Great class - great bags!!

This weekend Jacqui Karl was at The Cloth Shop teaching "Bags" Yesterday was the first day and they painted, stamped, embroidered and couched on different threads to their "plain" fabrics. Today they sewed their bags together - Trish is trimming batting for ther gusset.

Sharon and Trish sewing around the trickey corners. It is fun at a class to see the different colours and combinations everyone chooses, and how they are just "right" for the person who does the choosing!

Trish chose paua colours and for her stamps she chose koru hearts complemented her feature fabric perfectly!

Janice and Robyn chose pretty florals

they thought they were the slowest in the class - but they were wrong.

Mary chose a very sophisticated colour combination of grey and gold. It was a very successful weekend and everyone went home with their bags almost finished!

A busy weekend and a winner!

It was a fun weekend with The Rose City Quilters holding their Tote and Gloat Annual show here in Palmerston North.
Not only did we pack up our shop and set up for the show, but we were giving away a fabulous brand new Husqvarna Emerald 183 to one lucky ticket holder.

Marjorie Dawson was the lucky recipient of the sewing machine, (pictured above with Katherine checking out her prize). She was overwhelmed by winning the new machine, she has had a very stressful few months health wise and was delighted at being able to retire her very old machine and have a brand new one to use. She thought it was just the thing to get her back to quilting classes!
It was lovely to be able to give you this lovely machine Marjorie, and we hope to see many beautiful quilts as a result.



Here are a couple of photos of our booth at Tote and Gloat.

Katherine went up to Turangi to check out the beautiful venue for our stitching retreat in July with Leanne Beasley and Rosalie Quinlan. It will be held at Oreti Village.

What's the verdict Katherine?

PERFECT!!!

Can't wait to see you all there!

Stitching Friday

Friday is an open day in our sewing room. Friday afternoons are for the embroidery girls, it was a fun afternoon, there were girls working on their quilting projects, and girls working on their embroidery projects. There were lots of ideas and lots of new things to learn!

At one stage the embroidery girls were all out in the kitchen dying calico and testing different types of tea bags for colours, mmmmmm, there were lovely smells coming from the kitchen!

Three very cute visitors arrive

We had a special treat today, we had a visit from Sally and her granddaughter and they had bought in 3 of the cutest puppies for us to see, Hunter, Arnie and Sooty. They were only 6 weeks old and we got to give each of them a cuddle. Sally was trying to find loving families to adopt them, we could have quite easily taken all 3!!

All in a days work for us Cloth Shop girls!

Visitors to The Cloth Shop

It was lovely to meet up with Raewyn from South Australia, (on right). Raewyn was visiting her friend Donna (left), who lives here in Palmerston North. They were busy looking at Block of the Month projects.

We have quite a few exciting new BOM projects if you are looking to work on something new over the Winter months. Come in and see us or check our website.

A very pretty quilt is finished

A very clever crafty quilting girl bought in her finished quilt for us to see.

Isn't it gorgeous?

Above is Frances with her Shoes, shoes, shoes quilt which was one of our Block of the Month projects, but she has added her own setting.

We love to see your quilts when you finish them!

A very special stitching retreat is coming!!

Isn't this the best news ever?

The fabulous and talented Australian designers, Rosalie Quinlan and Leanne Beasley are coming to New Zealand.

Both girls are known world-wide for their embroidery, their beautiful patterns, and their fun classes.

We have decided to bring them to Taupo to the fabulous Oreti Village Resort where we shall spend two days enjoying great friendships, food, stitching, and scenery.

The price is $350.00 which will include meals, twin-share accommodation and classes.

Click on the poster above to enlarge the details, and contact us to register your interest or to book your seat at this wonderful retreat!

Hope to see you there!

The Cloth Shop Girls

Carrots and chickens arrive

Aren't these just the cutest carrots? Liz has been busy stitching up storm here at The Cloth Shop making pages for a childs activity book which will be a sample for a brand new Block of the Month (details are on the website on the Really New page).




All the pages are interactive, and little fingers will spend hours playing and exploring.
This little chicken is nesting in the top of the barn. If you'd like to have a look at the finished sample it is in our shop now.

Being a Friday, the Cloth Shop is always open for anyone who would like to come and sew. Here Katherine and Kath were caught discussing the design, and the technicalities of ruling 101 lines on calico for one of the textured cushions Kath is making. Sometimes it is harder than it seems!

Yummy reading!

Just what you need when the forecast is for showers!!

Colour at The Cloth Shop

Cloth Shop sample being made

Anne's quilt

Wendy's quilt

and placemats

Don't you love it when a UFO comes together?

Norma was working at The Cloth Shop yesterday getting the quilt top, backing and batting all put together with a little help from some basting spray. Norma started this quilt top for her niece when she turned 1, and aims to get it quilted and finished in time to give it to her for her 17th birthday shortly!
It's a beautiful quilt, well worth the wait we think! We're sure it will be treasured!

A new bag and a finished quilt

Glenys had a productive day at The Cloth Shop recently and proudly displays her new bag. If you like the look of her bag, it's called, 'It's a Great Bag', contact us if you'd like more information or if you'd like to purchase a pattern. Although we don't have any of this particular fabric left, we do stock lots of gromets which you will need. You can check out our website for more information as well.

She also had her finshed quilt to show us, she had made it for her grandson, and we think he's going to love it to bits!

Wow, look at this impressive quilt label!

A lovely embroidered label made by Ivy.

Does this look familiar?

I showed you a small peek of this earlier. The Cloth Shop girls have been working on this over the last few weeks. It's an exciting new Block of the Month project which will start in March. A quilt designed by Lynette Anderson and combines piecing with embroidery. The very best of both worlds!

