Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Sale, Sale, Sale!!!

This week has been crazy here at the shop. Between working on some new projects with the Christmas fabrics that have been arriving, organizing fabrics for our upcoming sale and teaching, I am exhausted.
The sale starts on Sunday, 2 September at 10:00 am. and will continue all week until the following Sunday.
Hope to see you there!

On Monday I made a few coasters or Mug Rugs with extra squares from a really adorable Christmas panel from the Anni Downes Christmas Time Collection from Henry Glass Fabrics. Not exactly rocket science but quick and enjoyable to make up, they would be a great gift at Christmas.
 
I am hoping to make a nice lap quilt for our sitting room with this panel.

The coordinating fabrics and yarn dyes are beautiful.



I have also been organizing all the fabrics that are going to be marked down for a super sale!  We have some beautiful fabrics that are going to be marked down for clearance starting on Sunday.  There are a few layer cakes and jelly rolls on offer as well, Christmas fabrics and other assorted treasures!  A comment I get from customers who read the blog and make a trip down to visit are always surprised at the how big our space is and the photos on our blog don't do it justice.

We have an ever growing selection of Kansas Troubles from Moda.  Probably our most popular group of fabrics.

We also managed to squeeze in a workshop this week, a Free Motion Quilting Workshop!  A great group of ladies from Wexford, Meath, and Louth. That photo is courtesy of my 12 year old daughter and is not the most complimentary photo of moi..... Our Free Motion class is proving to be a popular class and I'm pleased with the response to it.  I will be putting it on the schedule for this autumn so watch for it, hopefully it will be a great start to understanding the mysteries of Free Motion Quilting.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Ohio Stars....Point Perfection

I am desperate for something to blog about. Sew, after the painting workshop last week and questions about getting those all important perfect points, I decided to take some photos and give you some measurements and go over how you construct really lovely Ohio Stars!


This tablerunner was made up of 3 Ohio Stars and 2 - 9 1/2" Squares of the light tan background fabric.  To construct an Ohio Star is fairly straight forward. It is a nine patch with 4 - 3 1/2" squares lt tan background fabric for the 4 corners, a 3 1/2" center square, and last but not last 4 squares that are called a 4 part triangle.  The 4 part triangle is where you need to pay particular attention.

In the above picture my 4-part triangles are made up of 3 colours; green, gold, and lt tan.  Take 1 gold square measuring 4 1/2", 2 green squares measuring 4 1/2" each, and one lt tan background fabric measuring 4 1/2".


Place the lt tan square right side facing the right side of one of the green squares, make sense?  Do the same with the second green square and the gold square. Right sides facing on another.  Now take the two sets of squares and draw your three lines across the diagonal from point to point. Just like the picture to the left.  The middle line is going to be your cutting line so you need to stitch along the two outside lines. Now, here is my trick so pay real close attention; when I stitch along the two out side lines I don't stitch on the line!!!!  I stitch along the line on the seam side, meaning the area closest to the the cutting line.

Cut along the middle line and press toward the dark colour both sets.  You now have 4 half square triangles, 2 are lt tan and green and 2 are gold and green.



Now, take a lt tan and green HST (Half Square Triangles) and a gold and green HST and lay them right sides facing with the two greens facing the opposite colour, huh????


Okay, just pretend that the burgundy is green!! Your next step is to draw your three lines on the diagonal from corner to corner just like you did in the first round of making HST's, only make sure you are going across the square and not along the new seams.  Do your sewing and then cut down the center.

Now here is my second trick, I swear by the Eleanor Burns Square Up ruler. Before I open up the triangle,  I place my square up ruler on the triangle and lay the 3 1/2" line of the ruler on the stitching line. I actually place the line of the ruler slightly above the stitch line.  This gives me a bit of room, a couple of threads of room to be exact! I trim with the rotary cutter on both side of the triangle, this evenly trims the HST so that the dark triangle will be the same size as the light triangle.


See the above picture, isn't that lovely!  After trimming the square you can open it up and give it a light press and measure it up to ensure that the 4 part triangle square is 3 1/2".

Cutting, sewing a straight line and proper pressing are crucial for getting nice sharp points and perfect piecing.  This is a lovely square to make and when it is constructed well you have a gorgeous block, give it a try!

Happy Sewing and don't forget we are having a big sale starting on the 2 September!
Anne Marie








Saturday, August 4, 2012

We Have a Winner!

After a super busy two weeks I finally sat down and using a random number generator we have a winner! The winner of the Fat eighth pack is number 7 or rather Elaine Coady. Congrats Elaine and thanks everyone for taking part. Sew, Elaine could you please email me privately with your snail mail address so I can send out your bundle of fat eighths and as a bonus you will be receiving a few yarn dyes from the Anni Downes Christmas Time Collection.

I am relieved to be much quieter this week with the B&B, we had guests from Austria last week (Hi Anne Marie, Franz & Martin).  Anne Marie is a quilter and we had a great time getting to know one another, needless to say we spent time in the shop doing what we all enjoy most and that is picking fabric for a new project. Anne Marie promises to bring some of her Austrian quilting friends with her for a visit, when they do I will have to gather up some of my quilting friends for a little show and tell!

  On Tuesday, 7 August, we are running a fun workshop with a Christmas theme.  I taught this class a couple of times last autumn and it was a big hit!  People who missed out last year are asking me to run it again so here we go.  This is a table runner, quite a big one, with a slight twist to it.  As you can see we have two Ohio Star blocks (the actual runner has three) and in the alternate block is a painted stencil of a Christmas tree just waiting for some embellishments.  The white paper is freezer paper with the shapes of holly leaves cut out and the stencil brushes and paints are waiting for the action to begin.  Painting on fabric!!!!  A great alternative to applique and you look like Michelangelo to family and friends when you tell them that you painted on the Christmas motifs.
And lookey what else you can do!! Yes, the word "Joy" is painted on as well.
This Christmas wall hanging has a painted branch on it, the pathetic pine needles were my attempt at embroidery, I love this piece, it is so unique.

Sew, what do you need?  About a yard of cream/lt tan background fabric, several fat quarters for your three Ohio stars preferably in Christmas colours, and your sewing machine and notions.  I supply the paint brushes and paints as well as the freezer paper.  The price for the day is €40, and as always tea and coffee are on the house. We have a few places still available and I can guarantee this is a very relaxing and fun day and completely different.

Don't forget to mark your calendars, the first week of September is our big sale! Plenty of gorgeous fabrics will be marked down.

Happy Sewing!
Anne Marie