Snowflake Button Badge

In the middle of all the Christmas Holiday Preparations, I decide to post my first Tutorial!

Most of the stitching classes have finished now for the Holidays, but there might be students out these needing new quick ideas for stitched presents - I am thinking of you ladies.

Here goes, please have a look and leave a comment to show there is someone out there:

Step 1 - Collect a small range of coloured felt, white embroidery thread your usual stitching equipment.

Step 2 - Cut a range of circles starting with one about the size of 1p (1cent?). I like to cut them free hand but you could find a selection of circles around the house - knowing life though, it might be quicker to cut your own and it would be good practice.

Step 3 - With 3 strands of white embroidery thread, stitich a simple snowflake design through the 2 smallest circles (they have 6 ‘arms’ and everyone in the world is different, this thought freaks me out). Then pile up the other circles and do a running stitch through some of the layers to fix them together.

Step 4 - Now cut another large circle for your badge, this will be the back and cover your hand stitching. I like to machine them together with a couple of rough circles for texture, but you could hand stitch them round.

Step 5 - Stitch a bar pin of the back securely.

Step 6 - Her are some variations: I have also made them with big old coat buttons, and plastic snowflake card charms.

Ta dar! Well done us, I have just written my first blog Tutorial and you have stitched your first snowflake button brooch. I might try another one in a couple of days, let me know how you get on!

You can find my crafting blog and shop here

Jane.x

I remembered my camera!

Hurray! I finally remembered the camera and flew round the group before the end of the class:

This is a new project for a new student, she is following the pattern of a printed fabric and making it her-own which is working well.

Another new student, started with a pincushion and is now working on a mobile mainly at home, good work.
I have been trying to catch this project for weeks!

Every week the patches get laid out and admired, the detail Veronika is putting in is lovely.

These are her daughters favourite colours, t-shirts and animal-the zebra!

The overall effect is lovely and a really great balance of pattern, detail and texture.

A good, clear message....

At the beginning of the September term, I started a new project at a Children's Centre to represent 'Every Child Matters' in as many different fabric ways as possible. The students came up with some great ideas and over the weeks we have put together this lovely quilt. Everyone has contributed to the conversations and actual work.

Suddenly this week (with some top quilting from Anne and stitching on from Lisa!) it is coming together and we can see what still needs to be done.

Some detailed stitching from Dominique:

Great team work picture from Sadia:

Stay safe images and a felt rainbow from Anne and Lisa:

Work so far, we only have 2 more weeks to finish this ladies....we can do it!

Enjoy and Achieve will be the motto of the group.

A whole day of stitching :-)

Take a peek at these lovely beauties! They look fabulous don't they?

Today I delivered an all day Milton Keynes ACE course in 'Vintage Felt Jewellery' and what a great day we had. I had 7 lovely ladies in the group, with the whole range of experience in crafting.

In the morning we looked at some simple techniques for making the jewellery. After a quick lunch and a lot of thinking, they all designed a made another brooch or necklace. These are the results! I had a great day and was really impressed with the range of work and ideas everyone came up with.

Lisa:

Vivien:

Rose:
Avril:
Liz:
Barbara:

Laura:

The complete group of work:

Monday funday

It's always tricky starting a new group, the first 20 mins of the session are spent talking about possible projects, exchanging ideas and thinking through the process of work. There is often some uncertainty about what each student wants to make and how this should be done. Today was one of those sessions, but I can proudly report that after about half an hour everyone was cutting and stitching and chatting about what inspires them and things they wanted to try.

Here are the results:

A lovely racoon from Doodle Stitching, and Cheryl is hoping to continue at home.

A rather cross looking pumpkin pin cushion with a fetching flat hat, to be finished next week:

This is Pierre (!) another french inspired pumpkin pincushion all finished and ready for action of the stitching kind.

Karen started on a collage for the Centre and was really pleased with the progress of her blanket stitch. Over the weeks, I will get the whole group to contribute something.

........and 'trumpet fanfare'........This lovely mobile was started way before the summer holidays. Sarah has put a lot of time and thought into every detail and has enjoyed creating a beaded wonder:

Sadly it was too long to get a decent picture off my camera phone :

So I tried some close-up's, bit out of focus:
You can see the lovely button, bead and embroidery details here:

Animal update

Our mini 'stuffies' are looking fabulous. The group have been putting a lot of thought and care into the detail as you can see below. The embroidery stitches work really well in contrasting thread.

This is just about where we are up to, there is a cow somewhere in Milton Keynes (that's felt rather than the famous concrete!) and she is hoping to return to our picture next week.
This is a reminder of the first weeks cutting and stitching

This weeks update....

What a busy week! I have had full 2 busy classes packed with eager stitchers to get on and stitch - fantastic!

