Beach Huts Workshop

Here I am with my friend Ros at the end of a great day at a workshop with Melanie Plummer yesterday.  The workshop was a lot of fun, I don't think I've ever heard so much laughter during a quilting day, and we all learned new techniques, produced something we were happy with and nearly finished it too.
Melanie was a relaxed tutor and brought loads of examples of her work with her as well as lots of lovely organza and fabrics that she allowed us to buy from her if we needed them (and didn't charge much either).  Here are two of her "beach hut" pieces, I'm going to use her notebook idea to make a visitor book for my bach.

Once we got started with our sky, sand and water fabrics 505ed onto wadding and backing fabric it was time to audition all the organzas, nets and threads that would build up the texture of the piece.  This was fun and it was interesting to see that from the same starting point we all created our own designs, just as it should be.

I think the wall hangings have a lovely naivety.  This is not a good photograph (I would have needed to hang from the ceiling...) but it reminds me of children's paintings laid out to try at the end of an art lesson, such bold colours and effective designs.

They all became individual.  One lady added stilts to her beach huts as that is the design of the ones she is familiar with, a gentleman added deckchairs and seagulls and I made my beach huts from Japanese fabrics, including some wonderful kimono silk pieces that I was given by my friend Cara when she visited UK in August.
It's always good to pick up new skills as well as have fun on a workshop and I was pleased to learn to create marram grass and beach plantlife using FMQ but the greatest combination of fun and learning came with the discovery of angelina.  Who knew something that looks like glittery candyfloss could be such a delight?  I'll certainly be using it again.
Tomorrow is the first meeting of the new quilting group I'm starting with my friend Tina.  We're hoping to have a good turnout and already know of several lovely blogging friends who will be there.  I'm taking my beach huts piece to work on - it's time to embellish with relish!  We're having a trader, a raffle and show and tell as well as a chat about what people want from the group.  I'm very excited about it - please check back here to see how it goes, and what the group is to be called!

FNSI Report

This is my progress on my bag.  The top picture is of the flowers for the front of the bag, I have got to make eight of these and managed two during FNSI, they are very fiddly.  The other picture is of what I'd done already, the back of the bag and the flap.  It looks a strange shape as I need to avoid the flap gatting caught up when I do the sides of the bag.
I hope you all had a great FNSI and got lots done.  I spend a couple of hours in the afternoon with Ros, my sewing friend in Norfolk, and we had great fun going through her stash getting together all the things she wants for the "Beach Huts" wall hanging workshop we're doing together tomorrow at Wroxham Barns.  I think we selected enough stuff to make a full size beach hut!  Well, you just never know quite what you're going to need for a workshop.
Today is dry and I've done a little tidying up in the small garden here at our bach in Norfolk and then DH and I went and picked blackberries and now have purple-stained fingers.  That reminds me, when I get home I'll unwrap my seaweed dyeing and see what (if anything) has happened to the cloth.  Have a great weekend, whatever you're doing.

Pairing Up Workshop and More Cloth to Cloth

I recently enjoyed a workshop at Sew Creative (Wroxham Barns, Norfolk), called "Pairing Up" and tutored by Jane Bottamley. 
The idea was to create secondary patterns by using two patchwork blocks combined and paying attention to the colours and values used.  Jane brought some samples along, plus handouts for all the combinations she shared with us.
This was the design I had expected to do, Sawtooth Star and Churn Dash blocks.  I decided against it as it was the one with the smallest blocks and most pieces and I wasn't exactly running on full power!

I liked the simplicity of this combination of  Hourglass and Framed Four Patch.

The design I settled on was this pairing of Snowball and Framed Square.  I think I may well have been influenced by the colour combination Jane had used and the oriental look of the trellis-style secondary pattern.  I can certainly see myself doing this design using some of my Japanese fabrics.

As well as the handouts Jane had prepared samples to show how each block was constructed (and shared some good tips with us too).  She also gave us "blank" designs which we coloured in to develop our patterns.  Don't you just love it when a tutor is good?

Snowball block - without bias seams :)

Framed Square - without set in seams :)

Here's a close up of Jane's sample so you can see the details of the two blocks.

I worked much more slowly than usual as the workshop was my first "outing" after my stay in hospital but I managed to complete two rows of five blocks.  I've done some more at home and I'll share the finished project as soon as possible. 
I'm also working on Jude's Cloth to Cloth online workshop.  Today I've done some shaped weaving which has been interesting.  All samples, nothing finished but here's one piece (only pinned and tacked), I'm not sure where it's leading yet.

And this checkerboard style piece is destined to become a fabric postcard.

Fun and Sun

Okay so England are out of the World Cup but I've had a great weekend, and that sunshine, wow, 30C today.

