New Block of the Months

Starting in September we will be offering two Block of the Months.  Both quilts draw their fabrics from the new Penelope range from Lake House Fabrics and they are gorgeous!  The first program is almost sold out, we are making up 12 kits and are keeping the program limited.  It involves a good deal of applique and was designed by Jennifer Bosworth of Shabby Fabrics, the applique will be completed doing the spray starch method that Jennifer uses.  We will have silk threads available for hand sewing the applique, we have also brought in the industrial freezer paper that Jennifer uses!  The BoM includes the pattern, embellishment kit and all the fabric for the quilt top and binding; the wadding and backing are not included.  All the participants are invited to meet at the shop on one Sunday each month to review that month's block and share any tips or ask questions with all the other participants. There are only 4 places remaining, if you are interested please give us a call for more information.

This is a photo of the pattern cover, most of the fabric has arrived in the shop and the last few bolts will be shipped around the first week of August. I am so excited for it all to be here so I can start working on it.

The second Block of the Month is a beautiful and striking quilt that consists of 12 distinct blocks and 4 applique blocks in the centre.  The applique blocks can be constructed using your favorite method. The program is the perfect project to undertake if you wish to improve your skills; we will review precision cutting techniques and perfecting our sewing and block construction skills. This Block of the Month includes the pattern and all the fabric for the quilt top and binding; the wadding and backing are not included.  We will be meeting at the shop on the same Sunday as the other BoM, but at a different time.  By running the meetings on the same Sunday we can dedicate the classroom space for people  wishing to work on their projects and their is no pressure on time.  A few places have been taken up and just like Sweetheart Houses, there will only be 12 kits made up.

Having made a quilt similiar to this colour scheme I can honestly say don't be put off by the black, it is incredibly striking and really makes the other colours pop!  I am waiting for the last few bolts to arrive and then the sewing will begin, my patience is being truly tested right now.

Happy Sewing 

Anne Marie

Summer Holidays

Absent as always, never a very consistent blogger but those of you who know me know how crazy things are in our home!  My niece was visiting for a week, she arrived from Bellingham Washington and here is one of her "little cousins" greeting her at the airport.
This summer I have been spending time with my kids; we took time to enjoy my niece will she was here. She was particularly impressed with Dublin and loved walking the narrow streets of Wexford town shopping.  We moved back to Ireland in Jan 2002 so it is fun to see our home through the eyes of a visitor.

The B&B has been chugging along keeping me busy and thanks to our fabulous weather the quilt shop has seen quite a bit of activity the past two weeks.

We have a lot of gorgeous fabrics arriving, some of them are for Christmas and we have the Lake House Fabrics arriving for the Block of the Month that we will be doing this September. Both of the BoMs are designed by Shabby Fabrics, Sweetheart Houses is mostly applique and is a gorgeous quilt for that special little girl in your life or as some of the women have said it is the perfect wall hanging for your sewing room.  The second BoM is Penelope's Garden which is pieced blocks with an applique centre.  I will post pictures soon.

Sew, I know you need to see something quilty and I haven't done much the past few weeks in quilty department.  These two quilts are called the "Twins" and they were done by my sidekick Jackie.  It is the Boston Commons block and they are fabulous when you see them side by side. I love these quilts so much, Jackie dropped off the pattern to me and I am itching to do it. Another idea for a class maybe, need to talk to Jackie about the construction.  Working on a few class ideas for August and preparing for September.

It has been a lousy summer weather wise here in Ireland but it has been a lovely to spend time with my niece and kids. Stay tuned will be back shortly with lots to share!

Happy Sewing!
Anne Marie

Free Motion Quilting Part II

My on going saga with my computer and uploading a video onto YouTube was finally fixed this week and with great excitement I uploaded my first tutorial and I am planning on doing more.  My only complaint is that I don't like the way I sound it seems so unnatural but then no one likes the way they sound on  tape.

