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.

Jersey re-cycled patchwork quilt...update

Just a very quick update...because I said I would. L has been cutting up her daughter's clothes and is putting the patches together to make a memory quilt. All the fabrics are jersey, she has been very careful to cut rectangles of equal measurement to make final squares finishing 27cms ( i think!). She nearly has enough now and we were planning today how they can be joined. We thought about strips of woven fabric making long rows first and then joining the rows together with more of the same strips to frame each block. That's the plan anyway.....

They are a really lovely balance of colours and L has been very careful to plan around every bit of pattern she could. Looking lovely. :-)

Hurrah! the secret is finished!!

Well done to the stitching ladies of P. Children's Centre!! Your work is finished, a lovely master piece of team work and hard work. You should be very proud.

This was work in progress, still some spaces to fill.

A detail of the the finished piece, sorry the colours don't show up well, but I think you can see the detail and effort they all went to.
The colours show up better here and you can see the size. There are a few gaps for promised birds and rabbits and perhaps a monkey, we cannot remember! The staff at the Centre are very impressed with this and are inspired themselves. Good work.
Now for something completely different.....

M made great use of these trims for a bag for her daughter. The small crocheted flowers come from a hair scrunchie from Portugal. M used embroidery finger knitting to make the bag strap.
This is L's first project, I think it's too lovely for a pin cushion, but it suited the photo at the time. L is now working on a re-cycled quilt for her baby daughter, made form a collection of out grown clothes. I will take a picture this week i hope, please remind me L!