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!

The tale of 2 Quilts.....

Once upon a time, a stitcher called Veronika started a quilt for her daugher. She jokes that it was 'years ago' but infact I think it was only last September. It took the best part of two terms to make, just 2 hours a week, and V spent quite alot of time just laying out the fabric and planning her creation. Don't we all just love to do that??

Well, here it is and what a quilt!! There were a few 'tweaks' along the way and we had to trim the edges before V bound it because some of the layers didn't match up. But what a quilt!!

Lovely work....

And then there was another story, V has another child and she needed to make him a quilt just as lovely BUT QUICKER!!

So with a bit of searching and re-arranging of fabric, we came up with this simple plan of bands of print and some applique.

Sorry you have to crick your necks!!

Veronika was tempted occasionally to 'add' a few bits and I was guilty of suggesting different things, it's my job to inspire and suggest, but she kept her mind on the job and finished this one in 6 sessions. Not as complicated, but just as lovely.

The quilt is not quite finished yet, the binding still has to be hand stitched round, but Marco knows it is his already.

Well done V!

Summer stitching

This little chap was made in a week by one of my new stitchers, I didn't even manage to 'blog' about her starting the project before he was finished! So here is the lovely elephant in all his glory. The pattern is taken from the Magazine SewHip! and has worked really well. There are lots of great 1st time patterns each month and well worth a look.

He needs a bit more stuffing really, but I do like this exhausted elephant look, I know how he feels!!

Emma is now so taken with stitching that she has bought a whole load of patches from ebay and is planning a quilt for her new bedroom. She hasn't got a sewing machine yet, so we were planning some applique and embroidery to do on the centre panel to keep up the great work.

The colours are looking lovely and I think it will be a great mix of prints, very inspiring.

just lovely

Veronika is just 'tying up loose ends' - we were thinking that this quilt is taking forever to finish, but actually, it was started last September and so only six months in the making. Also given that this is working for 2 hours a week, not counting school holidays and the odd family holiday back to her homeland, V is not doing too badly at all! :-)

So today, we introduced the 3 layers together for the first time - ahhhh.

And then quilted them together. For speed and simplicity, V is just quilting horizontally down each edge of the narrow panels. It looks great, I have suggested she might have a go at binding using this Tutorial by Heather Bailey, but the children might have to take priority over the Easter break and the quilt wait until mid April to be continued.....

Dawn has finished her cushion! She has embroidered her daughters name, birthdate and weight on the back - sorry, forgot to take a pic.

The picture in the book D used for inspiration, has a glittery rainbow. We have puzzled over the weeks the best way to recreate this, mmmmm.

Taking a trip to the local Craft Shop of Hobbies (you know the one) D bought a pack of 12 lovely glitter glue bottles. They work a treat and dried quickly. Sadly on closer inspection, I realised they were for paper crafts only and not fabric, so it is a cushion that will never be washed. As her daughter is 12, I don't think this is too much of a problem.

It looks amazing!
I hope you agree!

There is another page in the book to inspire the next cushion, very exciting work.

Windmills on sunny days

We have been working on this project since last september (I think!) and finally pulling it together. Sue has been working on the windmill, the sales will move with the help of a split-pin.

'Windy Miller' has been reincarnated to look after the mill and we think the 'Mouse with clogs on' will come and help soon too - the more the merrier.

We are just coming to the end of the Seasonal trees, they just need to be bound and quilted by hand which doesn't take long at all.

Kay has made a flock of sheep for the Windmill project, so she is now continuing with her upcycled quilt.

It is looking just great, a simple collection of colours but the scale is lovely and stitching is very neat. Well done Kay.

Lots of fab work here

Wednesday afternoon is continuing to inspire and delight:

Nasreen stitched and stuffed a quick ladybug pin cushion in a couple of sessions - she does look cute!

Audrey is making a lovely mobile from this great book for beginners, she started off using it as a design for an embroidery a bib for a new baby and is enjoying stitching these lovely characters.

Dawn is continuing her cushion with a teddy, the technique she is using works really well- fabric pens to draw and colour the design with embroidery to give detail and depth to the picture. Lots more planned for this one, come back soon!

Michelle's blanket has now got a ribbon edge and she is planning to make a beanbag to math this theme, good bold work.

If you twist your head (sorry!) you can see this finished quilt! Weyhey!! Well done Dawn, just lovely :-)
Keep twisting! This is Carly's Thomas inspired quilt, stitched in record time, I am really impressed with her 'can do' attitude, the ideas just keep on coming and Carly just gets on with them. Good work and planning the next project, I think she is hooked!

So, I am doing my best to keep up with these busy stitchers. Lots of great work and ideas and they all bounce off each other, an inspiring lot I hope you agree.

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.

Vintage quilts....in Redditch!

I dragged my poor family to a needle museum today in Redditch, Worcs. We were staying with my mom and dad in Bromsgrove and I fancied a bit of crafty culture! Anyway, I was truly moved by a collection of vintage quilts there for an exhibition. It is part of a collection by Jane Cobbett and is on until the end of June. In no particular order and I don't know everything about all of them because there was no guide to buy......:-(

Just a lovely mix of mad fabrics....

This one bought a tear or two to my eyes, not unusual some might say, but it really was a piece of someone's family history, somewhere in North Carolina I think?? Stitched in the 1930's and included a bit of everything from this family. All stitched on their own clothes and fabric from grain sacks!

Bees and rabbits....
Hand prints of all the family....
The farm where they lived....I do love the way the man and sheep are sitting just right on the 'hill of blue'.
This was the overall collage, lots of naive drawings, too many to photo and I was in danger of crying too much...silly woman. But I am inspired to try this one in a group project! any takers??!!
This one is a lovely shape, the pieces have small joins in them to make it easier to stitch.
Just lovely....quilting and patchwork...
A close up.....
This one, pass me a tissue, was stitched by a 9 year old boy in ( i think) the 1890's! Each patch is about the size of a 2p coin and the whole quilt was flamin' huge.....
This one, a bow tie pattern, was just lush too....
This exhibition is only on until the 28th of June but if you could spend a couple of hours driving to Redditch to see about 20 vintage quilts, I recommend it...there was a nice little shop and a cafe with swans milling about, and a good adventure area to keep the children happy....a very happy afternoon was spent, hurray! I might just have to venture to find more of this lovely collection....here!

What can I do with 9 handkerchiefs?

K added sequins and buttons to highlight areas of the quilt, she also embroidered round some of the shapes to add interest.

K found some children's handkerchiefs in a local shop.  They were a selection of popular nursery rhymes and she was keen too make something for her youngest child.  We arranged then on a large piece of fabric so that the overall design worked.  E spent a couple of weeks working on the quilt, mainly stitching by had because she wasn't confident on the machine.  The finished quilt looked great, a really good development form a simple starting point.  E is planning a quilt for herself now and I hope she will have a go on the machine at some point in the future!