished this quilt top this week, and now need to get my act together to quilt it.  I took it to our quilt group a few weeks ago, and was saying I thought the green squares were a bit much on their own.  Shirley from Stitcherydo suggested I quilted a flower shape or shapes, which I shall do when I get my act together.  It is made from half a jelly roll, so I now need to come up with something else for the other half!  I have just noticed that the green pieces look like there is a stripe on the fabric, this is not the case.  It is in fact the stripe of my duvet cover underneath!

Back in October I showed you a jelly roll which I intended to use to make a hexagonal quilt.  I had been going to take it on holiday, to start, but never did.  I have slowly been working on it when I feel like doing some hand sewing.  Again I am not going to make it very large because I would like to use it in the shop.  I will surround it with white fabric, but intend to use the rest of the jelly roll to make a really nice border using small squares and triangles.  Just got to get the rest of the hexagons completed now"

I finished the cushion to go with the quilt for the Beginner's Workshop which I showed you last week.

It's very simple, but it's a good pattern for people who really have never done any patchwork before, and there is a little bit of machine quilting - good for practising straight lines.

The other cushion I made for the beginner's class is this one

I hesitated about showing you this one, mainly because I took  the photograph on the shop floor, and the colours disappear into the carpet, but decided it wasn't that bad!  It's a really popular cushion design this one, and the one most beginner's opt for at our workshops.

You might like to know that the Vintage Bazaar will be holding another of their lovely days at Trull Memorial Hall, the date is Saturday 16th February.  It is well worth a visit, particularly if you love vintage fabrics.

Well that's it for now.  Hope you have all kept warm, now they are predicting rain and possibly more floods, what's wrong with sunshine and frosts?  Happy sewing.

A belated Happy New Year

It is probably a little late to start wishing everyone a happy new year, but nevertheless I will!  I have not felt at all inspired to sit down and write this blog, in fact I haven't felt inspired to do very much at all really.  It must be something to do with it being January.

  I went to the shop today with the intention of taking several photographs, but the sale is in full swing, and I just didn't have time to take any.  If Debby could see the state of the place when I left tonight she would  despair!  I have been really busy.  I was trying to cut out bunting which a customer wants for the end of the month.  It is 30 metres long and each flag is to have a little appliqued star.  Well the minute I started we got busy, I will not complain, because we are a shop and we are there to sell fabric to customers, but whenever it is quiet as soon as I start something it gets busy!  We then had a  large delivery of haberdashery  which we really needed.  Those of you who know the shop will understand why is gets so stressful, basically there is nowhere to put anything, so I have been tripping over cardboard boxes while trying to cut fabric and put the new stock away.  Perhaps I should have taken a photograph of the mess so you would all understand.

I am afraid the only stitching I did during the holiday period was in my head, but I am slowly getting my enthusiasm back.  Debby is doing a Quilt as you Go workshop in February, this is a technique I have never tried, so I have started a small quilt.  The blocks are hand appliqued circles with perle quilting.  I am at the very early stage, but when there is something interesting to show you I will.  I did make a little quilt for the Beginner's Workshop at the end of the month.

The flowery fabric was a remnant which we sold when we first opened.  The back is not brilliant, I wasn't really in the mood but knew I had to do it.  I have decided that the back is a good example of how it will look it you don't take enough care when preparing for quilting.  Sometimes it's difficult to explain what will go wrong if you are not careful - that's my story and I am sticking to it!  I have a cushion to match, but it just needs the zip in it.

Debby completed this small quilt top just before Christmas.  We had ordered this new fabric and when it arrived we wondered why!  Debby decided she needed to make something up in it, and this is the finished result, and we both now love the fabric.  She has yet to quilt it.

Our Quilt Group have been making quilts for a local nursing home.  They are to be ready by the end of the month, so I decided at the end of last week I really ought to get started.  Fortunately they are only small quilts, but I need to get my skates on to get it completed in time.  I had intended to photograph what I had done today, so again you will have to wait until next time.

