Beginners Patchwork - How to Piece

A tutorial for beginners to patchwork: How to Piece Patchwork.

Cotton fabric generally has 2 sides, the right side and the wrong side. The right side is The side where the pattern is brightest:

For solid colour difference is much harder, if not impossible, to see. My motto is 'can't see it, don't care'!

Place one of the squares on top of the other one, right sides together:

Match the edges all around the square and pin, perpendicular to the edge that you are going to join:

Your sewing machine should sew over the pins, if the pin heads are placed on the inside of the block.

Using a 1/4" patchwork foot you will sew along this seam.

A patchwork foot has a metal guide on the right hand side that allows you to line the fabric up against it to give you the perfect 1/4" seam.

Sew this seam, ensuring that the fabric is lined up with the 1/4" guide, remembering to back stitch at the beginning and end:

Back stitching ensures that your stitching won't come apart, so make sure you always back stitch.

Once the 2 blocks are sewn together, the seam needs pressing. You will need a really hot iron.

I prefer to press the seam open, but you can press them towards the darker fabric - experiment and decide which way you prefer.

First spread the seam with your fingers:

Then use the iron to flatten the seam completely:

Turn the piece over and iron the other side too. 

I hope this helps you on your patchwork journey!

Family Sewing

This weekend I am running my first family session at Prema Arts in Uley.

It is a Christmas themed workshop with 6 families taking part. It is something new for me! I have ages 6 plus coming along with their parents, so they will be supervised.

Planning has been a bit of a challenge. I don't know the sewing abilities of the families and I have had to decide whether or not to introduce them to sewing machines..

After a couple of weeks of planning and thinking I finally decided that if my 7 year old can use the new Janome sewing machine, then the children coming will probably be excited to give it a go.

So sewing machines have been put onto the risk assessment for the class. 

Then there is the actual project....

I have decided on these cards:

Which will combine sewing machine skills and allow the families to get creative!

And a fun project that introduce the families to quilting in a really simple way:

I am also planning on taking felt, stuffing and embroidery threads along with paper templates for felt ornaments.

Really looking forward to trying the ideas out with my lovely families tomorrow!