Beginners' workshop

The beginners'workshop I lead last Saturday was lovely! Eight people came along (I know there were more people interested, but the date clashed with other things) and they were all very hardworking. We made the components for a quilt from 'Nickel Quilts' by Charlene Speth and Pat Spode, and it was a hard slog. First there was the cutting,

then there was the deciding on colour combinations,

then there was the sewing of a quarter inch seam,

not to mention the times when you forgot what you were doing and had to have a little prompt!


Then there was the puzzling, at why, when you had cut and sewn accurately, the blocks don't fit together. Poor Rosemary discovered that her needle was in the zigzag rather than straight sewing position, and she had been inadvertantly been sewing seams which were three eighths rather than a quarter! I blame the teacher, who should have checked everyone's sewing machine first off! Sorry, Rosemary.

Everyone made some beautiful fabric choices. There was the sophisticated, pastel pink and soft green,

the dynamic, in browns and oranges,

the carefully considered, with green for the fields and blues and browns for the mountains,

the co-ordinated, in pinks and burgundies,

the reproduction, in pinks, browns and creams,

and the scrappy, in 'I need to use up these fabrics'!

I'm sorry, I didn't manage to get a photo of Rosemary or Paula's finished blocks. I can assure you they were gorgeous - especially Paula's, who has created her own wonderful variation on the pattern. We are planning to have another session to learn about layering up, quilting and binding, so look out for details of this!