Cathedral Windows Part 1

Hi everyone, it is Claire, writing as a guest, sharing yesterday's class in the workroom. It was the first part of the long awaited Cathedral Windows Class.  It is one of my favourite patchwork patterns not only because it has such sentimental value to me but because it gives you the opportunity to showcase favourite fabrics old or new. After the preliminary work is done it is a good hand sewing project to get on with in front of the telly. I love that sort of project as I can never just sit still in the evening!

There was a real buzz of excitement and anticipation in the Workroom. On arrival the lovely ladies talked about packing their bags way in advance and getting up early to walk the dog which rarely  happens! So the pressure was on not least because Debs was a student!

They all thought they were coming to sew but little did they know that they would spend the morning ironing!

The Workroom not only filled with steam but fun, chat and laughter. They were such a friendly group of ladies who had a good chin wag as they folded, pressed and pinned their squares ready for construction next time.

There were a few fiddly corners, hot fingers and flushed faces but all in all they enjoyed part 1. Choices are now being made. Cushion? ...coffee table mat? ... Or 12 pin cushions!!

Can't wait to see their projects develop next time.

New class dates for late spring 2015  so keep a watchful eye on the class list online if you  fancy learning how to make Cathedral Windows next year.

Julia's Notion of the Month & Spotty Saturday For Children in Need

Today I'm handing over to some guest contributors to the blog, but first just a quick reminder of our Children in Need event this Friday and Saturday if you need to stock up on the favourite versatile PlainStitch basic of dots and spots!.....

Now a huge welcome to our guest blogger...Lots of you know lovely Julia from the Wendover Sewing Bee for her amazing sewing work ethic and fabulous quilts! Julia LOVES to try new gadgets and she's kindly offered to do a 'Notion Of The Month' series for the blog. 

over to Julia.......................

I'm currently working on my Farmer's Wife Quit, and have decided to make the " Norway " too as a special 18th birthday gift. I'm not the best at quilt prep, more of a cut as quickly as possible 'n sew girl, but this weekend it struck me how much it really does help to have the right tools for the job - in my case the right ruler!

The Norway Quilt is made up of 2.5 inch strips and the Farmers Wife requires a lot of drawing round tiny bits of template plastic then adding on a sometimes fiddly 1/4 inch seams!
The 2.5 inch ruler is my ruler of choice for both these projects, it makes the job sooo much easier. The beauty of the 2.5 inch ruler is simplicity, no need to squint and count the inches each time you rotary cut, just line up along the edge of your fabric and you're off! Super easy and confident that all my strips will be the same width ( late night cutting with a much wider ruler ended in disaster for me previously!).

The 2.5 inch is also perfect for making your quilt binding, 1/2 m fabric folded and job done in no time at all. The edge of the 2.5 inch ruler is cleverly frosted at the 1/4 width with a dark dotted line, so when you line up against a pencil line for example on a tiny piece of Farmers Wife , you can so easily see the 1/4 inch seam allowance and either draw or cut directly with your rotary cutter, soo much quicker than my old method and more accurate too!

I also have the Omnigrip 6.5 inch square ruler which is going to be very handy for my Farmers Wife blocks which all finish up this size in the end and for the Norway Quilt you are required to cut many 2.5 by 6.5 inch strips and this is so easy with this square ruler! So the two combined are making life a lot more straightforward, I highly recommend popping in to see Debs at PlainStitch to get yours! I now am thinking about my next purchase....a smaller rotary cutter!?

Miss Stitch Pin Cushions

Look what our Miss Stitch girls made this weekend.............

This weekend it was time for the November Miss Stitch's Sewing Academy and we were making Pin Cushions. The lovely Miss Stitch, Victoria, had such a tempting selection of fabrics and trims for the girls to choose from. They all decided on their designs, cut out templates and used the sewing machine to make their pin cushions. They then used hand sewing to add embellishments, some making bows using a technique we learnt in a previous class, others choosing buttons and lace to personalise their pin cushions.

Wow - don't they look fabulous? Well done girls x

Next month they're making a gorgeous Reindeer......humph.. I wish I was 8 again!

Winter Sun. Sewing for Babies. Cathedral Windows and Hot Water Bottle Covers

Our Workroom is set up on the first floor of a Georgian building with low wide sash windows. Our windows look out over the busy high street of our pretty village. We look out over the old tiled roofs opposite, a birds eye view of ornate brickwork and tiling, hidden high up along the eves of roofs, unseen from the street. Above the roofs on the horizon are the rolling tree lined tops of the Chiltern Hills and the Forestry Commissions Wendover Woods. The clouds have been hanging low over the hills, blotting out the tops of the trees and some days this week have been grey grey grey, stormy and squally. But looking back over the weeks photos, you can see the moments of such bright sunshine, illuminating the colour and creativity bursting out of our Workroom.

