Where has it gone?

This year is flying by, isn’t it? I’m finding it hard to believe that it’s July already.

Mind you, I am enjoying this lovely weather, are you? I know its a bit too warm for some and you don’t feel like doing much, but I do think it lightens peoples mood, we all seem more cheerful on the sunshine, don’t we.

July means Christmas here at the shop – I know – I’ve mentioned the ‘C’ word, but the fabrics are starting to arrive and there’s nothing like being prepared, is there?                     So to make room, we’re having a sale on the 7th July – it takes quite a bit of preparation and half of me wants to put it all into the sale and start again – sometimes I think it would be nice to have a blank slate and start again, but I’m not sure I would do anything differently!(maybe not order quite so much!)

We had our first Quilt Retreat last weekend – it was a lovely time – a lot of work and time went into preparing for it but we had such fun and everyone went home with some fabulous quilt tops finished or with ideas with how they were going to be. It’s a lovely feeling when something that you’ve thought about comes together and goes well. Everyone left asking if we were going to do it again – we’re looking at dates, so watch this space!

I’d better get back to sewing some of the Christmas samples, before the workshop get too hot …..

Stay cool until next time, Happy sewing x

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Quilts shows and a bit of a mystery….

I was at The museum of Cannock Chase on Saturday, at the exhibition of crafts and quilts. It’s their third year of organising the show and it’s always fun. I love trading at local shows – I might not sell huge amounts, but I do get to chat to fellow quilters and fabric enthusiasts (and I do like a good chat!) We usually end up laughing about how much fabric we have and how we really don’t need anymore, but how we can’t resist this piece it will come in handy for something!

These shows are useful for me to get my shop ‘out there’, so visitors can see the sort of fabrics I stock and where abouts I am.

I spend quite a lot of time before hand working out what to take and worrying about whether I will have what people want. I usually end up taking too much stuff and then spend too much time arranging and re-arranging and fretting that it doesn’t look very good.

It was a very successful day and lovely to see old customers and new.

Chris Franses is a great friend to me, she is supportive and encouraging, a really blessing. She teaches at the shop as well as writing and designing patterns for the patchwork and quilting magazines. Chris has her own website meadowside-designs, where she sells her patterns and writes her blog. During the Summer she is hosting a ‘mystery quilt’ sew-along. Each week she will post a different part of a quilt, for you to sew along with. I’m going to join in (because I don’t have enough to do!)

If you pop over to her site the needs list has been posted – here’s my choice – I’m really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

I hope you’ll join in, I’d love to see how you get on – I’ll be posting my progress (I just hope I can keep up!)

Until next time                                                                                                                                         Happy sewing                                                                                                                                              Jane x

 

 

Feeling topsy turvy….

everything feels a bit upside down and inside out at the moment!

I’m not sure why but I don’t seem to able to stick to one project at the time – is it because there is so much to do I wonder?

It could also be that the shop is starting to fill up with Christmas fabrics and I have started to make samples of the advent calendars…

We will be having a sale on Saturday 7th July to make room for all this gorgeous Christmas fabric – so put the date in your diary, there will be lots of bargains.

My head is full of ideas for quilt designs but I don’t seem to have time to get anything down on paper, never mind sew anything.

At home everything is in a jumble because we’re having a new hall floor laid, which means we need to redecorate, don’t we! I say we it’s all fallen to Glen to do, all I had to do was choose the colours (such hardship!) Why is it that when you decorate one area it makes everywhere else messy too? I’m not the tidiest of person at the best of times but there seems to be even more stuff everywhere – I know it will be OK when it’s all done but at the moment it’s not helping!

I think I just need to concentrate on one thing at a time and stay calm, but sometimes it easier said than done, isn’t it?

Wishing you a calm and fulfilling time,                                                                                             Jane x

Hello again

I’m finding it difficult to believe that I haven’t written anything here for nearly a year!

Where have I been?, all over the place physically and spiritually.

