One Hundred and Thirty Nine ( and counting!!)

That's right!

139 FINISHED Linus Quilts. 

That is what the lovely Joan (the Linus Lady) collected today.  I think you can be rightly proud of yourselves ladies. They were sorted, counted and re-counted just to be sure.  (And we still have at least 10 quilt tops in the store cupboard that just need finishing)

a pile of hugs, just waiting for someone to hold.

 Joan brought us the Northants Linus news letter and a hint that we may feature in the next one!

Smile for the camera!

 If you still have a quilt top at home that need completing, don't worry, they can be passed to Joan at a later (but not too late) date.

Many tanks go to Jayne Smith of Makower UK who kindly sent some samples (loads actually)  for us to use in these quilts.

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Carol brought a collection of pieces that she has made for a Wedding Anniversary gift for a friend.
There was a cushion, some table mats, coasters and a cute bread basket. Lucky Friends!

note the EMPTY wine glass

 Ellen had finished her lovely neutral crazy cushion, compete with gold tassels. A lovely piece of work. Well done Ellen

simple palette but so effective

There didn't seem to be much going on in this corner, well on the sewing front anyway!

putting the world to rights?

 But I was wrong! Apparently Ena can talk and work at the same time. That lady has some hidden talents.

 She has lots of little bits of fabric and is making one of these

Not sure if she will be wearing or hanging it :)))

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We have organised a Hand Quilting Workshop taught by the talented Susie Corke to be held on Saturday 8th June. Cost is £19. and names to be given to Anne Dodson as soon as possible.
NUMBERS ARE LIMITED


Don't forget, next Monday (6th May) is a Bank Holiday, so

NO GROUP

But we will meet on Wednesday 8th May.

 On our next all day Monday (20th May) we will be having our

PIN CUSHION PARTY

Have you had your invite??

All are welcome, Bring a bag of your lovely fabrics and some stuffing and a notebook.  You can make any of the pin cushions that we have a pattern for. (We will not have copies of the patterns for everyone, so you will need to make your own notes).

 If you have an old china tea cup or little bowl, you could put a pin cushion in that!

 And here are some ideas that I have taken from this lovely blog where they posted a pincushion every Friday for a year! Loads of choice there then!

As its a Party, we will also be having a

BRING AND SHARE LUNCH

Don't be Late!!

W.I.P. day

Firstly let me apologise because my camera ran out of steam after taking only  two photos, so the rest have been taken by my phone and the quality may be as suspect as my usual snaps.

There seemed to be a lot of W.I.P (work in progress) being done today..

Angie's hexie cushion

Jo's also working on her hexie 'thing'

Jo's not sure what her's will end up as, but she just carries on regardless.

Lynda may have taken up the challenge with this quilt....yes, she is still hand quilting it

Lovely Star

She's keeping warm as she looks down her nose at someone.

We have seen these little blocks being made for many months (if not years) but now the blocks are being put together with 'quilt as you go method'.

Looking good Mrs B

'Crazy' isn't going to be left out

 

So pretty

I can't remember seeing this before, lovely appliqué going on in this corner of the room.

 

Think this belongs to Pauline 

and introducing this 'snails trail' 

 

Just adding the bias trail to the border.

Wonder what wonders we will be seeing next time!

JUST A REMINDER

Please return all Linus quilts next week as Joan (Linus Lady) will be here to collect all the finished quilts.  We would like all unfinished quilts returned as well, so that we can have a 'tally up' and if quilts are needed in the coming year we will know whether we can provide them.

And the Crazy continues!

 So, despite what we put her through on Monday, the plucky Diana returned on Wednesday evening to continue her "Embellishing Crazy Patchwork" class. (She must have thought it was "Ground-hog Day")!!

Ena, being teachers pet, has worked quite hard on her piece and it is looking good.

Se brought an apple too!

 Beverly tried some couching on her block

Bright colours

 Carole & Eileen look like they have been cracking on too!

feet up for a mo

Gillian started of with a fussy cut angel

getting ready for the season?

And Jackie selected some nice neutrals

a nice little flower border

Louise has chosen some darker neutral fabrics and added some lace too

This has a vintage look

Susan used some cool greens in her piece

Start with a five sided piece

Not sure whose this is (let me know and I will amend the post) but a very floral selection that will take some serious embroidery - exciting!

Love those roses

Again - not sure who - looks like they mean business with that book of instructions!

a little twinkle here

And just to show that they can work hard - with Diana's cushions in the background - a good evenings work! Well done!

Please remember to return the Linus quilts next Wednesday.
 Mrs Linus is collecting them all on Monday 29th April. We will tally up numbers then.

Spring Has Sprung and Crazy Comes To Town

 The sun was shining and there was a warmth in the air.....

 And good old Angela has volunteered to sew labels on the Linus quilts.

There are lots. 

 She is a hero.

one down - dozens to go!!

 Christine was foundation piecing some very pretty blocks

lovely colours

 And Lynda is still hand quilting her Sampler.

lots of blocks to go

 Angie was happy to show of her challenge sewing machine pad - with pockets! Go Angie!

handy pockets to keep you essentials in

 But the day was dominated by the lovely Diana who came to show us tips on embellishing Crazy blocks - lets face it, we do CRAZY very well!
 So some started by piecing the blocks

 starting off well

nearly done

really colourful

And then the fancy stuff was added

using all those fancy stitches on your machine

Hand or Machine?

Adding some hand embroidery

like the swirls!

And here are some shots of works in progress

Ellen's rather sophisticated colours

embellished blocks

Murial has used all sorts of fabrics in her blocks

Has quite a Victorian feel

Glennys used candy colours, I wonder if this will be something for her grand-daughter

pretty selection

Ena's colour choice was quite strong - doesn't it make a difference?

pretty pansy fussy cut for the centre

A BIG THANK-YOU to Diana for helping us all out today.
For anyone who may be interested Diana will be with us on Wednesday evening too.

And this is our 101th post!! Where did that time go!!

After the Easter break...what's new?

Lots of new projects  showed their faces today

Vibrant colours 

and more bright cheerfulness 

Eileen loves hand appliqué

 sure we will seem more of this in weeks to come.

Jan is making a farmyard quilt.

The hen is her favourite, but I love that pig

We may have seen this before.

Murial is paper piecing this block

and look at these yummy Liberty prints

Toni spent hours placing her "hexies", then more hours repositioning them.....she got there in the end

Such pretty fabrics

Hazel and Lynda hand quilting

Will it be finished for the exhibition???

See how Barbara showed Hazel how to tack using a spoon!

Shirley was a bit late handing in her 'Challenge', she had a good excuse, and what a great little quilt.

 

This will be given as a 'Linus' Quilt.

In the past we have seen quilts for cats, quilts for dogs, but this quilt takes the biscuit....... its a sleeping bag quilt for a neighbours teddy bear.... how sweet is that?

She really does have too much time on her hands.

I am not sure how long Fran has been working on this baby, but what a beauty. All the blocks are embroidered with 'candlewicking'.  Unfortunately I am no professional photographer, and even though we took the quilt outside the photos don't do justice to this quilt.

Each block is different

 Close up of a few of the blocks

For some lucky little girl

Don't forget that next week is our 'all day' meeting and Diana Turner will be with us for some 'Crazy patchwork Embellishment.  

For those of you new to crazy patchwork, please bring along a piece of calico or plain coloured cotton for the foundation, and a selection of fabric scraps.  Then refer to the list below.

For those of you that know how to do crazy patch, bring along your prepared crazy patchwork square.

also bring:

some embroidery threads, long eyed needle, embroidery hoop,  beads, buttons and any other trims that you might like to use.