Check out our website for more information. Contact us if you'd like to add your name to the list.

"Making It" at The Cloth Shop

Arlene is visting us from Canada - her husband is working in Palmerston North for a month and she is spending her days "Making" at The Cloth Shop. This is a great set of place mats she has made in New Zealand fabrics - at the moment she is making a Fairy quilt to take home to her little baby granddaughter Emily.

Rosemary has discovered a new passion! Quilting! She made her first quilt at Summer School in January and this week she made her bag (Lauren's bag pattern from the Cloth Shop) her skirt (Amy Butler's Barcelona Skirt pattern from The Cloth Shop) and brought a new strippy ruler for her birthday - in September!! She left The Cloth Shop smiling!!

We are so glad to see you back at The Cloth Shop!

Saturday was the first day of Saturday Sampler 2010! - this is the tenth year we have run Saturday Sampler - some people - like Judith - ahve done it every year(sometimes two or three a year) and others like Liz have had a few years off. Her first words when she came into The Cloth Shop on Satirday was "I'm Back!!!"

Gillian in the centre of this picture has done Saturday Sampler every year since 2000, Rae on the right has done it since 2002 and this is their friend who is doing it for the very first time. They come from Hawkes Bay every and yestrday was Gillian's birthday and their other friend Lynley baked a dleicious carrot cake which we had for morning tea! Love the bags!

Nancy comes from Masterton and she has been doing Saturday Sampler for a number of years too. This is not a Saturday Sampler quilt - it is one of the patterns that we made for Saturday Strippers and she made it in these gorgeous soft colours for her sister. We just had to take a photo of her with her quilt - doesn't she co-ordinate with it beautifully!

Beautiful Bride - Happy Groom!

I love this photo!! This is Richard and Anne who were married yesterday - Anne worked for us for five years before she went down to Wellington to do a degree in Graphic and Design. Anne looked very beautiful and as this photo shows Richard looks very very happy!!

We were at the wedding in the Central Baptist Church in Palmerston North - Amiee and Katherine with Anne. Liz joined us later for the "Cutting of the Cake!"

Napier girls spend a day sewing with us

On Tuesday this week, Jill (left) and Trish, got up early and drove from Napier down to Palmerston North for a day of free motion sewing at The Cloth Shop. They are both making our free motion calico cushions, and were having lots of fun.
It was lovely to have you visit for the day!

The Cloth Shop hosts a Hens night!

Last night was our monthly Husqui night. (it's the 2nd Monday of each month, during the day and in the evening).
There wasn't too much sewing going on. The girls were all in a bit of a party mood.
One of the Husqui girls, Lois, is getting married at the end of March! What lovely news! The Husqui girls all thought so too and there was a lovely surprise supper and Lois had to wear a striking bridal hat made from old net curtains, a very teeny tiny g-string and a garter, and to complete the whole bridal look, a fabulous bouquet made from calico roses and lollies!

Here's Lois fully dressed. Don't you think she looks well prepared for her big day? We wish you every happiness Lois, and hope you have a very special day on the 27th.

Lynne and Christine show us their finished quilts

Well, what do you think of these two quilts? Aren't they incredible? They are so very different, but if you look closely, they are both made from the same pattern. The pattern is an original Cloth Shop Tall Poppies pattern - Spectra dela rosa. (email us for more details if you'd like to purchase this pattern and make your very own).

Above is Lynne who is a regular quilter here at The Cloth Shop. She has been working on this quilt for several months now, you may remember a photo on this blog not long ago of Lynne working on it. Well it was finally ready to give to her sister. Stunning work Lynne!

And below is a photo of Wanganui quilter, Christine, a whole different take on the roses and just as lovely. Great to see another lovely quilt finished!




We have also had a visit from this wee sweetie. Her name is Emily and she popped into The Cloth Shop with her Gran. We thought she was a perfect age to introduce to the quilting world and thought perhaps we should start with a lesson on quilting fabrics.
Here she is with her very first piece of quilting cotton.

......Now Emily, what do you think we could do with this?

.....mmmmmmmm.......

We could test it for quality and flavour!

Well, maybe we might wait until her next visit before we start on the beginners blocks!

Something exciting is in the air....

The Cloth Shop girls are busy at work,

there's a brand new project coming......

we are all very excited!

What do you think it could be?

Sue's fabulous new quilt

Sue popped into The Cloth Shop, and look what she bought in for us to look at!

This is her latest quilt, and WOW pretty impressive! Don't you agree?

Dogs, cats and roses on the last day of Summer School

Nigel has been very popular this week at Summer School. He is part of a series called There is no such thing as an Innocent Cat. The cats are fun to make and when the faces are done, they- all of a sudden - have a personality! Yvonne is sewing the eyes in this photo - Nigel has a fish skeleton in his tummy and rather an evil grin - hope it wasn't a gold fish!

This is Jasper - he came in to see his Mum who was at summer school today making Nigel! He had been for a swim in the river and as it was pouring with rain in Palmerston North today he was rather wet - he looks very happy to be around the fabrics and quilts.

This is Rosie who came in later in the day to see her Mum Elana.

This is Elana with the bag she has made for her Mum who lives in South Africa. During the day she told us that her son went over to Masterton with a friend to buy a gun and on the way home he called into a fabric shop, saw the pink rose fabric and knew that she would love so brought it home for her. Guns and roses!

Today was the last day of Summer School for 2010 -we've loved every moment of it - and we really enjoyed seeing the pleasure everyone who participated in the week had when they made, cushions, labels,quilts,bags and chickens.