Life has been hectic, tiring, frustrating and fabulous, mostly all at the same time and no different to anyone elses, I don’t suppose.

I’m still working on The Sewing Quarter, which is an education in itself. I have learn new skill to pass onto viewers. Sometimes the time frame for projects has been a bit short and I have worked into the night to get stuff finished and my Mum has been a great help.

I have celebrated 5 years of having The Corner Patch (and celebrated being 50), I’m so blessed to be able to do what I love, I meet lovely people and get to work with beautiful fabrics. We filled the church with gorgeous quilts and raised over £3600 which we divided between the Church and The Autistic Society.

 

Eccleshall Church looking fabulous festooned with quilts

We’re hoping to it all again next year, so keep November 2019 free 🙂

We still have a fabulous range of classes and workshops, thanks to Chris Franses, Barbara Chainey and Tracy and we are doing our first Quilting Retreat in June (22nd-24th) with Chris and Barbara, which is exciting, there are still a few places if you’re interested, just give me a ring.

Anyway, just a quick post to let you know I’m still here – I’ve pledged to try to be a bit more regular (I’m not sure that’s grammatically correct!) with my posts, I promise it won’t be nearly a year before we chat again.

Until next time,                                                                                                                                        Happy sewing,                                                                                                                                         Jane x

 

As seen on TV

a few weeks ago I answered an e-mail asking if I’d like to be a guest presenter on a shopping channel called the ‘Sewing Quarter’ – I thought ‘why not’ and so I went to Birmingham and did a screen test. And today I found myself on the other side of the camera demonstrating how to make a mini quilt pattern.                                                            It was a thrilling experience, everyone was really welcoming and so helpful and friendly, I had a lovely day (even if I did have t get up at 4 this morning!)

Now I’m back at home, it all feels a little surreal.

I feel extremely lucky to have had this opportunity and on reflection today wouldn’t of happened if I hadn’t decide to take on the shop. It is a decision that some days I wonder why I did it! It’s hard work having your own business, every day wondering if anyone will come to the shop, will they like the fabrics I’ve chosen, will they want to attend the workshops we’ve decided to put on? But I love it! I love being able to work with the beautiful fabrics, meeting very talented patchwork and quilters, being inspired by them and helping them to create fabulous quilts, sharing the love of needlecraft with the young stitchers.

So really I have to thank all of you for letting me do what I do, because without you I wouldn’t have a shop, I wouldn’t have started teaching and I wouldn’t have appeared on television today.

Opportunities don’t come along very often – I’m a great believer in going for it. Life is for living!

Sometimes that gets me into trouble but mostly it takes me on amazing adventures like today.

So have a lovely weekend, enjoy the sunshine and have fun!

The preparation area

Behind the scenes

Myself with the absolutely lovely presenter John Scott

British Quilt and Stitch Village

Phew! what a busy weekend, it was lovely to see everyone. We had a lovely time, but it seems that some of the visitors were a little disappointed – there were fewer traders this year and certainly fewer quilts to look at.

What can we do? If we don’t support our local show, we will lose it!

I’ m as much to blame as the next person, I was going to enter a quilt, but didn’t quite find the time to finish it. I thought ‘oh, it won’t matter they’ll be plenty of others’, but of course, if everybody thought like that they’d be none at all. So I am determined to get it finished for next year – I’m not bothered about winning ( but I will try my best) it’s more important to support the show and who knows, my quilt might inspire someone else to try patchwork & quilting for the first time.

Without quilts to look at there will be less visitors and with less visitors, the traders will not do so well and will not want to attend.

It takes a lot as a trader to prepare for a show, it takes me weeks (if not months) to get everything ready – making up samples, getting kits together, cutting up fabric and generally fretting as to whether I have the ‘right stuff’ that people will want to spend their hard earned money on. So if you don’t get a good return, it puts you off attending again.

So please, please try to enter a quilt next year, it will be good enough and you don’t have to read the judges comments, they come in a sealed envelope, bring them to me and I will look at them and tell you all the good bits!