On a different note John and I went to Topsham last Friday.  It is a lovely little town on the River Exe with lots of independant shops and walks along the estuary.  My friend Sally who teaches textiles has some of her work exhibited in one of the local cafes, funnily enough called The Cafe.  It is a lovely building and a great space for exhibiting artwork, they also serve up delicious cake.  If you get a chance go along, it is well worth the effort and I am sure you will like Sally's work.  She uses a lot of stitched paper in her work which is beautiful.  We spent sometime in the Antique Market, and also the Air Ambulance Charity Shop where I managed to buy a rather nice fruit set from the 50's and a glass tray to put all my creams and perfumes on my dressing table.  We have a great lunch in one of the local pubs a rather nice old coaching house with an open fire.  Now you will understand why I am finding it so difficult to get back into the swing of things!

Sale News

I know you all need to get Christmas out of the way, myself included, but just thought I would let you know that we will be starting our sale on 2nd January.  There will be 20% off all fabric.  We need to make room for our lovely new stock.

That just leaves me to say have a Happy Christmas - I'm off to stuff the turkey!

Happy Christmas!

The big day is getting closer, and everyone is getting busier, myself included.  I haven't been in the shop for the last week, but Debby has been working away.  I haven't got much to tell you about the shop, and my mind has been on other things.  I have made several Christmas presents this year, and have spent the last week trying to get them all completed.  I have one more little gift to make, but I need Christmas fabric for that so will have to wait until tomorrow, when I am in the shop.  I can't even show you the presents I have made because they might be seen!

I decorated my house on Sunday.  I don't know about other people, but my husband likes loads of tinsel, and what I call tacky stuff, and I don't, so it always gets a little tense!  I did tell him I am quite happy for lots of natural green stuff in place of the tinsel, and have left it in his safe hands, needless to say it hasn't appeared yet!  I went to my friend Rosalinds yesterday and she had the most beautiful swags and wreaths all made with stuff out of her garden. Even if I was inspired to do the same, it would just end up looking a mess! Another friend always makes a wreath for my front door, I can't even manage that myself. Debby likes lots of sparkle, and I'm a little more understated, I think she thinks I am a right old misery. 

I like lots of red, and I had hoped that this photograph would show how cosy my fireplace looks, but it looks totally uninspiring, so I am not going to show you any more!  The reality is much better than the photograph, but I expect you are all fed up with me telling you that everytime.

I have given myself a break each afternoon, I discovered that Channel 5 were showing two seasonal films in the afternoon, so have wrapped presents and watched them at the same time, most of them have been very corny, and one or two truly dreadful, but I have still carried on watching them.

Well I have no more to tell you apart from we will close the shop at 12 noon on Christmas Eve and re-open on Wednesday 2nd January.  We hope you all have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year, and thank you all for your continued support.

Christmas is on it's way

We seem to have more or less got over the rain, although I appreciate some people are still experiencing problems after the flooding.  The weather here has got much colder, and several mornings we have had to scrape ice off the car. I would far rather have crisp cold days than grey days with rain, I just end up looking like the michelan man with all the layers I am wearing!

We are now in full Christmas mode in the shop.  Debby and I have lost count of the number of advent calendars we have made.  We are now on the Christmas stockings!  As fast as we have been putting items in the window people are coming in and buying them, which is what is supposed to happen when you have a shop but then there is the dilema of what to replace it with, and have we got the time to make a couple more cushions or stockings!  Believe it or not we had a rep in today, and he was showing us fabrics for Christmas 2013, and guess what we actually ordered some,  not much but a little.

Still talking of Christmas, we will be open Sunday 9th December, and Sunday 16th December from 10.00am - 3.00pm.  There will be 10% off all fabric, but not gifts, gift vouchers or haberdashery, so if you fancy a nice civilised bit of Christmas shopping Wellington is the place to come. We will also have a late night on Wednesday, we will be open until 8.00pm.

Debby ran a scrap workshop yesterday.  She used quite tiny pieces, 1 1/2" squares.  A couple of the students were out of their comfort zone (their words) but  they produced some great pieces of work, and they all said they enjoyed themselves.  Two of them came to my class this morning, and brought the pieces in that they had completed.  Both introduced colours they wouldn't normally use but were very pleased with the results.  Below is Debby's sample.

The finished tiny squares in the middle are 1".  Debbys work is always very precise, unlike mine.  She hasn`t quilted it yet, but I am sure that will happen soon.

