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!

Beginners' workshop

On Saturday September 18th Lynda Hill will be leading a beginners' workshop. This is for complete beginners, although those with some knowledge will be very welcome. It will be at the Village Hall, Walcote from 10-4. Here is the pattern we will be making.

It is called 'Mount Hood' and is from 'Nickel Quilts' by Pat Speth and Charlene Spode.
We will cover all the basic skills, such as rotary cutting, seam allowances, pressing, chain piecing, thread savers, making four-patches, half square triangles, flying geese and hourglass blocks.

You will need to bring your sewing machine (so long as it sews a straight stitch it will be fine) with a quarter inch foot or a small piece of masking tape, scissors, pins, a soft pencil, thread which is either neutral (grey, tan, lilac, khaki) or to tone in with your colour choices, rotary cutter, ruler and mat (if you have them) and a mug.

You will need fabrics which are dark and light, and the more different fabrics the better! The smallest piece must be at least 5” square.

For a lap quilt (61”x68”), you will need 6 fat quarters of different light fabric (a total of 1.5 metres) and 6 fat quarters (a total of 1.5 metres) of different dark fabric plus fabric for borders, backing and binding.

For a small double (75”x99.5”), you will need 12 fat quarters of different light fabric (a total of 3 metres) and 12 fat quarters (a total of 3 metres) of different dark fabric plus fabric for borders, binding and backing.

To choose your fabrics, I suggest you think of a theme, eg a season - spring (creams, yellows, purples and pinks), summer (green, cream, red, yellow), autumn (gold, brown, red, green) or winter (blue, grey, white, red). This quilt would work well in monochrome, shades of blue, green or red or Christmas colours of red and green. Or, of course, you can just bring a mixture of fabrics which you like.

If you have not booked on this class and would like to join it, there are spaces left. Just leave a comment on this blog and I will add you to the list. For members it costs £10 and for non-members £12. This includes tea and coffee all day! Bargain!