Friday Night - Work tomorrow

 Well it's that time of the month again, I have spent the evening getting ready to teach Lesson 3 of the 6 month Beginner's course tomorrow, 1/2 way through the course already, I don't know where the time goes, but I do enjoy teaching. I just love the look of delight on students faces when the penny drops and they GET IT! We'll be working on 1/4 square triangles, making  Ohio star or Judy's Star blocks in the morning then after lunch we will concentrate on joining the blocks together, plus hand and machine quilting so plenty for them to get their heads round. These are the two sampler quilts that my classes are based around.
They are both made using Quilt As You Go methods, which is the method I prefer to use for my Beginners Courses.

Sampler Quilt 1

Reds, Yellows & Greens

Reds Yellows & Greens has narrower sashing strips because it was made for a Group Challenge at Westbury Park Quilters. The Quilts had to be only 1metre in size so I reduced the sashing to 1" to make it the right size. We were each given a paper bag containing three pencil crayons and were challenged to make a quilt using only those three colours (or shades of them)  My crayons were Red, Yellow & Green hence the title of the quilt, it all worked out very well in the end as those were the colours I was using for my teaching samples, which meant I did not need to buy any fabric for the challenge :-(
I have to get my machine all packed for taking along to demonstrate, make sure I have everything I need for the lessons, and  find something for my lunch its snowing here, so a nice bowl of soup sounds favorite. I hope the roads are OK in the morning.
Must dash!
Bye for now

Fun at the Party!



The scarves

Well! what a great time we all had at Clock Tower Quilters Christmas

party on Saturday, I was late arriving due to an appointment with my Mum,

when I got there everyone was in high spirits, we had invited a lady who

sells scarves, bags and Jewellery which is hand made by villagers in

Kathmandu, Nepal, (where she lives with her Nepalese Husband)

Wendy who is English sells these items while she is here visiting

family and the proceeds go back to the village where it is used to support

the village school  and a hospital for Children with Childhood Cancer/

Leukaemia. Everything looked wonderful and it was difficult to choose
what to buy in the end I decided on two scarves, two pairs of
earrings, and an embroidered bag. The scarves are so soft and
have the feel of Pashmina silk, I plan to use some items as

presents but the bag, is for me! I just love all the embroidery. I felt
this was a good way to help the cause of supporting the hospital and
giving the villagers a chance to earn some money for their families.





Bag Back

Bag Front



Embroidery Detail







The earrings



 When we stopped for lunch, the table was 'groaning with all the delicious food. Everyone brought many homemade delights for us to sample and we all ate far too much! After we had eaten it was time to exchange our gifts (see mine below) I'm pleased to report that the Sofa caddy I made was received with great delight by Mollie, who was amazed that I had her colour scheme exactly right. Of course having eaten all that food  not much sewing got done after lunch.

Secret Santa

And this little chappie is my gift, isn't he just the cutest, He was made

for me by Kerry who does everything by hand and I have pictured

him in his place of honour on my mantle-shelf he has a little sack of

'goodies' including a tree, a teddy bear, a gingerbread man, a hobby

horse and two teeny tiny gifts all wrapped with love, I can't wait to

put him out at Christmas and introduce him to the Santa I made last

year which will also sit on my fireplace.

Well I had better go I hope to finish Eli's Elephant today while DH is

off helping a friend with a bit of work in their garden, I just wanted to

show you all my 'goodies' from Saturday.
Byeee!

  

Sunflowers in November?

I've had a good week this week, I've managed to complete the pincushion from Severn Valley Quilters workshop last Wednesday evening, though I think the colours are more Chrysanthemum than sunflower and it looks more like a Water Lily shape to me, what do you think? It was very easy, there was very little stitching and a lot of gluing so was very quick to make. Also during the day on Wednesday I managed to complete a cushion (1 of 5) to be given as a Christmas present. The embroidery in the centre is Candlewicking with a patchwork border then I hand quilted the centre panel to enhance the design, I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Sunflower Pincushion

Lia's Cushion

Tomorrow I'm off to Clock Towers Quilters Christmas party, what a treat in store a whole day of sewing PLUS Lunch and the company of good friends. I formed the group almost 5 years ago and it consists of  7 ex-students plus a couple of  friends, we meet 11 times a year to sew, chat and swap ideas etc. in August we have a Cream tea (scones homemade Jam and CREAM!) then in November its our Christmas 'do' when we all contribute to Lunch and have a Secret Santa swap. I can't wait to see what I will get this year and hope Mollie likes what I made for her. I will be working on a couple more cushions with a space theme for 2 of Lia's brothers.
I've made a start on the fabric elephant for Eli the baby of the family, he's 6 months and is gorgeous now really starting to take note of things, I think he'll like the colours in the fabric. This is what I've done so far the 2 little bits are his ears which will be lined with Corduroy to give some texture, then when he is stuffed I will embroider his eyes or maybe make some felt ones to sew on.

Till next time
Lorraine

Late Night Musings

It's about 1.30am and I had to get up! All these ideas going round in my head means I can't sleep, I have Christmas presents for 6 children to make, I decided to make them a cushion each to go on their beds and have some ideas in mind for each of them. The two eldest (age 11 & 7) will have a space theme, for the 31/2 yr old twins I will use some applique pictures depicting Nursery rhymes, and I have embroidered a candlewick panel of Sunbonnet Sue with Patchwork borders for the only girl (age 8), the youngest aged 6 months will get a soft toy, based on a crazy patchwork elephant I made sometime ago tho probably not in 'Crazy' work.  Meanwhile 2 of the children have birthdays in the next week, I have made L a little bag based on Martha Thompson's 'Square Dance' designs and added some pretty yarn and a pair of needles as I promised to teach her to knit. J her eldest brother wants a torch to use when he is at camp with the Scouts so I'll nip out tomorrow and get him an un-breakable one if I can.
I'll post pictures of the other items when they are made.

On Wednesday I'll be going to one of the 3 quilts groups I belong to, Severn Valley Quilters, is a group of 43 ladies from around our area, we hold monthly meetings during which we have short workshops or  a speaker, finishing up with a cup of tea/coffee and time for a chat. This months workshop is to make a sunflower pin-cushion which sounds good (can't have too many pin-cushions Eh!) We have a sewing afternoon once a month and a full Saturday sewing session 3 times a year. Our members enjoy day workshops with visiting Tutors, and we have had workshops with Susan Briscoe, Judy Mendelsshon and Jan Hassard to name a few.
Well the clock says 2.30am so I'll try going back to bed.
Night Night All!

 

Getting Out There

Hi

This is the first time I have blogged, and I'm not sure where to start so where better, than at the beginning. I have been quilting for about 25 years and love the feeling of belonging to a worldwide 'quilting community'. I belong to 3 (YES! 3) quilt groups in my local area, and have been teaching the basics for about 7/8 years so, as you can guess I am out a LOT!! thankfully I have a very understanding Hubby, tho sometimes I'm not sure he even notices I'm missing.

I have yet to find my way around running a blog so haven't quite worked out how to fill in my complete profile ( I think I missed that bit somehow!) but I hope to be able to sort that out soon

I guess you would like to see what I am working on right now, it's a Secret Santa gift to be given out at one of the groups I attend, we are coming up to our Party so I have been making a sofa caddy. I found the pattern on a website called www.Trishcrafts.com. and I think it turned out quite well.

I discovered what colours the recipient has in her living room and worked from there I hope she likes it.
Well! I am looking forward to being part of the blogging world, Bye for now
Lorraine