Visit our 2015 Spring Classes tab on the website if you want to join us in celebrating colour and creativity in the long gloomy weeks of January and February. We have a packed schedule of classes kicking off in the new year and many are fully booked already so don't delay. We have vouchers too if you want to give a friend or family member the gift of a fabulous new hobby this Christmas.

I'm very excited to be swapping roles next week and becoming a student at the Workroom for Claire's exciting Modern Cathedral Windows Class. I'm really looking forward to a little hand sewing project for the run up to Christmas - the perfect de-stress for snatched moments in amongst the madness and bustle, I'm planning supersized cathedral windows for a cushion, now which fabric to choose? ( There is still one space if anyone else fancies joining us)

Lovely winter sunshine first thing today at The Workroom - the calm before a veritable dressmaking storm today! Little Girls Dresses are looking soooooo cute, I can't tell you! I'll share some pics next class when the bodices and skirts come together.

We're making Hot Water Bottles on Tues 25th Nov 10am at The Workroom. I live in a very draughty old Victorian cottage so we have extensively road tested and refined this pattern over the years, I can tell you! If you live in a house as cold as mine I highly recommend you make these in multiples - there's something quite indulgent about choosing your hot water bottle cover each evening.

What makes a perfect hot water bottle? Just the right amount of wadding and quilting, no 'knobbly' buttons or add ons ( so uncomfortable!) the perfect ergonomics of the flap placement to allow for easy bottle filling ( when you're doing a mass hot water bottle fill for a family of 5 you can't be fiddling about taking the whole thing out!). This project is a fun and fab way to use up some favourite fabrics and wadding pieces, practice your machine quilting, and make some useful items. There's a space left on this class if you'd like to join us.

We also have a great new class that starts in January, Sewing For Babies. It's 4 classes aimed at sewing beginners where we will be making bibs and dribble bandanna's, proper old fashioned bonnets or sun-hats, swaddle snugglers for newborns and - fabulously handy to have a few - travel changing mats. For expectant mums or grannies it's the perfect 4 month preparation for a new baby. What's nicer than home-made baby preparations? Kasha, our lovely tutor has been working hard on all these super-cute samples - the Workroom is bursting with baby loveliness, pop in and have a coo...ahhh!

Last but not least - we have added an additional afternoon Christmas Wreaths Class on Sat 22nd Nov, 1.30pm- 4pm ( the morning class is sold out) so why not come along, have a lovely relaxing afternoon and get to tick something off the Christmas preparation list too!

The weekend of the 21st  and 22nd November is also our ShopHop weekend....Judy sent me a very exciting picture of goodies for the Raffle Prize this week! Just visit all 3 shops ( PlainStitch, Wendover. Sew Patchwork, Thame. Sally's Sewing Box, Princes Risborough) over the two days and collect those stickers to enter, along with lots of special offers in each shop for the weekend. Save the date, you've got to be in it to win it! xx

Time to get Cosy : Sewing Scarves and Cushions

Brrr it's turned very dark and chilly this week hasn't it - just as well we have been working on such cosy projects this week!

We made super warm but super glam scarves - look how pleased we all were with them! I have such lovely students, this class was a joy! xx

 Working with rayon and voile with such lovely drape made an even more luxurious scarves, these are Anna Maria Horner and Cotton + Steel.

 Always loving an Emmy Grace scarf...... so glamorous in silky voile.

We also finished some more lovely cushions...... both made to compliment quilts already made for lucky bedrooms, these have Jeannes great lapped zipper fitted in the back so they're really practical too, well done ladies.

Ohh and we have some lovely new Lori Holt ( of Bee in My Bonnet fame!) fabric just in - that brown floral is gorgeous and would make an amazing quilt back or blind and we have a great 'cheater' bolt where 1m is made up of 4 FQ squares - make a great 'pieced' quilt back with no work at all!

Time to hunker down and get some cosy sewing done, methinks  x

Norway by Thimble Blossom Quilts

I've had such a lovely day choosing fabric for projects for lovely customers and for the back of my quilt for my Boy.

This quilt is from a pattern called Norway by Bonnie and Camilles Thimble Blossom Quilt Company. Those of you who did the Swoon Along earlier this year will recognise this pattern company. I did love making my Swoon but this quilt was another kettle of  fish all together. It was such a JOY to make! All made from 2.5inch strips this clever pattern comes together in no time at all. I made this quilt in ONE DAY. Now I'm not at all a 'quilt-in-a-day' kind of a gal but I just loved making this and kept on sewing til it was done! I would especially recommend having a small helpful boy armed with a pair of snippers to cut apart your chain piecing as you go for maximum efficiency, mind you.  

