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.

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.

the FAB 3....

These little lovelies were made by E. who didn't even like sewing and would avoid it like the plague.  She gives me the credit for inspiring her, which is a huge credit and what its all about in these classes.

I think they are FABulous and a real inspiration to everyone who doesn't think they can do anything with a needle and cotton.  Thanks for the pictures E ( I will have to improve my photos now). Looking forward to your next project.

Fronts and Backs of three little egg cosies.....

Two updates in one week....What's going on?

I made a point of catching those learners who had avoided my camera for the term, this is what they have been up to.  I have been suggesting that they plan out patches of colour on paper first. This has been a valuable process.  It makes things clearer, gives the learners space to experiment and plan colours and cuts down on mistakes in cutting the felt!

J has made 4 coasters for her dining room and is now planning the table mats.  We are concerned that the felt is not washable and thinking about how they can be protected from inevitable spills.  Lovely mix of colours.
M is working on a collage that grows out from a simple circle.  She is using a variety of fabrics and embellishing the layers with different stitches and beads.
G is planning her cushion cover on paper.  She has been keenly starting a new project each week and managing to finish most of them off during the week.  A brilliant achievement for anyone!

Below is the finished heart cushion from the previous posting, G has experimented with different flowers made in felt.

A quick update.....

Here are a few more pictures of inspiration, showing real progress and trying out new techniques...

G followed instructions from a book to make her little dog, he is proving very popular with lots of learners.  The heart is something she is working on over the weeks experimenting with different decorations she finds in books.
E spent the session arranging her patches, she then pinned them onto a big sheet.  It was a really good way to see how the quilt is growing and developing and just how much there is still to make!
For World Book Week, G decorated a t-shirt for her daughter (the theme was Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson).  
G has also made this little worm this week she is a VERY keen stitcher! I am looking forward to seeing the finished article.

Work in Progress......

Where have those three weeks gone? We are in the last week of the Spring term now :-( and as many of the learners are part way through various projects I thought I would update the blog with some lovely but unfinished projects......

S has never sewn before! She put together three safe colours: brown, beige and cream and then suddenly put in a bright green.  The result is lovely, really fresh and interesting, the felt comes from Kirstyfish.
K has started a patchwork quilt after finishing her handkerchief quilt.  She is really enjoying finding great fabrics in sari shops and putting them together, the more we play with the colours the better the quilt gets. 
E has taken on the task of making two quilts at the same time!  She is just becoming obsessed with making the patches and will sort them later.
E is enjoying working with some vibrant colours for her cushion, they work really well together and are inspiring others to do colourful work.

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!

Pin cushions galore

My new Time for Me group put needle to felt for the first time on Thursday.  I don't like practicing for the sake of it (unless I take up sky diving of course), so I suggested they start with some simple embroidery worked in a circle and gather it up to make a pin cushion.  I cunningly started with stitching on a button to work around, it started them going round in circles and gave a good feature to top off the cushion.