So the run up to Christmas is well and truly on the way - have you started buying presents yet?  We have ladies coming in the shop who are all done and dusted!!  I have made a start but still have a long way to go I think.

Here are some catch up photos from our Patchwork Clubs and classes:

 

This is Sue's Disappearing Nine Patch quilt made from two charm packs.

Here is Bernie modelling her lovely Messenger style bag.

This lovely rainbow quilt is by Louise on the Saturday afternoon club.  I have a close up of her quilting that I must share as well.

And this masterpiece is Bea's Lone Star quilt which looked AMAZING! 

Well done to all our Patchwork ladies, you have all produced some wonderful items this year x

Pudsey's Day

Yes, it's that time of year again.  Pudsey is visiting our Craft Department - all yours for the vast sum of £2.50!  You can give more if you wish though!

Many thanks as always to those lovely ladies who knitted them and also to all of you who have purchased one

An Introduction to Felting Techniques

A full day covering dry needle felting, wet felting to make a flower and learning how to make felt beads.  If you have ever wondered what the differences are between felting terms, or what you can felt and what you can felt into - this is the class for you.  We have an experienced tutor Suzie Guteridge, textile and felting artist.

Come along and join the fun on Saturday 15th November 10am - 3.30pm

Christmas is coming.

Christmas will be here before you know it - so everyone keeps telling me anyway.  So the Christmas fabric is out now:

This is just one of our stands, we have more!

Love this range:

And don't forget we can Fat Quarter them all as well, making them reasonable for all those little projects.

The Christmas Run Begins.

Welcome back all.  And so the run up to Christmas begins....Wool sales have gone up dramatically obviously as you all start to panic about those Christmas presents and cooler nights/days.

Summer went by very quickly, or it did for me anyway - too quickly.  And now the nights have started to draw in and get cooler - much cooler this morning around Salisbury.   

Classes are off and running; Dress making are into their second week already.  We have had four very successful training days on the new Juki overlocker with Pam from Chelmsford.

We have had our first Beginners Patchwork course of the season; seven ladies turned out and hopefully had a good day making blocks and learning new techniques:

Interested in seeing what courses we have to offer?  Why not give us a call or drop us an email and we can send you one of our brochures.

Summer Gathering 2014

We had a little Summer Gathering last week.  We had originally thought we might do a BBQ, but there were concerns regarding the cooking of food and making people ill (something we wanted to avoid!) - and so it was changed to a Summer Gathering and we asked everyone to bring along a plate of food.  There were nearly 25 of us including staff, which was a great turn out.  There was plenty of food and music, and I think a good time was had by all:

We were extremely unfortunate with the weather that night.  All those lovely summer evenings we had been having, and the one night we could have done with one, it decided to rain!  It didn't stop us though as you can see; getting them all to sit still for a photo however proved more difficult!

Many thanks to all who came along x

Festival of Quilts

It's that time of year again.  The Festival of Quilts takes place at the NEC in Birmingham.  It starts on Thursday and runs through until Sunday.  We will be there on stand A46 B36-38 - come along and see us.

We will be sharing the stand with Martha from The New English Quilter and she has a blog entry about it to look at:

http://www.machinequilter.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/treasure-hunt.html

Interested at looking at a new machine?  This is the perfect opportunity to try one out and see if you like it.

I think this little lovely is going to be there too!

Christmas in July

Christmas in July!

All of last year's Christmas panels and advent calendars are currently 25% off.

New panels are starting to come in (see below) and these are 10% off:

I know it's not the right weather to be thinking of Christmas but as I keep getting told, you need to get organised and get on with it because it will be here before you know it!!!

Follow on workshop

We run lots and lots of day workshops in our studio upstairs and try as we might we can't always get them finished in a day.  So sometimes we have follow on workshops, which gives people a chance to come back and finish what they had started because there isn't always time when you are at home.  We had run workshops in Double Wedding Ring and also Lone Star quilts and although we had got a lot done we just needed a top up.  

On the day though Ellen arrived with another completed project.  It looks like a dress from this photo but in actual fact a baby's sleep bag for her Grandson.  A summer version of a previous one.  The young man in question paid us a little visit that day as well, which was lovely.

This is Leah's version of the Lone Star.  We had a little breakdown in communication which resulted in smaller quantities of fabric being brought along by some.  No problem for us though and the pattern was quickly adapted to suit.  This version is smaller than planned but Leah made even smaller ones to go round the outside.  The photo doesn't do it justice, it was really stunning.

This is Ellen's completed Lone Star - that green really pops as do the shoes poking out from underneath!

