Prairie Dresden Daisies and Patchwork Pin Cushions Pop Up

 I hope you've had a lovely week if you've been off this week with little ones on half term.

We've been down to the seaside visiting family and had a fab week. I do love having my kids home from school, we have such a nice time, they are such good company.

We have been pottering on the beach,skimming stones and making towers, hunting for dinosaur fossils and exploring national trust secret gardens.  I was rather taken by the design on this water-butt - it might find its way into a Modern Applique one day!

Of course I also managed to pack as much sewing as clothes! My Clackety-Clack Granny Bag was full to bursting ( yes, we are running a class for this fab bag - dates tbc). On my list of things to do was some serious Swooning. I am hideously behind everyone else on our Sewing Bee Swoon-Along and Jenny The Longarm Quilter is coming to The Workroom on the 12th June to book in these monster quilts to be quilted and with spaces filling up and excitement mounting I don't want to be left out! ( Drop us a mail or catch us at the Bee on Tuesday 3rd June) if you'd like a slot with Jenny and haven't already booked one.

Of course the nicest thing about a week of holiday is the freedom to create without deadlines and we have so much new fabric at The Workroom my creative urge hasn't needed much encouragement! We have two great new lines from Dashwood - Prairie and Retro Orchard and I have plans for both! I started with the long awaited Prairie ( I know there's lots of you waiting patiently for this to come in -my advice is shop early as I am loving the soft buttery colours of this range for summer sewing!)

In the shop we stock the Darlene Zimmerman Easy Dresden Ruler which I have been wanting to try out for a while. We have been making traditional Dresden's for the last couple of weeks in my Beginners Simple Sampler Class and so it's been on my mind!

This ruler is so super simple, I can't recommend it enough, it makes Dresden plates a joy!

Slice those wedges, super quick.

Chain piece the ends.

Tah dah!

Add a centre.

Hummm...now i've slowed right down - decide on a layout? It's all so pretty, I can't decide!

So I've moved on to Retro Orchard and some serious purse making plans to round out my creative week off! I'll share these next in a round up of all the fab fabrics we've been filling the shelves with ahead of our busy June and July class schedule - lots of lovely fabric for lampshades and fabric baskets plus all of the fun pop up ideas we have up being created as we speak!

Ooh and must just mention that the Pop Up Pin Cushions Class is now booking for Friday 13th June from 10am - 12 at The Workroom. It's £15, bring your machine or book ours, bring your favourite bits and bobs of ribbon and trim and precious scraps - we'll have our scraps bin at the ready too if you need to delve! I'm really excited about these Pop Up classes, they'll be fun, informal and most of all super-creative, as ever drop us an e mail to book.

Lastly - serendipitous timing....? Its our Great Wendover Sewing Bee Fabric Swap Shop on Tuesday 3rd June so if you feel a need for new scraps and inspiration, just come along with a little bag of bits to swap and see what fate throws at you - all the details are on the Wendover Sewing Bee Blog - see you there. x