This is the beginning of a lovely project, I am looking forward to the applique and embroidery planned for it.

Here are some little characters for a collage based upon the Government scheme 'every child matters'. We have borrowed the images and enlarged them, then coloured them with fabric pens and made little cushions, any fine features are embroidered on afterwards. They will be stitched onto the collage to give a real 3D feel to the picture. This was all done in one morning, well done ladies!
Maggie is working on a mobile for her daughters based on weather and seasons. She got the idea from this lovely Doodle stitching embroidery book and has worked really well at home on her own. Good work.
This morning I started stitching with a new group. Last week we planned a collage for the Children's Centre based around first sounds in language - cat, dog etc and also native british animals - bat, badger, fox. This is work so far: not a great picture, but a good start to the project and there are lots of brilliant ideas for the rest of the term.

......starting a 'new' blog, are you mad!

Yes, tis true! I have been wanting to start my own creative blog since I threw this one together in the New Year. Well, here it is as last. Still carn't work out the technology, so it won't move as quickly as I would hope but it's a start......:-)

Oh my, and I am trying to open a shop on etsy......the children will have to learn to cook for themselves and work the washing machine.

Wish me luck please!!!!!

p.s. I will still be working on this one, I will not leave my trusty students unsung.x

(a small patchbird to tempt you with)

New class II

Another crafty afternoon was had in NB, Jo made a very cute brooch and has plans to make a few more for christmas. Never to early to start making, only 93 days to go apparently!

New group in the Community....

Hurray! This evening I started a new group for people who cannot come to the daytime classes. We had a lovely evening, chatting, drinking tea and looking at inspiring books. We did some suffolk puff and felt brooches and Emma made this great pink and grey one. The picture isn't great because it was dark and I just took it on my phone, but you can see how well it worked. She was delighted!

(Thanks for coming ladies)

Summer Homework!

Lisa ( I am now going to use proper names so my lovely stitchers get more credit) started a project for her small grand daughter. She wanted to make an alphabet wall hanging, with objects her daughter would recognise and lots of girly things as their house is full of big boys!

I suggested she plan out the project: as a group we thought of the different letters and what would represent them and then Lisa drew and coloured the small pictures to balance the whole effect. This worked very well and made a clear acton plan:

OMG! and LOOK what has come back after our long summer break!!!

Divine and beautifully made. Lisa has finished all of the little things, they are laid out in order so you can see what is what. As well as an alphabet, they can be used for all sorts of games and imaginative play when her grand daughter is older - I hope she doesn't chew them too much, although they are made VERY well. Everything is made out of our faithful fabric - felt (fff!)
This is a closeup of the 'quilt' for Q- a perfect reminder of how talented Lisa is in crafting! The next part is making the background and hanging it up proudly......:-)

Summer workshop

As the rain pours down over Milton Keynes, I can sit and report about a Summer stitching workshop! The Children's Centre co-ordinator has always wanted us to stitch something for the walls, so I thought we would give it a go. I took in bags of fabric, fabric pens and bits of inspiration and the group came up with these ideas. We in listed the help and hands of children in the creche and made trees, bushes and a lovely sunny sun. It is still work in progress, we will continue in September, come on sunshine we still need you!

End of term show!

Hi all, i had great ideas to set up a slide show of the work from this year.....mmm, time has moved on and as usual technology is against me, so I will just upload the pics. instead! One day I will manage a slide show I promise.

* ironically, all these learners are S's, they are all different people, I will ask in the future if I can use there first names which will give the stitches much more credit - which is good I think.

**most of the felt for these projects have come from Kirstyfish and her shop here :-) Apart from the patchwork cushion, the felt for this is at least 20 years old and comes from shop window displays in John Lewis, a great bit of recycling- thanks to Pat Green for donating the felt to me!!

Anyway, here goes with the end of term show:

This is work in progress, but R is making small bags for her daughters, a lovely mix of applique and embroidery.

S was inspired by some pictures in Sew-hip magazine and this designer, she then made them up into a bag for her 2 year old daughter who parades around the house very proudly......now S has to make something for her 6 year old son who is jelous!*

S. did a terms crafting and made the middle cushion, she then continued on her own with the two smaller cushions.....fab work S!! Her mum saw them and would like a set too so that's the project for September. S was really amazed at how much she enjoyed making these.*

This little owl or wol as S. likes to call him ( !!) has a lot of detail in him and S plans to stuff him and sit him on a perch.*
M. made this cushion for her daughter, Shannon did not believe that her mum was making this at all. I promise that she did it all by herself, in spite of the boys not always settling in the creche. Well done.

This is the finished cushion made by A. the stitching is beautiful, a lovely choice of contrasting colours and very neat stitching. This got a lot of "oooh's" in the Centre. Well done A.