Be careful not to have a mouthful of hot liquid in your mouth, you may not be able to contain the laughter!!
This is the tablerunner that you saw in the previous entry, and this is a very brief look at free motion quilting.  Keep in mind, and you can see my hands in the video, that you need to place your hands down on the fabric and gently spread the fabric tight.

Hope you enjoy!

Sew, what have I been up to lately.  Classes have finished up and everyone is off doing their quilting, a few have already come back to sew their bindings on.  A jelly roll weekend was great fun and everyone left with a finished top, Woohoo!!!!

We ate lunch outside and we were all sporting sunburns that evening.  I have made some design changes to my border and will hopefully have that completed this week.

The shop is still very busy even though we are all enjoying our gardens.  We have received Meadow by Blackbird Designs from Moda and I must say it is exquisite, beautiful rich blues, greens and roses. We will be ordering their next line Cinnamon and Spice which is due October/November.

Summer Beginner Classes:
I have received a few phone calls regarding a summer beginner class.  I am thinking of Monday evenings from 7-9 for 6 to 8 weeks starting around the first week of July.  If you or anyone you know is interested in learning the fundamentals of patchwork, we will be working on a bed runner with six 12 inch blocks, give us a call.

Until later, happy sewing!
Anne Marie

Free Motion Quilting - finally!

First, I made a video that was 5 minutes in length and wasn't too bad as home videos go of moi free motion quilting my hexagon tablerunner.  Sadly we can not upload it, several attempts were made, ethernet cable was purchased and plugged into the box etc. and still no upload to YouTube.  I am so frustrated at this point, so we are going to have to settle for photos until we figure out what the problem is. One of my sons insists we need a better computer, a really expensive super computer!!! Yeah right....

Sew, here is an extra large picture of what I did in the Hexagons!  I free motioned a heart shape in each pie shape wedge. You can see that I was creating the hearts in a sort of figure 8 fashion, meaning I would start in the center of the block and sew in the ditch going up the left side and then sewing in a clockwise direction I created the top of the heart. I would then sew in the ditch back down on the right seam into the center and do the opposite wedge of the previous wedge just sewn. Phew, does that make sense??  I would then clip threads once all the inner wedges had their hearts and start working on the outside, in this case the brown fabric.  The only difference is I keep going around the circle and I don't cross through the center to the opposite side.

How do I do this without a wobble (well their are a few wobbles here and there), PRACTICE!!!  I have spent a great deal of time doodling and drawing shapes and then creating suitable shapes that would be fairly easy to create with thread.  Everyone can do it, you just need to practice and practice some more.

The applique flower was quilted with echo stitching, there are some wobbles on this one but I don't care it still looks lovely and sometimes the wobbles make the piece more charming (If I keep repeating that I will start to believe it).  The quilting done in the cream half hexagons and half triangles have small stippling and that is all there is to it!

Here is another colour option, Helen sent this photo to me and she used Butterscotch and Roses by Fig Tree  Quilts.  Notice that Helen used two colours for her flowers, and her free motion quilting is brilliant.  Free motion quilting is all about practice, practice and more practice. This particular project is perfect for experimenting with quilting. Notice in Helen's piece how she quilted a flower/star shape in the inner hexagon. It is very effective and can be done without drawing the shape onto the fabric.  Just Practice!!!

 If you are interested in learning more about free motion quilting we are holding a class on Sunday 13 May from 10:00am until 5:00 pm. There are a number of spaces still available. 7

Happy sewing!
Anne Marie

Secret Garden Tablerunner

Okay, so I have been plodding away on this tablerunner and am delighted with it so far. The 3 flower appliques have been slow going, mostly because my machine foot pedal is shot and I have to keep pressing the start/stop button which also means that I have my Janome speed control at the slowest notch.  Having said all that I am very pleased and hoping to start free motion quilting it tomorrow.

One thing I will say is when you are using a blanket stitch it really is a great idea to slow your machine down to the slowest speed if you have that option on your machine.  By not having the foot pedal I had to concentrate on the stitching and be ready to hit the button, as a result the stitching is far more even and little to no blips!!!