Encourage your friends to visit and support the traders – we know you don’t need anymore fabric but there maybe a little bit you can’t live without!

Sorry for the rant, but I feel quite passionately about this (can you guess) it doesn’t matter what anyone else says or thinks, it’s our local show let’s support it and keep it going.

Panel bag

I have quite a few panels at the shop. They are great for quick quilts, especially chidren’s quilts. Some of the panels are made up of smaller pictures and these can be cut up and made into cushions, table-runners and placemats and I like to make them into bags.

I thought that I would share with you how I make a panal bag.

At the moment I have the ‘Promise of Spring’ panel which is super cute with bunnies in teacups.

I chose two of the panels and 3 of the coordinating  fabrics, you could choose 4 if you wanted different fabric for your handles.

Fabric amounts :                                                                                                                                                 2 panels                                                                                                                                                                  1 Fat Quarter for bag sides.                                                                                                                             1/2 metre for bag top, bottom and handles ( if you want a different fabric for handles – a long quarter for handles and a fat quarter for bag top and bottom)                                                  1/2 metre for bag lining.

I work with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Cut the pieces for the bag sides – measure the height of your panel this will be the length of your strip (my panel measures 12″) Cut a 3 1/2″ wide strip and cut to the length of your panel. You’ll need 4 strips. (Take care if your fabric is directional.)

Sew these strips to each side of your panels.

Measure the width of your panel now -including the added strips.                                                  For the bag bottom – cut a 3 1/2″wide strip and cut two pieces the same measurement as your panel.                                                                                                                                                            Sew them to the bottom of each panels                                                                                                     For the bag top – cut a 2″ wide strip and cut two pieces the width of the panel.                         Sew these to the top of each panel.

Layer the panels on top of a piece of wadding that is slightly bigger than your panel.

Quilt the panel as you wish.I quilted around the edge of the panel ‘in the ditch’ and around the bunnies, followed the lines in the stripey fabric on the top and bottom and a bit of ‘free-motion’ on the sides.

Make your handles – cut two 4 1/2″ wide strips from the width of fabric.                                     Fold the strip in half length ways and flatten the fold. Open the strip out again and fold the  edges into the middle using the crease as a guide. Fold back in half and sew along the folded edge about 1/8″ in from the edge. Sew down the opposite edge. Repeat with the other strip.

 

 

You now have two handles – you can cut them to your desired length. I like mine slightly longer because I like to slip them over my shoulder, but you might want shorter ones, just remember to add an extra 1/2″ to your desired length for seam allowance.

Sew the handles to the top of the panels measuring 4″ in from the side edge.

Place the raw edges of the handle against the top edge of the panel. Sew a rectangle at the top of the strap and sew across the diagonals to give extra strength, about 1/2″ deep.              Repeat on the remaining 3 strap edges.

Join the two panels together along the bottom, place right sides together and sew along the bottom edge.

Cut the lining fabric – the same size as the two panels sewn together.Place the lining rights sides together with the panels.

Sew the lining across the top of the bag, encasing the handles, 1/2″ down from the raw edges.

Take the two top seams and line them up together, so that the lining is right sides together and the panels are right sides together.

Sew down from the top to the bottom on one side.

On the other side, sew along the edge but leave about a 4″ gap in the middle of the lining edge.

 

Box the corners – take the corner and flatten out so the seams and fold of the bottom are lined up and it forms a triangle – measure 1 1/2″ down from the point of the triangle this will give you a 3″ line from edge to edge, draw along the line, then sew along the drawn line and trim 1/4″ away from sewn line, cutting the triangle off.

Do this on all 4 corners.

Pull the bag through the gap in the lining and poke the corners out.                                               Hand sew the gap closed.

Oversew the top edge of your bag, sewing about 1/8″ in from the edge.

Enjoy your bag and all the compliments you’ll get from having such a gorgeous bag 🙂