Phew, its been a busy few weeks. My classes are back in full swing. I have a fantastic class of new to patchwork ladies on a Tuesday morning who have thrown themselves into this new area for them and are already making fantastic blocks for their first quilt! I just LOVE teaching Simple Sampler - whats better than sharing the love!? Then on a Friday morning I get to teach my Modern Applique Quilt for the first time which was both scary and exhilarating as it's a quilt I designed and it's very close to my heart and it's the first time I'm seeing it reinterpreted by others. I really held my breath and hoped that everyone would love it as much as me. This week was the second class and it was FAB! We had such a lovely morning, very relaxing, lots of laughs and some totally amazing blocks emerging. I hope that I can try and remember to take some pictures next week and share them with you.
Then on top of all of that we had our first Wendover Sewing Bee on Tuesday. It was like throwing a party and hoping that lots of people come! I needed have worried, we were packed! Who knew there were so many talented people in this area. We had embroiderers, lace makers, cross stitchers and lots of quilters! Some of us were complete beginners, lots of us were trying a new craft for the first time. Most of all we all enjoyed sharing our work and skills with each other. It was busy, buzzy and just a joy to be involved with! If you're at all local to Wendover in Bucks and you'd like to join us, drop in on the 11th June 9-11 at the St Annes Hall on Aylesbury Road - we'd love to meet you! Watch this space for news of a separate blog space where we can record the goings on of the Wendover Sewing Bee.
Anyway, after all of the sewing high drama of the last two weeks I have turned to a new project to bring some calm! I have been collecting these fabrics for months, inspired by the vintage vibe of my Farmers Wife Quilt. A few months ago a very kind man offered me some of his late wife's sewing notions as he wanted them to go to a home where they would be used. One of the items was a lovely set of metal scallop templates.
Quilty serendipity meant that the perfect project was born! I've been sort of obsessed by this pattern since i saw the amazing quilted bed drapes that were in the V&A Quilt exhibition back in 2010 and have done hours of research into how to go about constructing this scallop pattern. There are lots of pov's from making it on a foundation backing, to pining on cork boards. They kind of all seemed like a lot of work! Given that I pride myself on Simple Modern Sewing (!) I decided that there must be another way, anyone else tried this pattern? Anyway, I am experimenting at the moment.....will let you know how it goes!