This was our fabric for the quilt - you need 1/3 of a metre of 9 prints plus I think it was about 2.5m of background fabric . We used a Kona Silver which is a lovely soft grey. The back is going to be a blue dogtooth, it'll be lovely. Keep my boy cosy this winter x

I also had a lovely commission to choose some fabrics for a non- girlie-girl 18th birthday quilt. The brief was silvery greys, teals, purples and mustard.......ummmm I want to sew them too!

Then another fabric choice commission - soft greys and modern yellows for an as yet unborn baby, unknown gender! Loving this simple sophisticated selection - it'll be a lovely classic patchwork layout so those deer can really get shown off - lucky baby x

I now have 4 quilts waiting to be basted and nothing to yet hand quilt this winter and this sudden drop in temperature is calling out for a warm quilt to sew beneath on the sofa! Better stop procrastinating!

See you at the Sewing Bee tomorrow, from 9.30am at St Anne's, Wendover x

Sewing Unplugged

It's been half term here this week and we've had such a lovely time. It's been a busy few months and I was ready for a week at home with my little people. I love having my kids home and they love hanging out together. The weather has been fabulous, we've been making bonfires, walking dogs, upgrading our chicken accommodation ready for the autumn and generally hanging out. We've moved around bedroom furniture, played games, watched movies and looked at the moon through a telescope.

Life in...

Low key

Lo fi

Unplugged.

The kids have read a lot of books, drawn lots of pictures, done lots of amazing baking and I've done some sewing. It's been the best kind of break! ( I know - Busman's Holiday - doing lots of sewing as a break from my sewing job )

My finished projects pile, long empty, is now overflowing. I can't ignore the need to baste, light that fire, and get hand quilting. It's a primal sewing rhythm as the nights draw in!

I had an urge to make flying geese as autumn crept in this season. I had been teaching a fun fast method of making geese in my Bee in My Bonnet class and it coincided with the arrival of Denyse Schmidts Hadley fabric line. These fabrics fun cheerful vintage vibe called out for a traditional quilt pattern made modern. I had always wanted to make a pure flying geese project. I made a geese quilt a long time ago but the blocks were big jumbo geese. It's a picnic blanket now, but it didn't ever quite scratch that itch. I love traditional patterns. I love the rigour they demand from you, I love the patient repetition ( sometimes!). 

 This quilt was a joy to make. I started making geese at our autumn retreat. It was the perfect way to make lots of geese fast - lots of chat and the chain piecing just whizzes away beneath you hands. These fabrics were just a pleasure to work with - every geese made me smile. I choose a dusky blue background that made the primary colours zing. Like geese against a pure blue autumn sky. My chief layout consultant ( Miss Stitch # 1) and I had a lot of layout options! I may have to make another 5 of these quilts to exhaust the ones we liked best. In the end I decided to stay simple and pure, but couldn't resist a few wayward geese flying in the other direction.

 I've also been working on finishing up quilt tops and making their backs. My Scandi Sampler Arundelle Quilt is almost finished -just that last bottom right hand panel to complete, we have to wait for the weather turn cold to watch Frozen again for the detail for that panel! I've got the back made this week though so its ready to hand quilt before Christmas.

 My sunshiney StarFlowers EPP now has a back and is ready to baste, then next in the hand quilting queue.

I've been powering through a quick chain pieced project for my Boy who has had a room move round and feels that his bed needs a new quilt! he he - I do LOVE that kind of a request and he's my favourite client! Miss Stitch #1 pulled this lovely pile of fabrics for his project - her now legendary eye for colour hits this nail right on the head don't you think?! Love this boy- palette.

 Finally on my workbench now is a return to my Double Wedding Rings project from the summer. I decided to take it to bits and rework it. Bit of a gulp decision but am now feeling ready to tackle this one again with gusto so must have been the right decision!

Lastly this week we built a huge bonfire in our field. Then rebuilt it further away from the hedge as the wind picked up last night! Then we had the whole family over, cousins, Aunties and Uncles, Nanas and Grandads for a big bonfire party. I do like Halloween but my heart is really with Bonfire Night - so much more wholesome fun. Cold air, warm fire, toffee, sparklers and smoke, fireworks and family, big bowls of warm chilli and foil wrapped hot potatoes -  it does pip cauldrons and candy to the post in my affections. Happy Bonfire week x