We had the last meeting of the year last night at our quilt group. and I actually remembered to take my camera, so below are a couple of photographs.

This lovely piece of work is by another Debby, it was made from a jelly roll so the pieces are quite small.  Her points were really neat, and the colours looked fantastic.  She layered it up last night ready to quilt.

This quilt was made by Jacqui and I love it.  It was made from a layer cake, the sashing is a ticking like fabric, and the back which I didn't photograph was a fantastic black and white print with little houses and cars.  She made the quilt for her campervan.  I love the colours and the way that the ticking frames the other pieces making the colours stand out. 

I was going to show you some more photographs, but it has taken half an hour to download these three and I can stand it no more!  Debby and I really look forward to meeting everyone on a Wednesday evening.  It is alway fascinating to see what everyone is doing, and I alway go away feeling inspired.  Last night there were quite a lot of Christmas things going on.  Marie had been to a Christmas weekend at Cowslip in Cornwall and had lots of bits and pieces and patterns to show us.  She was concentrating last night on completing a Christmas Tree, but had a little box in the shape of a house and a fairy to show us.

I don't know how other people are getting on with their Christmas shopping, but I am not doing so well.  I always get off to a good start, but then reach the difficult ones, mostly the men like my husband and son, and come to a grinding halt.  I was wondering around Taunton on Monday when I bumped into Shirley from Stitcherydo, so needless to say we went for a cup of tea, and no more shopping was done.  We met in a lovely shop Laing and Lewis which belongs to a friend of mine, in St James' Courtyard.  Sue and Annie who own it have a really good eye and it is full of wonderful goodies.  I bought a lovely scented candle, but was sorely tempted by a fantastic cake stand, but couldn't think of anyone to buy it for apart from myself, and actually I have two already!  If you get a chance go and have a look.  The next day I had to go to the hairdressers and thought well I will go earlier, and try a bit harder today, but didn't have any more luck.  My husband and I decided to set a limit this year, but as I pointed out to him if the limit was a £1,000 I would still struggle.  My problem is that I have a husband who buys me very nice presents, so it makes it even more difficult.  I will let you know how I get on in my next post.  I'm off to make some more stockings now!

Nynehead Court

The South West has woken up yet again to flooding.  I have just had a telephone call from Debby to say she can't get to the shop on the A38, so will have to go on the motorway, but everybody else wants to go that way and it's taking her forever.  According to the weather forecast it was supposed to be sunny today, and the weather forecast tells me that it will be sunny this afternoon, I will believe that when it happens

On a happier note, we had our first workshop at the lovely Nynehead Court on Saturday.  What a lovely location it was.  It was held in the Orangery, which was a beautiful light space and very warm!  I was slightly worried that it might be a bit cold, so wore lots of layers, that was a big mistake, I was  peeling off layers all day!

This is the orangery, the photograph does not do it any justice at all!  Nynehead Court is just outside Wellington and is a nursing home, with assisted living.  Apart from the main house there are several mews type cottages in the grounds.  The grounds are amazing and they often have Sunday walks round them with the Head Gardener, in fact there is one next Sunday.  The Orangery is used for lots of social events.  A couple of weeks ago they had a breakfast to raise money for Wellington Youth Centre, and the night before we were there they had had a Cheese and Wine Tasting - all very civilised!

This is the view we had from the Orangery of the Church.  The church is rather large for such a small village, so there must have been quite a lot of money at some time.  The branches hide a beautiful rose window, which is not something you see very often on village churches.

This is the view inside the Orangery.  The facilities were really good.  Again my photograph doesn't really do it much justice, but everyone said what a great venue it was, so we will hopefully start to use it in the future.

This is a phtograph of Tip working hard on her bucket bag.  Tip we discovered is the most amazing cook.  She brought lemon drizzle cake and biscuits for everyone.  The lemon drizzle cake was the nicest one I have ever eaten, she tells me the secret is in the amount of lemons she uses, no less than three.  Her biscuits were lovely little flower shapes drizzled with icing and presented so nicely in a cookie jar complete with gingham trim.  I overheard her telling someone that there was to be a weddding reception in the Orangery in a few weeks time and she was making the desserts.  If the lemon drizzle cake is anything to go by, lucky them!

