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All our future posts can be found on our website www.pinitandstitch.co.uk.  

It just made sense to keep things all together.  Hope you catch up with us soon x

Christmas Stockings

I have been working on writing a pattern for a Christmas Stocking using some of the beautiful Christmas fabric we have in the shop. 

I wanted to make the most of the feature prints without much wastage and so I devised the following pattern.

You will need 2 FQs of fabric, one for the main part of the stocking (Fabric A) and one for the toes & cuffs (Fabric B).

A piece of wadding measuring approximately 36” X 23”

8” of ribbon

(Optional - pom-pom trim ric-rac etc.)

Fabric A:–

Trim off the selvedge. Cut the remaining rectangle in half squaring up your fabric as you go. You should end up with 2 pieces of fabric each approximately 19” X 10.5” each.

Fabric B:

Trim off the selvedge then cut into 4 equal pieces measuring approximately 9.5” X 10.                                                             

Take one piece of fabric A and one piece of fabric B, turn  Fabric B a quarter turn then pin to the bottom of fabric A and sew using a ¼” seam this will make the toe.

Repeat, but sew Fabric B to other side of your piece of Fabric A making a mirror image. Ensure you have a pair at this point not two the same (see picture). Press the seam flat.

Baste the two stocking pieces to your wadding. You will need 2 pieces of wadding reserving each measuring 4” x 10.5”to pad the cuff of the stocking.

Quilt the 2 stocking pieces as desired then trim.

With the remaining 2 pieces of fabric B:-

Turn under the longest sides WST by ½”and press. Then fold in half WST.

Place the reserved piece of wadding at the top of your quilted stocking front then place the folded fabric over the top tucking under the fold, pin in place. Topstitch along the folded edge ensuring you catch the fold on the underside. You can at this point also add pompom trim ric-rac as desired. Repeat.

Fold your piece of ribbon in half and pin to the side of one stocking piece 2” from top. Place both the stocking pieces RST and stitch around all sides using a 1/4” seam. Remember to leave the top open for Santa to put the presents in!

You will now have a very square looking stocking. Do not fear! Still with the wrong sides facing outwards place the stocking on a flat surface and draw a curve on the toe and heel (see picture).

Once you are happy with the shape of your curve sew along the lines you have drawn. Then cut away the excess leaving ¼” allowance. You can at this point neaten all the edges of your stocking with a zig-zag stitch.

Turn though and you then have a Christmas Stocking all ready to hang up for Father Christmas. 

We have put together kits for these Christmas Stockings and we will be bringing them with us to the Knitting and Stitching show at Harrogate next week.

Remember to share anything you make on Facebook or Instagram @PinitandStitch

Selfish Sewing

As you may already seen a couple of weeks ago I felt like I needed a little bit of me time and so I scheduled in a little bit of "Selfish Sewing".

Sewing that wasn't for any particular purpose but just for me.

I decided to make the block from the latest issue 2 of Quilt Now by Reenee. 

And a little while later I had this.

I used some of my very precious Anna Maria Horner scraps and a print from Tula Pink which was on sale in John Lewis a little while back. 

I Love it!!

Thanks Reene and Quilt now for saving my sanity!

A Little Hand Sewing

I am going to share my latest obsession with you it is these little ildicobolde's. 

I first saw these on instagram a while ago and found the tutorial here. I like to have a little project that I can just pick up and sew anywhere and these fitted the bill. 

I used some of my precious liberty scraps for the dresses.

I've got them to this stage now and I'm not sure If I'm going to do the next round or not.

I've got them printed out ready to go just in case.

Sweet as Honey

 Slowly but surely all the new fabric is making its way onto the website.

Newly listed this week is this yummy Art Gallery Fabric by Bonnie Christine.

Is'nt this bee print stunning?

Art Gallery produce these amazing lookbooks for you to skip through for inspiration and the Sweet as Honey one can be found here.

The free pattern above can be found here.

Young Quilter Winner!

Whilst we were at the festival of quilts earlier this month we met once again the most amazing young quilter Darci.

We first met Darci and her mum at the Malvern Quilt Show in October where she was looking for inspiration for an entry into the Young Quilters Challenge. She bought some fabric from us and we had a lovely chat with the both of them. 

Well guess what.... Darci won her category!!!

She brought along her winning entry to the Festival of Quilts to show us and here it is. 

Winning her section was, as she says "the best moment of her life"

The details of the Young Quilters competition can be found here. 

Her mum Jacqui sent this to us from Darci:

Darci says:-
Last year at Festival of Quilts, mummy let me join the YQ and I have made things from the news letters. Then I heard about the YQ competition and asked mummy if I could have a go. It was great fun making it and I never thought I would win. My ideas and inspiration came from seeing a few fabrics at Malvern Quilt show last October. These were the blue swirls/rock pools, different patterned zigzag in blue and yellow for sea and sand and the brown pattern for the sand dunes. The idea of the scene was now firmly in my head and so I went around the rest of the show and found all the other fabrics I wanted for it. Mummy found the dolphin fabric on ebay for me and helped me cut them out as they are small and fiddly. She also helped me by doing the hot ironing on of the fusible appliqué. I did all the sewing on my own machine which was my Christmas present 2012. Some quilting is with vary colour quilting threads and the appliqué is blanket stitch with invisible thread. I decided to make it into a cushion cover and so chose some blue nautical rope pattern fabric to make the envelope back. I have learnt so much from the workshops and everyone's help which made me think 'I want to enter the competition'. Thank you to everyone for being so kind and their great help in learning to do this. I really love sewing !

Darci has received some lovely emails congratulating her on her win even one from the lovely Stuart Hillard.

Well done Darci! x 

Festival of Quilts 2014 Round Up.

This years Festival of Quilts has come and gone and we survived it once again!

We met so many lovely people. Some that we had met before at other shows. 

Some we knew from Instagram and Facebook but only as a username and so we now have a face to recognise. 

And some new ones. 

(sorry for the crappy phone picture)

I promised you some new goodies for the shop before we went and all the deliveries came in. 

We re-stocked our Aurifil Thread to include some of the amazing variegated ones. 

We also had in some of the lovely Aurifloss which is just stunning. And it comes on these lovely wooden spools!

We also carried at the show some of the Designer Box sets from Aurifil. These are a bit pricey but when you break down the cost per reel they are so worth it. 

(These will be a special order item in the shop so if you need one for a Birthday or Christmas gift just send us an email)

We have lots of new Art Gallery Fabrics.

Arizona by April Rhodes.

 Sweet as Honey by Bonnie Christine

This stunning Hexie quilt is a free pattern over at 

Art Gallery Fabrics.

And Dreamin' Vintage by Jenni Baker.

 Some of these have sold out almost straight away at the show but we have re-ordered and will have them back in within the next week. 

Also coming in next week is the amazing fabric Indelible by Katarina Roccella. 

Thank you to everyone who came and saw us at the show and we look forward to seeing you all again next year.

x