Oops...it's been a while...

Sorry we've been a little absent from blogland lately, but rest assured we have been busy.
To bring you up to date here are a few snaps, starting with a very enjoyable Ever Decreasing Squares Workshop. These are destined to be cushions by taking a small section from our quilt pattern.

Kate with a 'fussy cut' centre pattern

beautiful fabrics chosen by Cynthia

Our next workshop was Marvellous Markal, in case you didn't know I'm rather fond of Markals. We had a wonderful group of enthusiastic ladies, from an artist, to embroiderers and quilters who all turned out an amazing volume of work. Some had chosen to work on our cushion design, while others worked on a number of prints to develop into various projects.

In no particular order you can see some work from Jenny, Debbie, Rose, Fran, Edna, Debbie, Karen and Linda. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished items and hoping to show some at our Open Day in the students gallery...please ladies! Thank you to everyone for allowing us to show your work here.

After an enjoyable day we refreshed ourselves and tootled up the A30 to Launceston, to show our work to a packed room at Flowerpatch Quilters. We took along some work from our City and Guilds Course, it was rather good to see pieces again that are normally tucked away in boxes. With an attentive group who joined in asking questions, we had a jolly good time and some lovely comments about our work which was very nice indeed. Thank you ladies for making us so welcome at Fowerpatch.

That was our last workshop for 2013, so at this point I would like to say a huge thank you on behalf of Carolyn and myself to everyone that joined us this year for a workshop or two. We really appreciate it and you make all the background work, sampling and planning worthwhile. We've enjoyed meeting you all and hope to see you at our Open Day or on a future workshop.

As you know our Open Day is drawing closer and things are gathering pace. We've had items delivered for the student gallery and a very kind donation of Quilting books to sell, with the proceeds raised going to Help For Heroes. Our very generous friends have offered their help on the day and even to bake cakes for us, there can be no better class of person than craft people.
Carolyn and I have been making variations of our cushion designs to sell, here are a couple below based on our Square Strip design.

variation of our Square Strip design

We've shown you in an earlier post the beginnings of a Recycle project that's new for 2014, that is now finished although we're not going to unveil it just yet, but I will show you a sneak peek whilst it was being quilted...

new for 2014

One of the advantages of working with a colleague, apart from working with a good friend, is that we can bash our heads together and come up with new ideas and designs, that is just what happened on a recent 'turtle' day.
We've wanted to do a recycled project for ages and have been saving a variety of materials and clothing. Once we had the design idea we started preparing the various elements and at the end of the day it was left in the sewing shed for me to work on, (now don't tell Carolyn, I have built up lots of brownie points because she thinks it was a chore, but actually I had a ball). So we're rather excited with this quilt design, we've used recycled fabrics but it will work just as well with patchwork fabrics and a wonderful way to use up the 'stash'. Carolyn has also been working on a Recycled Cushion version of the design (do I have to share my brownie points now).
It will be on the website soon and if you can't make it to our Open Day we'll be sure to post some photos.

I'd better stop now as I've been here far too long, I must blog more often!!

Bye for now
Sue