Friday 26 November 2010

A New Arrival

These are the baby quilts I have made so far. They are so small but very cute.





On Wednesday a very nice delivery man brought me a parcel and I was just a little excited.

I was surprised as well because I only ordered it on Monday afternoon. It's a wonderful machine I love using it. The best thing I've discovered so far is the bobbin countdown, I think every machine should have one of those. It's great to have all that throat space for quilting.



I bet you can guess what Ill be doing this weekend.

Thursday 18 November 2010

A Rant

Life is busy and I've been wondering if there is something I should be giving up just to take the pressure off a little but I couldn't decide on anything I would like to give up. Today however I am seeing things in a different light and I've realised there is one thing that right now I would give up very easily and it's blogging. I had a hard time yesterday trying to post and in the end I was in such a rush to post before blogger went berserk again and ate my photos or did something else weird I forgot to thank you all for your kind wishes about the shop so THANK YOU.


Today I had just one picture to load onto blogger and guess what it's turned the picture round. I didn't ask it to, I didn't tell it to, but it has.


These are baby quilts that I will be finishing today. They are for the special care baby unit at the Rosie in Cambridge. Apparently they need 50 a month so we have been encouraging people to use their left over fabrics to make some.





While the going is good I'm going to catch up on some other blogs.

Wednesday 17 November 2010

I Don't Like Gremlins

Congratulations to Sam H, she was the winner of the giveaway and this is what she won. Unfortunately it's a dreadful picture but the only one i've got.





This is the little quilt that I was piecing together last week. I'm very pleased with it, particularly the quilting. It's also very pretty and the photo doesn't do it justice.






Don't know if it's me or blogger but I've had real problems trying to do this post this morning - I hope it's not a sign of how the day is going to go. The stupid programme ate my pictures and kept randomly putting in links. I nearly gave up and wasn't going to post at all.


I'm going to start quilting the pheasant quilt today so my fingers are crossed for no more gremlins.

Thursday 11 November 2010

A Special Day

Today is Art and Stitch birthday. We are two years old and they have been a wonderful two years. We have met so many lovely people, babies have been born, illness has been suffered, marriages have taken place, houses bought and sold and so much more. We have become a little community in our own right.


We have also seen some fantastic work, it has been lovely to see all the things that customers have and are working on.


All the teachers have been great with many of them returning time and time again.


As a treat Neil commissioned a birthday cake, I'm not sure how he managed to do this without me knowing. The cake was a real treat because Oliver (who owns and runs Kings Cliffe Bakery along with his wife Karen) doesn't make many birthday cakes. Tea and cake was enjoyed by everybody, the cake was as good as it looks .


If you are ever in the vicinity of Kings Cliffe then you really must make a visit to the bakery.

Their sausage rolls are the best ever and the pumpkin bread is lovely.







Thank you to everyone who has walked through our door over the last two years.


As it's a birthday I'm going to have a giveaway, with a twist. It's going to be a secret giveaway. If you would like to enter just leave a message before Monday evening. Good luck.

Saturday 6 November 2010

A Pretty Quilt

These pictures are my goldwork samples. I didn't use gold coloured thread because I don't really like the colour which may be part of the reason I don't like the technique.


This was couching threads.




This next sample I enjoyed more and could immediately see lots of uses for it. It's padded - the correct name is raised work.


You can't really tell from the photo but it would be great for flowers or faces and lots more.




This is what I've been working on this week. It's the quilt made from the pieces cut on the Go Cutter.It has gone together so easily that I'm very tempted to make another one but slightly different. I thought it would be nice to make a block that included the star and the first border of squares, make six blocks like that put them together and you would have a nice size quilt. Now I just need some more time.







I have started the quilting, I'm trying to do something a little bit different and I'm enjoying it. Hopefully I'll get it finished next week. I'm not going to get much done this weekend.


Enjoy your weekend, today especially as the weather is being kind to us.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Time Please!

Where does all the time go? I can't believe it's over a week since I last posted, I really could do with an extra day in my week. Home life has been busy and the shop has been hectic - but that's good! We have seen lots of lovely people, old friends and new. Some have been kind enough to bring in WIPs and finished projects. It's so nice to see what other people are doing and discuss ideas.

Last Wednesday was the second meeting of the stitching group I belong to and at last we have a name - 'Tension'. We had some homework which I have done but forgotten to photograph so I can't show you just now. We are still working on Goldwork, not my favourite subject but Gina is teaching us some useful techniques.

I did manage to get the attic window quilt top put together. I wasn't very happy with it but now I have seen it on here it looks much better than I thought it did. I obviously just needed to take a step back and look at it.



Yesterday this arrived at the shop. I have to say I was doubtful about this gadget but I've been having fun. I am about halfway through putting together a quilt top, all the pieces were cut on the cutter. I got the rep to cut them last week as a demo and I have noticed how much more accurately they have been cut. The pieces have gone together so easily and I haven't used anywhere near as many pins as I usually do trying to make the seams meet accurately. I have had to eat my words and admit I am impressed.

It also makes cutting so much quicker. Last night I spent an hour cutting 2 1/2" squares - it was so quick. I don't know how many I cut because there was too many to count . There are lots of different quilt blocks I would like to make but wouldn't have attempted to in the past just because of cutting, now I will.

Please please can I have some more time?