Childrens Classes and Parties

At the moment I run an after school club in Tetbury on a Tuesday evening for children aged 8 to 11.

As you can see we have a lot of fun and girls create gorgeous items on the sewing machines!

The girls have worked for 6 weeks on making a patchwork cushion and rightly proud of their work!

In the new year I will be offering sewing birthday parties for children aged 8 to 16.

I will travel to a location of your choice, bringing with me sewing machines, materials and everything needed to make one of the following items:

• Tote Bag
• Pencil case and purse
• Simple Clutch

Each party lasts 3 hours and is packed full of fun, new skills and gossip!

If you would like to book a sewing party in Gloucestershire, drop me an email for more information!

Thinking on my feet...

Yesterday I had one of those awful moments of realisation that I had forgotten some essential supplies..

Having spent Sunday evening and Monday morning cutting fabric panels and wadding for quilt as you go place mats with my Monday class I had then proceeded to leave them on the desk in the studio...

Not that helpful when I had driven 45 minutes to the class!

The class has quite specific needs that have been covered in the risk assessment and rotary cutters and irons have been removed from the planning to safe guard the learners... hence the quilt as you go approach...

I did however have the fabric strips I had cut for the class, so we set about arranging the fabrics into designs for the top of the place mats:

Then came the bit I was dreading: sewing the strips together:

But because of the slow feature on the new machines, the class were able to set them at a speed they were comfortable with, and although the seams weren't perfect they were pretty good!

So a panic was averted and the need to keep the activity fun, but low risk was met.

Most importantly the group were able to work at their own pace to piece the strips that will form the top of their place mats - a pretty col achievement since 3 of them hadn't used a sewing machine before!

And yes, next week I will remember the wadding and backing I had forgotten!

Using pliers...

I have been following Leah Day since I found her blog earlier in the summer, I have used her wonderful blog to practice free motion quilting. Her designs are so imspirational.

So when I found out the folk at Craftsy had recruited her to teach a quilting class, and I could get it 50% off because I already have classes there, it was an immediate decision to enrol!

I have watched the first couple of lessons and she talks about adapting your free motion foot so it works better on your machine.....

The suggestion she makes is pretty drastic, but I decided it was worth a go - plus I have another foot in the post if it back fires on me!

So I set to the foot with pliers and an elastic band to adjust it as she suggests.

She actually has a video of it posted on You Tube from a while ago, so I thought I would share it with you.




In all honesty I was nervous about making the changes, but it has meant the machine is quiter and the foot now just glides over the surface of the quilt whilst I work. It has also taken a little bit of playing with the height of the foot and the tension on the machine, but I do like how the quilt glides under the foot...

Feeling grey!

A couple of weeks ago I was going crazy for orange... I am still hankering after some orange in my stash, but a lack of funds and having to pay expenses for the courses I teach means I haven't managed to get there yet..

But I have been window shopping again, but this time for greys. After the post about the the greys in nature, I have been even more observant of the colour around whilst I drive around the county, so I have been hunting out grey in all it's glory:

The Sketch range of fabric is gorgeous, and this Charcoal from Fat Quarter Shop is full of texture!

 

 

I am working on a quilt for maxi at the moment - his fish one is too baby ish - and I love this range from Jay McCarroll. This is Boston in Midtown from the Center City range, which the Village Haberdashery have.

I love everything from Sweetwater, and this fantastic Tangled Thread is no exception! One of my new favourite online stores, Eclectic Maker has it luckily!

 

I do actually have this in my secret stash basket! It is Eyelet in Grey from Flea Market Legacy and it is fabulous! The wonderful Saints and Pinners have some in stock, so grab it fast!

As you can see I have yet another shopping list of fabrics.... just need to get paid or win the lottery first though!

Handmade Christmas

As you may know, I started my creative journey as a bag maker - funky diva designs - which came to an end in July. It was a great journey, and I believe really strongly in the need to support independent makers in the UK. It is true that you are buying quality and something unique as well as supporting a local business.

So here are some of my favourites:

I have been a long time admirer Blueberry Park and all the simply gorgeous things Karen makes, but not actually bought anything. On Thursday I bought one of her fabulous Advent Calender kits for the boys and it arrived yesterday:

And I am not disappointed! It is a fabulous kit and I plan on making it up this weekend so we are all prepared for December!

Another shop I have long admired is Snapdragon:

I ordered the kids teachers presents from Jane in the Summer, as well as a camper van mug for a fabulous friend and they were simply gorgeous! I have a shopping list from Jane once I get paid for friends, so don't tell them!

A twitter friend, Charis Slade, is a design talent who knocks the socks off everything a big company produces!

I have been keenly watching her develop her feet range and I am saving my pennies to get one for us... we are like many families across the country, we have different surnames (2 marriages and 3 kids will do that). I am saving for a Our Family print to go on a wall I am planning to covering in photos in the kitchen...

I hope you take a look at all 3 of these talented designs, you will find gorgeous, handcrafted items make your family/friends smile!

Ok, so this may be a purely self indulgent blog post showcasing the gifts I want for Christmas..... if anyone is listening!

Backing it in brown!

A little while ago I posted a blog about an idea I had for using up the triangle scraps from the Snowball quilt I am currently quilting.

These little triangles are small and worth using (what fabric isn't worth using), but I didn't fancy sewing them together in the traditional way to make blocks.... I had an idea to quilt them as I go onto a white background, and since money is tight I had to use the fabric in my stash to back the quilt... hence the brown backing!

As you will know if you follow my blog, I have been pondering Autumn colours this week and the brown fits into the colour spectrum, but it is a washed out kinda brown so it wouldn't have made it into a starring role on a quilt.

Today one of my lovely sewing girls didn't come to class and as I had set up her machine and my one young lady was working on free motion designs, I thought I would get started with my idea...

It was a bit haphazard in the planning stage, because space and time was limited, but I managed to get the 3 layers together and started to quilt the scrap triangles:

I have used my walking foot to go around the outside of the triangles starting at the tip and then move onto the next one by quilting through the middle of the triangle to the next one.  So I have a chain of flying triangular scraps:

I have now pinned all the triangles into place on the front so that they trail across the quilt. The backing is looking really good with the trail of quilting:

So far I am really pleased with the experiment!

Have you tried a new method recently?

Talking Colour Value

Yesterday I showed you the the wonderful website, Design Seeds, that breaks down the colours in images, which is a great tool for quilt maker and designers.

Another exciting idea in quilt design is Colour Value. I am still trying to get my head around it, but there are a series of blogs that I have found that are working through just what colour value of fabric is and how to use it in quilt design

It all started with Stitched in Colour and her wonderful introduction called Value Added.

 

I love this blog and this series of blog about colour value has been really inspiring and has got me thinking about colours in my design. The great thing is that the series has introduced me to more amazing blogs:

Where the Orchids Grow is a fabulous blog full of gorgeous quilts and images.. This one about Understanding Value is fantastic and really helped me to understand more about process of colour and the choices I make.

Bad Skirt is another blog in the group that I have admired for a while. This pattern explaining colour value is gorgeous.

The last blog in group is Blue Elephant Stitches. There is an amazing post about Value Dynamics that I plan on spending more time on!

Each of the bloggers have been extremely generous and written quilt patterns that are easy to follow and show just how the Colour Value makes a difference in quilting. Together these 4 blogs are amazing resources for the quilting community.