Apart from the lovely venue and the amazing cakes, there was a lot of work completed, and everyone expressed their satisfaction with the day.  Unfortunately in my usual efficient way I failed to take any photographs of completed projects.

I have been working hard this week on Chritstmas orders and presents.  I have managed to get a lot of things done, but not completed, and I am feeling quite pleased with myself.   Debby has been very busy in the shop, although in view of the weather not too busy today I suspect.

I am now going to clean my kitchen floor and then take myself off to my workroom to carry on sewing.

November Days

Despite all my good intentions it is a couple of weeks since my last post, so today is blog day.  I am writing this in the shop, so it will probably take me all day to complete it, but complete it I will.

The first thing I want to show you is this lovely fabric.  I can't quite make my mind up if the deer fabric would be suitable for Christmas, given that every shop I go into a present seems to have a cushion with a reindeer on it!  However, I am not sure about the colour.  It would look great any time of the year, and I especially like the birds.  My daughter Katie has browns in her sitting room and has just bought some green accessories, so I will be making some cushions for her from it.  I will probably put wadding behind and quilt a little just to give it a bit more body.  The fabric is by Moda and part of the oh deer! range.

I love the odd blue bird, but wish they had done the same with the deer and the spots.

Debby and I have a Christmas Workshop next week at Nynehead Court.  This is a new venue for us, but it is a larger space, and so many people wanted to do the workshop that we thought we would try it out.  We have been busy making samples -

This is Debby' wall hanging, she used up lots of her red scraps.  You could quite easily just make one and turn it into a cushion of a smaller wall hanging.  You could also embroider Happy Christmas, or similar round the edges.

If you have been reading the blog for a while you may remember the Christmas tree cushion from last year, the Noel cushion is new for this year.  It is very simple, but effective with just the linen and red spot.

I am always trying to come up with new ideas for bags.  I have been making the smaller version for quite a few years, but decided to make a larger one, which was quite successful.  They are made from denim but with a contrast fabric for the flap.

I made the larger of these slippers in the summer, but made the smaller ones last week.  I wish I could say that they were my pattern, but they are not.  Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the book I got them from.  I posted a picture of them on facebook a few nights ago, and the response was really good.

Debby is off for a fortnight although she can't seem to keep away, she has popped in a couple of times so far!  She has not gone away, but has told me she is spending the week sewing.  She is putting a quilt together with some new fabric by Moda, which we will show you as soon as it is completed.  I have been quilting this quilt which I have nearly completed, then it just needs the binding on it.  The backing is a large blue spot, and I will bind it with the same.  It is a pattern that Anne Baxter runs workshops on, made from a layer cake.

I have been busy cutting for Christmas presents.  Unfortunately cutting is as far as it has got so far, but I will let you see what I have made eventually!

There have been some grey days so far this November, but today the sun is shining.  Sometimes when I get the bus to Wellington I get here early.  I decided I would try to get to know Wellington a little better, and get fit at the same time by walking.  My plan is to walk at least a couple of mornings before I need to open the shop, even it it only means getting off the bus a couple of stops earlier!  This week I discovered the park.  My son worked over here for the local council during the summer holidays when he was a university, and has told me so many times I should take a look, so now I have.  It was lovely, especially so early in the morning.  It was funded by the Fox family in the early 20th century.  I am not sure if I have mentioned them before, but the Fox family were Quakers, and owned the local mill, along with another one at Uffculme(I hope I have got that right) called Coldharbour Mill now a museum. The Wellington factory is still open on a very small scale.  They make the most beautiful soft woolen fabric.  Deborah Meaden  of the Dragons Den has taken an interest in at as they were in trouble recently.  Most of the old mill is now empty, but it is a lovely old building.  I am finding as I walk around there are some really interesting buildings which you just don't notice when you are in the car.  That said, yesterday's walk was not so good I ended up walking through housing estates, but at least I know they are there now!

Earlier in the week one of the local community Police Support Officers came into the shop and said he had a photograph he wanted to show me.  I immediately thought there was some kind of problem and he was going to show me someone he would want me to identify.  However, he pulled out his phone and proceeded to show me a picture of a cushion his wife had made, her first attempt at patchwork!  It was great by the way.  It is so nice when people take the trouble to show you what they have made.

I think that's all the news for now - happy sewing!