Our First Sewing Day

A couple of months ago the Gloucestershire Modern Quilt Guild was formed!

We are a small group of fabric crazy, quilt lovers who have started meeting once a month for gossip, sewing and sharing ideas.

At the last meeting we decided a sewing day would be a great.... a day spent in the company of lovely new friends, sewing projects and sharing lunch - what more could a fabric addict ask for?

We are meeting in Stonehouse on Monday 20th January for some sewing goodness. Our meetings are open to anyone interested in quilting, including beginners!

Our next evening meeting is Thursday 23rd January at Prema Arts Centre in Uley.

For more information about either of our Guild meetings please email me.

Beginners Patchwork

I have a few workshops coming up this term that I am really excited about!

The first one is a beginners patchwork course - Make a Patchwork Cushion.

It is on Saturday 8th February at St Mary's School in Tetbury between 10am and 4pm.

You will learn how to:

• Use a rotary cutter.
• Make a patchwork block using simple squares or half square triangles depending on your previous knowledge.
• How to sandwich your block together for quilting.
• How to use a walking foot to quilt.
• How to make a cushion from your quilter block.

All of these skills will be covered as well as information about threads, needles, wadding and other resources a quilter needs!

The cost for the day is £45 including wadding, teas and coffees.

You will need to bring 5 fat quarters or equivalent, 0.5m backing fabric and matching threads.

If you are interested in learning more about this wonderful hobby, this is workshop for you!

Email me here to book your place.

Inspiration

Usually on a Sunday I highlight some of the lovely new fabrics that are around at the moment that I love. It is a fun post to put together, but it also helps my students who I see during the week - I am spreading my fabric addiction throughout Gloucestershire!

I am planning on getting back to the posts, but this today I wanted to share some of the amazing textiles artists that I have discovered on my City and Guild Journey.

The first is Anne Honeyman.

Anne's work is simply stunning! She uses soluble fabric to create amazing structures with that are delicate, yet complicated. I have played around with soluble fabric and it is great fun. I am full of admiration of Anne and her ability to create stunning textiles with it.

The second artist is Alison Holt.

Alison is an amazing artist who creates pieces that look like photos. You could almost reach out and touch the crashing waves above! Her ability to create perspective and texture with thread is stunning. She is teaching in Gloucester in October and yes I have booked onto the 3 day course!

I hope you enjoy exploring their work as much as I have done.

They are so inspiring!

Lost my Crafty Voice!

It has been so long since I last wrote anything that I feel slightly embarrassed!

It has been a long 7 weeks with many ups and downs to the point that I lost my crafting voice... it actually wandered off for a long walk without me!

A combination of a manic teaching schedule, 2 Scout groups, a family illness and an 11yo struggling to settle into secondary school left with only just enough energy to crawl into bed and sleep. When you have kids you think that first year is the toughest - I now know that it gets harder as they get older, so much so that it makes the first year feel like bliss!!!!

I have missed my voice here and I am hoping it will come back to full force soon - still not quite there...

Have you ever reached that point?

Any tips for getting it back?

I have also been working my way through module 2 of the City and Guilds. It is all about shape. I have been exploring dyes, drawing and working with paints! So much fun!

Here are some examples of my dyeing journey so far:

It is great fun mixing the colours and experimenting with different fabrics. Above is Linen/cotton mix, viscose wool felt and cotton organdie. They absorb the fabric at different rats so come out slightly differently.

Here I added black to some of the fabrics from the dye chart above.

These are my favourite so far. My dye recipe book is filling up fast with samples, colour washes and recipe details!

All of this is part of my skill development for my course. I have managed to get 4 samples done so far this week for the module. One more complex sample to do and then my finally experimentation piece...

Cable stitch on hand dyed cotton lawn.

Whip and feather stitch on calico with straight stitch embroider as the border.

Couching stitch with ribbon, embroidery threads and perle cotton no 8 on viscose wool felt painted with fabric dye.

It is an amazing journey to be on!

Have an amazing New Years Eve wherever you are and I  hope to see you in 2014 for more sewing/quilting adventures!

Christmas Spinning Stars!

Earlier this year I responded to a request from the Fat Quarterly team for contributors to the magazine.... and my design was accepted!

I did a lot of dancing around the studio and then had a minor panic attack about how I was going to transfer the idea from my iPad to fabric....

Luckily my idea worked!

The lovely fabrics came from Makower and the Modern Christmas line by Henley Studio. I matched it with a white back ground so the stars would float and spin. It is backed with grey Klona.

The quilting is with Tula Pink variegated 50wt Aurifil thread in the spinning stars - I will post a close up of the quilting later in the week. I quilted stars and swirl with white Aurifil 50wt into the background.

My lovely friend Liz helped me sort out the photos and then posed for me!

I hope you like my first pattern for Fat Quarterly -go buy a copy, it is a fabulous e-zine!

Sunday Shopping #8

Good Morning!

Sorry I have been gone so long....

Last Sunday I was frantically finishing my City and Guilds Module 1 which I passed (huge sigh of relief!) and we have had a half term week with music lessons, family illness and a birthday quilt to start - more tomorrow.

So here are some fabulous fabric collections that I have found in the last couple of weeks - happy shopping!

First up is Bluebird Park by Katie and Birdie for Moda. This is a fabulous collection of really gorgeous fabrics in three different colour ways. They all make me smile! You should also check out their website which is full of beautiful images and designs.

You can get it from:

The Fat Quarter Shop

Bloomerie Fabrics

Backstitch - coming soon.

I have a growing affection for spots and this range of wonderful spots from Robert Kaufman fits the bill nicely! Spot On is a huge range of different sized spots!

My favourite ones are:

I love that there is a fabulous choice of sizes available as well as loads of colours!

You can get it from:

Plush Addict

The Fat Quarter Shop

The last one for this week is Nested Owl from Adornit:

It is sooooooo pretty! And everyone loves owls at the moment! I love the Coral colour way, but the Charcoal collection is amazing too!

You can get some from:

Allegro Fabrics

Plush Addict

Hope you like them, they are all sooooo pretty!

We are off out for a morning of rugby today then an afternoon of lesson planning - the craziness of classes starts again on Tuesday!

Happy Shopping!

Sewing Classes 2014

We are quite a while away from 2014, but my schedule is filling up fast!

Following on from the successful beginners class on Saturday I have organised more courses in Tetbury which should be great fun!

To find out more about any of the classes below please email me here.

Tetbury Workshops

Make a Patchwork Cushion

Saturday 8th February 2014
10am - 4pm
£45.00 including wadding.

Make an A Line Skirt

Saturday 16th April 2014
10am - 4pm
£40.00 including pattern.

Make an Oilcloth Tote

Saturday 14th June 2014
10am-4pm
£45.00 including all materials.

There are more courses at Prema Arts and Under the Edge Arts in Wotton Under Edge which I will post as soon as possible.