I did a small zig zag stitch around the flower center using matching blue thread. Each flower took about an hour to applique, the fussy part was the stitching in the concave area down by the center of flower. I used the hand wheel to manipulate the needle so that it would fall in the right area and take bites where I wanted.

Stay tuned for some free motion quilting and a final reveal!

Happy sewing!
Anne Marie

Tablerunner a La Hexagon

Sew, this weekend I have been working on my spring tablerunner. This is the tablerunner that I showed in my last post. I have been working from my Sizzlin Sixties book of patterns by Heather Mulder Peterson. Using the new fabric that arrived last week, Butterfields, my Garden Party pattern and a sixty degree triangle ruler; let the fiesta begin.  First, I cut 2 strips from each 1/4 yard and three strips from the half yard of cream fabric. Now I would love to tell you the exact measurements but since this is not a pattern I designed and there are copyright issues you will just have to either figure it out yourself or buy the book! Sorry but dems de rules....  And just for the record, all of my customers that have bought this book and ruler have admitted to becoming addicted and can't stop at just one project.  Perfect for using up all those pretty jelly rolls, I know I have made over half the projects in the book!! Anywho, I picked the colour pairs that I felt worked best and then the sewing and subcutting began.

I then laid out all my triangles, half hexagons and half triangles.  Trying to balance the colours and changing hexagons around.  I did discover a mistake or what I think is a mistake; the half hexagons are supposed to be cut by placing the bottom of the 60 degree triangle at the 8 1/2" line and cut, however these half hexagons are two small. I worked out that if you cut 10" long rectagles and then using your triangle cut the angles the half hexagons will the perfect size.  I know this is seriously confusing but trust me the way it is explained in the book doesn't work.

After dinner today I started to sew the half hexagons into rows and then the top three rows together.

This is the type of pattern that requires a bit of space for laying it out.  In fact this pattern has to be laid out and just doesn't work unless you sew all the rows together first and keep an eye out for your seam directions but also because you are sewing in rows and not actually sewing the hexagon together first.

This project has been the perfect project for me, complex and challenging but finished in no time.  I have been in a bit of a funk lately and I needed something to help me get my groove back.  Running the shop, teaching classes and raising a family can keep me from doing alot of sewing and sometimes you need that special project that gives you a boost and leaves you craving more!!!

Especially when your seams come together like this, ahhhh  perfection!

Tomorrow, the remaining three rows and some applique and if we are really on a roll then maybe some free motion quilting!!

Happy sewing,
Anne Marie

New Arrivals of the Woven Variety

We had some new arrivals this week! Before you roll your eyes and say dear God not another lamb post, the arrivals are of the woven variety!  Margot Languedoc of The Pattern Basket has designed her first line of fabric for Henry Glass & Co. and it is gorgeous.  Margot is Canadian and her blog is a favourite of mine, she always has such beautiful projects and her taste in fabrics mirrors mine.  If you pop over to her blog and see all the beautiful projects she has created with "Butterfields" you will see what I mean.

My pictures do not do this line of fabric justice, trust me.  A friend of mine and a lovely customer named Helen, made a beautiful table runner from a Heather Mulder Peterson pattern two years ago and I have decided that this is the perfect fabric to use in the same pattern. I will be diligently working away on it next week and enjoying every minute of it.  Helen tells me that she gets more comments on this tablerunner, it is a great size too.

This is made using a 60 degree triangle and 2 1/2" strips. I think the spring colours of Butterfields will be perfect for my dining room.  Note the charming disposition of my shop assistant, this was a year and a half ago and his enthusiasm for holding up objects for photos was not what he would call cool!!  He is now almost 6 foot tall and he will do anything for his mother, it was a phase. LOL

Shop hours for next week; Monday 9 April thru Friday 14 April, we will be open each day from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. 

 Feel free to come on by and see what we have, there is a lovely bargain table with fabrics reduced but they are rapidly disappearing.

Happy sewing!
Anne Marie