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.

3-2-1 Blast Off!

There's a bit of a space theme going on this week- two projects are finished - hurray!

Kellie has made a door plaque for her son: very colourful, loads of detail (see his waving hand!) and beautifully stitched. She is now planning a 'princess' version for her daughter.

Close up of the detail, lovely work.

and.....

Rebecca has finished her mobile. The big, bold stitching works really well with these simple shapes and she has given her work lovely character.

There are some lucky boys out there with cleaver stitching mums. My boys will be jealous!

Shh

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.

Chinese New Year - the year of the Dragon!

In honour of Chinese New Year we (I) decided to make a stuffed dragon for one of the Children's Centers. A great idea I hear you cry, but I only decided the week before the only session we could make it in, so I had to do a fair bit of prep myself so we could finnish it in 2 hours....

So I found and adapted a rather lovely design for a paper banner and traced it onto some cotton fabric: two sides of head, body and tail and 4 stuffed legs.

Although it was 'just' colouring in, the group enjoyed this simple pleasure and we discussed which colours to use where, so it was a great collective project. We used fabric pens which went on like a dream and simply iron on o hot setting to fix in place.

Kate had a go on the sewing machine....look at the concentration!

The finished body's after ironing, just before stitching.

Stuffed dragon feet, a rare Chinese delicacy?!

He's just about ready to go, we put some bells inside, wrapped up in a cotton bag so the stuffing doesn't jam them up.
So here he is!

Kung hei fat choi - Happy New Year!