And finally we have Ruth's Double Wedding Ring block.  Ruth worked so hard on this block, at one point I thought she was going to stitch her nose to it she was that close to the machine.  All that work paid off though as it looked lovely - wonder if she will make any more???   Most people started this course with the intention of making quilts - this very quickly changed to table runners or even just a table centre! 

It's been a while..

  It's been a while since I last blogged - sorry.  You know how you sometimes just get out the habit and then you tend to forget about it completely - well I do anyway.  One of the reasons has been that I was having trouble loading photos - and what good is a post without photos?  It was only today that I remembered someone mentioning we should be using a different browser (????? - it's all double dutch to me).  Amazing - try a different browser and photos load with no problems at all - typical.

Anyway, the ladies upstairs have been very busy lately with their displays - very seasonal.....

Fancy a trip to the seaside?

Or maybe you are spending all your evenings watching the World Cup - I know I am glued to it - can you hear the sarcastic tone in my voice??
Which team would you choose?

Malvern

We had a lovely day on Sunday with our annual coach trip to the Malvern Quilt Show.  We set off bright and breezy at 8am - some of us were bright and breezy, others took a while and a couple of cups of coffee before we got to that stage!  We had a fantastic journey and were there by 10am!  Money was spent, quilts were admired, coffee undertaken - generally a good day was had by all hopefully.
Thanks to everyone who came.

Lone Star Quilt Workshop



Morning All,

Well back to the dreary weather again I'm afraid ..... fog this morning - couldn't even see Stonehenge from the road this morning on my way in, which is very unusual.  Anyway enough of that - we had a Lone Star workshop upstairs in the classroom on Saturday.  I have a number of ladies who have been coming along to classes for a few years now who were looking for a challenge - well, I think I gave them that.  It was a bit of sweatshop up there by the end but they were all up to the challenge.  Our biggest problem was bias edges and they did cause us a few problems along the way despite liberal amounts of spray starch!  But the results - Wow.......

 Alisons:

Lorinda's

Ellens:

 Bea's:

 Viv's:

 Leah's:

 Patricia's:

 Sue's:

I think that was everyone.  Don't they look amazing?  Sue's is complete because I took that photo a couple of days later.  Everyone managed to get at least four diamonds made on the day, which was brilliant.  Now to find something else for them.......

Helga's Jumpers

These wonderful jumpers are the creation of Helga, one of our regular wool customers.  These are both made using Stylecraft 4 ply in a traditional Norwegian style.  I can report that the back is almost as neat as the front!  They are the sort of jumper you just snuggle into with a roaring fire and a good book.

Bit of a catch up post this one.  I have got a bit behind with some of the club photos.  This is Kathleens lovely twist and turn cushion that she made with Jennie Rayment. 

This is Kathryn's tumbler quilt.  We were doing table runners but Kathryn decided to make a lap size quilt with hers.

We have been doing some scrap management in our Patchwork Clubs and this is Jenny's.  She made a lovely cushion and used one of her Mother's buttons for the centre. 

The next two are Maureen's.  Maureen is amazing, she seems to sew from morning to night and produces fantastic results.



Well that's all for now folks - more to come.

Suzie Gutteridge - Friday 2nd May Needle/Pin Case

Suzie is back with us on Friday 2nd May:

Why not come along to find out how to design and make your own personalised needle/pin case using a wet felting method.  Class starts at 10am and finishes at midday.  Tools are provided however requirements list is given when booking.  Book your place and receive 10% discount off felting goods in store.

Call 01722 554466 to book your place.

New Fabric Just In.

Sunshine - it is such a wonderful thing!

It just immediately makes you feel better!

This makes me feel better as well:

A full range of Batiks - the colours are amazing!

And also the new range by Bonnie and Camille - April Showers.

Pauline Spence - Wednesday 30th April

Pauline Spence will be joining us in the classroom again this month to create these lovely items:

These items are created with card, cotton, fabric, beads, sequins and some hand stitiching.  The pattern for all three is provided, but on the day only one item will be made.

Wednesday 30th April 10 - 4pm £38.00
Interested?  Just give us a call.


Alex in Chelmsford



Alex was thrilled with the results of stencil and print in Chelmsford. There were four ladies who had a great day.  This is a small example of what they got up to:

And a Few More...



And a couple more...

Yes, I know the bottom one is the wrong way round but no matter what I seem to do, it will not turn!  I think I need some lessons on computers.

A huge thank you to everyone who came along to support us either by visiting, or by letting us show your quilts, or by giving up your time to set up/monitor the classroom.  We look forward to the next time.