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