Teaching Teenagers

Today I have taken the plunge and advertised this on Facebook . . . .

Starting Tuesday 10th January 2017, I'm going to start a new sewing class. This is because of the kind generosity of Penistone Round Table who have provided funding for 3 Sewing Machines.
The classes will be from 4pm to 6pm at St John's Community Centre in the IT Room. The cost will be £6 per evening. This will be every Tuesday during term time. Free tea, coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits will be available as well as the use of the 3 sewing machines and an overlocker.
This is ideal for beginners, improvers or anyone interested in sewing. Maybe you are doing textiles at school and are wanting to finish it at home? If you have your own machine, you are welcome to bring it along. It is recommended you bring a project along with you as I do not stock any material. I have patterns for free loan and I also have a small stock of haberdashery to buy.
As for me, I have been sewing for over 40 years, and been teaching for four. My main passion is clothing, historical costume, corsetry, lingerie, but I also do patchwork and quilting, up-cycling, free machine embroidery, toys and soft furnishings.
If you need to speak to me, either message me on here, or come and see me at the Crafty Business Makers Market on Sunday 11th December 2016 between 10pm and 4pm.
Please share this with anyone in the Pensitone area you think would be interested.
Thank you for reading and sharing.

Let's hope I get plenty of interest!

Bloomin Steps Scrappy Blue Quilt

Today I finished the scrappy quilt I have been making for the last couple of years.

Over the last couple of months I have been working hard at getting it finished, hence no postings on this blog.

I can't believe this is now over, I feel both elated but sad at the same time.  Now it is finished it doesn't show the amount of work that has gone into it, because (even if I say so myself), it has gone together so well, you can only see the whole and not the individual squares that have gone into it. 

The blues are mainly scraps, from my own garment and quilt making, or shirts bought from charity shops with the odd fat quarter thrown in.  The white squares are scraps, bought white shirts or packs of fat quarters with a wide backing fabric bought for the border and the back.

The pattern is from "Cut the scraps" by Joan Ford.  In total 1328 squares went into making it, 1008 2" squares (yes 2"!) and 320 3.5" squares and the final quilt measures 75" x 87", just big enough to throw over a king size bed for a topping.  

You could say that I have scrap quilts out of my system now! But what to do with all my other scraps!

Bloomin Steps Scrappy Quilt

Just thought I'd show you this picture

It is the finished centre section of my scrappy quilt.  With the border on, it will be a generous double or a top for a king size bed.  I started piecing it about 2 to 3 years ago, but have been buying and collecting old shirts and blouses for about 6 years.  The rest of the pieces have been left overs from previous projects.  Made with mainly 2" squares, and the outer border took over 300 of them, it took longer to cut the squares than it did to sew it all together.

Now all I need is enough pins and a large area to put the backing and batting on it.

Can't wait to quilt it.

I've been quiet

Sorry I have been quiet on here, but I have been sort of busy.  I will explain:

In January I didn't feel like doing much sewing, so didn't. Quite simple really.  In my day job I work twelve hour shifts and because of this I get to see very little sun, which makes me very tired and sad and lacking energy.  This usually continues until the end of February when we go skiing.  But this year, due to our days off, we went skiing at the end of January.

On returning from skiing my batteries were full and I couldn't wait to get back to sewing.

I have therefore spent the last couple of weeks finishing my invisible machine appliqué double wedding ring quilt and here is a picture.

For the backing I didn't have enough material, so blizzard pieced it and added some left over pieces from the front.

Out of all my quilts so far I have not added a label to the back.  But a piece of the selvedge shouted at me and using the embroidery feature on my machine I have created a perfect label.

To learn this really simple, but effective technique, I went to a class by Dawn Cameron-Dick.  She is truly inspirational and a great teacher.  Check out her website to see where she might be teaching near you - http://www.dawncamerondick.com

Now to get my scrappy king size quilt finished, now where did I put those 2.5" squares . . . . . . . . .