Week 3 and doing nicely.......

Hi everyone,

Hope the weather hasn't stopped you from venturing out too much. Here in Cornwall we have escaped the snow but the wind is bitter. Not because of the weather but due to illness, we were a couple of students short today for our Quilting and Textile Design course, however the remaining ladies got stuck in and produced some exciting designs.We started the day trapping various media.

selection of mixed media trappings

selection of mixed media trappings

We then went on to look at line and shape to develop designs for printing and stencils on paper and fabric.

using wax pastel

We have a two week break now, but with a little homework we should see some lovely samples and sketch books next time.

Wishing you a very happy Easter from us both, bye for now

Sue


  

Catch-up and April workshops....

Hi everyone,

I've been bothered over the last couple of weeks with that horrid cough/cold bug I had not long ago, I think and hope I've seen the back of it now, so I'm eager to get on with things.

Carolyn's last post showed you what we've been up to on our 'turtle' day this week. We're making new pieces for a future workshop on Transfer Dyes. Here's the one I've been working on, I've now free machine quilted the background, added some hand embellishments with french knots and seed stitch.

The textures created with transfer dyes are wonderful and it's such an easy technique. I've really enjoyed re-visiting this piece, it's funny how you leave a piece for a while, have a fresh look at it and it all comes together. When the stitching is finished I'm going to mount it onto a 12" canvas, I'll take a proper photo then.

Here is a reminder of our workshop dates for next month........

Thursday 11th April - Dissolvable Fabric at Fraddon Village Hall.

Monday 22nd April - Doodle Cushion at Coast and Country Crafts & Quilts, Perranarworthal.

As usual all the info, photos and bookings are on our web site, look forward to hearing from you.

That's it for now, have a great weekend.
Sue

We had a lovely 'Turtle Tuesday' in Sue's Sewing Shed yesterday. 

Last time we had our Turtle Day we started on a "Round Turtle Challenge" the idea being that it would get our creative ideas going before we start on the day properly,  so yesterday we added the second part to each others fabric. 

Turtle Challenge

Turtle Challenge

 What a difference it made!  We then, had to decide what to do next,

which we eventually did, but you will have to what till next time to see what that will be!!

 So now to think about the rest of the day, usually we have a bit of a plan before we meet up, but not yesterday!  Anyway after a coffee and a shortbread, we remembered a couple old friends that just needed to be finished and we set about working on them!

Delicate work in progress

We had started these two pieces a little while ago and had to put them to one side while we concentrated on other bits, so it was great to get them out again.

Working with an African feel - maybe!

Hopefully, we will soon be able to show the the finished items.

Bye for now

Carolyn

As our saying goes...........

I have the biggest 'itchy fingers' after our workshops last week and no time as yet to get creative and relieve them. I managed as far as Wednesday to keep the postings up-to-date.  We had a wonderful workshop at Friendship Quilters on Thursday evening (sorry no snaps), where the ladies produced  lovely dissovable work, creating delicate lacy bowls and pieces to applique on to future work.

Today we had week two of our Quilting and Textile Design Course, which was painting, drawing to create designs and free machine quilting, as you can imagine I was very envious.

Below you will see a variety of techniques to add colour to sketch book and sample book pages, we also painted various mixed media bits that will be used later in the course.

Tables set up and painting in progress

Students at work 

Students designs creating pattern 

Students designs with free machine quilting

I have a few days now to get cracking, so I'll post my results when and if I get there. Hope you're making time to be creative.

Back soon, thanks for reading

Sue

South West Quilters Workshop

If you're a member of South West Quilters you will have had the Spring magazine by now. Due to a mishap our Square Strip Cushion Workshop on June 8th 2013 was missed out.

Square Strip Cushion

This original design by us, was inspired by a 'slate water feature' on a visit to Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Using the 'Quilt-As-You-Go method' it's a quick and easy technique and an ideal opportunity to use up your fabric strips.

The workshop is based at Tresillian Village Hall 10am-4pm. Please book with June Lovewell as usual.

Sue

Quilting & Textile Design.........

Back again.........now, don't go thinking this daily posting is going to be a regular thing, I'm just trying to keep ahead this week so there isn't a huge list to post later in the week.

Today was the first of our six workshop course, which begins with students making a background fabric to cover their sample book, with enough background fabric left over for their mixed media samples.

Colour work

With the background fabric completed we can concentrate on getting messy next week, sampling painting and mixed media product to change the surface of their pieces.

I'll try and take more than just two photos next week.

Happy St. Pirans Day to all my fellow Cornish folk.
Sue

Strip Cushion Workshop

Hi everyone,

Our first workshop for this week is done and dusted and was a great success. The lovely ladies at Strand gave us a warm welcome and got straight down to work.

In the photos below you can see the wonderful bundles of colours, cut and ready to use.

The ladies did a sterling job and worked hard all day, turning their fabric strips into these lovely colourful cushion tops. We love seeing the variety of colour combinations and the emerging pattern.

Thank you to Strand Quilters for an excellent day and allowing us to share their beautiful work with you.
Back soon
Sue