October rushes into Christmas....

I say October, because yet again I have neglected my small space in Blogland to concentrate on the real world - planning, teaching, evaluating and stitching like a demon for my own Christmas sales - I have not stopped believe me!

In the mean time, my merry collection of stitchers have been coming up with some cracker ideas. Christmas is featuring heavily of course, but there are some larger plans in the making too.

This is the work of Suzie, she is very new to stitching but has been inspired already to make a quilt of her baby daughters outgrown clothes.

She just got on with the cutting out before the class and we spent the time, trimming, arranging and balancing the colours and patterns.

I then introduced her to the wonders of 'bondaweb' and a name appeared, Suzie plans to embroider around the letters this week.

Without standing on a table, you cannot see how good this looks, but believe me it's fab. We kept the 'shapes' of the clothes to make this hotchpotch quilt I hope it will go together in a collage fashion quickly, there will be a border of charm squares to enhance the colours and patterns. A great start for this new stitcher and her lovely new project.

......and now for some more projects

Lesley is making a quilt for her son for Christmas, a mix of Union Jacks and a 'nearly' Dutch flag to celebrate his european roots!

Lesley is also making this adorable sleeping lion, from instructions found in a vintage book. The instructions were a little vague and we didn't believe they would work, but as you can see, he is just lush. Lesley could have a few orders for more but she has vowed never to make another one!

Her is the work of another doubting stitcher....Kate is on a mission to complete a rather huge Advent calendar for her boys this year. This is the work so far and we have spent time working out how it will go together, I think it will be about 4' tall when finished!

Staying with the festive season, Emma is making 3 stockings, the attention to detail is amazing and 'sew' neat! Another stitching doubter, I think she is hooked, every week another book of inspiration arrives via the post. She has a very supportive husband - who I hope is impressed with this new talent?

Then quietly beevoring away in the corner is Rebecca, making her very own wedding bouquet.

They are working beautifully and co-ordinate perfectly with her colours, an everlasting keepsake, good work!

New Stitchers-lovely stitching

Lets get this straight from the start, I can take NO credit for this work!! Lesley started the beading 8, yes 8 years ago and it is a spectacular UFO (Un Finnished Object)!!

However, she has now found some time with her new baby, to come along and join our crafting group in the Children's Centre, hurray!

I have advised that she doesn't cover the whole flower, which was the original plan, but just highlights areas. This will add more depth to the work and save hours of time.

I have also suggested that she mounts it in a circular embroidery frame and then it will make a beautiful gift for a lucky member of her family!

Olivia's first venture into sewing and she has made a delightful 'Eskimo' character, just lovely. NB, I am probably not allowed to say Eskimo anymore, but I cannot think of another way of describing this lovely 'wool clothed' little person!

Emma is new to the class and has not sewn before, but she is amazing me and herself with this group of animals: first was the fish, then the cat.

Then the cheese (which her husband does not think it looks like cheese, but I think it does here). The 'cheese' was closely followed by a mouse and a sausage dog - great work.

Leanne decided to make a mobile for her son and has worked really well the project. Her stitching has become more confident over the weeks.

She is now working on another small project to practice her stitching even more, before embarking on something larger, great work and growing with confidence each week.

Some lovely new projects

Way back in January ( I know, I'm sorry) my group on a Wednesday doubled from 7 to 14!!

It was a bit of a shock to the system for everyone, but the established stitchers continued with their projects from before Christmas and the new stitchers all sat down and did what they were told thankfully and made pin cushions-and yes, I was too busy to snap them unfortunately.

Over the very hectic hour, I saw everyone, chatted and encourage them to think of a project. The established group were great at inspiring the newbies, which is what it's all about!

One week later.......

EVERYONE arrived bright and fresh laden down with bags of fabric and loads of ideas, great news!

Carly is planning a blanket for her baby son, just look at the size of the blanket stitch, tiny and so neat!

Maxine is planning a bean bag for her new baby, inspired by some big animals in the Center, she has put together a lion and is progressing well, more pics soon I promise.

Donna is making a door plaque for her daughters room, with life size hands on either side of her name.

Dawn 2 has been inspired by a children's book illustration and is making a cushion cover. She started off with just embroidery, but I suggested enhancing the strength of colour with fabric pens. This has worked really well I think and moves things on much quicker without loosing the detail and texture.

Kaylie started this week with making a pin-cushion for a friend, this was the result after one week:

By the following week Kaylie had made no less than 8!! Yes, there are only five here, the others were with their new owners. K had got completely carried away with french knots and strawberries and really enjoyed making this lovely yummy collection. Good to have you back Kaylie!

Dawn 1 is coming to the end of her project and this week started the long process of hand finishing the binding. She is already planning the next quilt and I wouldn't be surprised if it was started this week, I will let you know.

This is the layout of Michelle's blanket for her son, the middle panel is taken from a t-shirt I think and has inspired the 'space' theme for the rest, good work. Underlining- again! why?

I am really enjoying working with this group, we have to be strict on space and I am often pushed to give everyone the support they might need in the two hours, but the results are amazing and the whole group support each other.

WoW!

I proudly admit that I had nothing to do with these fantastic creations by Sue, one of my students in a Children's Centre. But I think I can take credit for inspiring her to stitch and have the confidence to create these brilliant pieces -at home, on her own!

She has a wild visual sense of style and eye for detail.

As part of our felt collage for the Centre, this was the first thing Sue stitched- a lovely detailed cat. He is sitting with our seasonal tree, at the moment Work in Progress, but will be finished soon I hope.

This is the most recent addition to Sue's collection, a weasel in top-hat and tails! I have requested a badger for next week, both for our collage and in full 3-D glory.

Up to and over christmas she created a huge amount of beautiful decorations and toys for her children. Lovely work and a real inspiration to the other members of the group.

The children apparently love these and request more of the same, the partner raises an eyebrow of surprise at such the new obsession of buttons and felt!

Start the Year as I mean to go on.....

....catching up!

Ok, so I'm failing already, hey ho...

This is a collection of work from one group in MK:

Cheryl worked very well on this lovely racoon from this very inspiring book, all hand stitched and great work, well done!

Ana spent a few weeks working on these lovely decorations for her children, I hope they looked lovely on her tree! The dogs are inspired by a project in this book and the doves were her own creation.

In the final session of last year, she whizzed up these big felt hearts, good work Ana.

Rebecca is working on a mobile for her son, I hope to see it finished when the class starts again next week, lovely simple shapes and clear stitching.

Susan started off with a robin for her mantle piece and then decided he needed a friend. So she designed and made a rather lovely partridge with a pear tree applique. They do look great together.
This is a close-up of a lovely looking strawberry cake, delicious and absolutely no calories, just the cake for us. Well stitched Kellie.

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.

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......:-)