It started with a trip down to the bach in Norfolk and the purchase of a new sewing machine from Steve in King's Lynn!  "Just" a basic one, but she's lovely, a Janome 2200XT and she even has turquoise dials to match the bach - that's where she's going to live so that I don't keep hauling my main machine backwards and forwards.  She needs a name of course, all ideas appreciated, something associated with the sea would be nice.

• Added 8th July:  Thanks for all your suggestions, I have christened my little Janome, Muriel \m(u)-riel\, Muriel, is pronounced MYUR-ee-el. It is of Irish and Gaelic origin, and its meaning is "sparkling, shining sea". First used in the Middle Ages.

On Saturday we had more fun than I could cope with.  Al and I took the bus - so no driving and no parking and great views of the coast - to Cromer which is a gorgeous, traditional coastal town.  It even has a pier and look at those gorgeous lines.

There are lots of small streets to explore like this one, Jetty Street, with a teasing view of the sea, looking wonderfully blue in the sunshine.

Back in Mundesley after a lunch of fresh crab sandwiches it was time for the village fayre.  Some people had been working very hard to organise a fun event to raise money for the local youngsters and the sun continued to shine so a great time was had by all.  There were the usual stalls and games, truck rides, a climbing wall, belly dancing, gymnastics displays...English village life at its best.  Al even let me take his photograph!

After a lazy couple of hours with the newspapers (Al) and my book (Philippa Gregory's The White Queen which I highly recommend, it's very well researched historical fiction) it was time for a barbeque on our chalet site (ours is a bach as we're NZ addicts, everybody else has a chalet!)

The idea of the barbeque was to get chalet owners to know each other, a sort of bonding session

and again a lot of people had been working very hard as all we had to provide was meat and wine, there were tables of salads and the most yummy desserts.

I don't drink alcohol so I have nothing to blame but I did something I have never done before and will never, ever, do again - karaoke!  The bonding went a bit far when one lady encouraged six of us to form a Norfolk version of Abba, don't ever mention "Dancing Queen" to me if you know what's good for you!  It was terrifying, that song is sooooo long!
I needed a little fabric fix to get over it so after a wonderful Sunday lunch in our favourite cafe, Lilia's in Mundesley, we stopped at Sew Creative on the way home for a few FQs for a quilt I'm making for my daughter, Sara, yet to be shared on this blog.
Thank you for all your lovely comments on my post about the V&A Quilts 1700-2010 Exhibition.  I'm still waiting for my copy of the book to arrive and then I'll post again.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend and that the football wasn't too disappointing - the second week of Wimbledon is coming up and the sun is shining!

Machine Quilting

I went on a wonderful workshop on Friday and just want to share some of the day with you, dear reader!
The enthusiastic and very knowledgeable and skilled tutor was Ruth Jarman and the workshop was held at Sew Creative at Wroxham Barns in Norfolk http://www.sewcreativequilts.co.uk/ my "local" quilt shop.
Ruth started by showing us a range of her work, and then it was down to work for the ten of us on the course. What a pace she set, we achieved more than I thought possible in six hours (with a quick 20 minutes for lunch) and any single thing I learned would have been worth the day's fee!
Our aim was to create sample pieces of machine quilting and Ruth showed us how to work with just the top layer and wadding, adding the backing later. This made the process easier with less likelihood of nips and tucks! Layers were pinned, then machined. We started with straight stitch, then zigzag and then explored the more decorative stitches on our machines. It was interesting to have a peek at the other machines, Ruth is a Berninaphile but others had Pfaff and Janome machines and I was pleased with how my Silver performed.
We learned how a grid of 2" squares can be used in many different ways to mark up cloth for quilting and I got quite carried away with marking up diamonds - well, they are a girl's best friend! Ruth recommended some marking tools but also showed us how well a sliver of soap worked, even on white fabric - just remember to wash any marking off your fabric before you iron it!
On to more complex quilting, involving the use of twin needles and changing our feet!! I loved the results from a simple wavy line with two differently coloured threads but my favourite stitch had to be the Italian style quilting. No stuffing with a bodkin, just a wide twin needle and an embroidery foot, beautiful. Then it was time for FMQ - the dread of most ladies on the course! Free motion quilting made easy - relax, remove the shoulders from around the ears, remember you can stop sewing so no need for panic, go with the flow.... Even though this was the last part of a busy day, not the best time for a "difficult" skill, I have to say everybody produced a sample that they were proud of and everybody was promising to go home and do more - practice, practice, practice. I even feel confident about tackling the Trapunto challenge set by Kandy at BQL this month.
As soon as Sylvia at Sew Creative publishes the next list of workshops I'll be booking up for another with Ruth - she does a lovely one on Heirloom Quilting I understand, and I highly recommend her to you.
http://www.ruthjarmantuition.co.uk/JarmanTuition/Home.html