Saturday, 26 April 2014

Feast for the Eyes...

Carolyn and I had a very enjoyable day on Thursday, in a lovely spacious hall at St. Issey with Creative Textiles holding our Fabric Collage Workshop.


Being embroiderers they had a wonderful stash and we spent the day in heaven (and stroking) with bag after bag being produced holding the most gorgeous fabrics, silks, organzas, nets, tulles, wool and threads etc.

Here is a taster of the threads to feast your eyes on...




As you can imagine the end results were beautiful, an array of colour and stitch...





We both came away with such itchy fingers and a 'need' to increase our stash!!

Thank you ladies for such an enjoyable day, the very warm welcome and delicious lunch you kindly provided for us.

                                                      NOTICE
Please aware that we have changed our email address, can you now use this to contact us in the future, many thanks.

                                      enquiries@beyondpatchwork.co.uk

Bye for now
Sue

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

Sketch books & Textile Art...

The pleasure of keeping a sketch book is two fold, firstly to resolve currant projects and secondly to dip into when new work is called for, unless you work in a series you'll always have done more in your sketch book than is needed for a single piece. We've mentioned that we are putting Textile Art pieces into The Craft Kiln at Charlestown, so that's just what I've been doing and having a wonderful time going back over my sketch books to find inspiration for new work.

You may remember a few year ago we took part in the Journal Quilt Challenge and I had great fun working into a small hand stitched sketch book. This is one of my pages for the 'Blue' challenge...

sample from the 'Blue' challenge

I've made the two pieces below using this sample as my inspiration...

'Cornish Sea'
'Beach'
These are mounted onto card stock ready for The Old Workshop Charlestown.
(If you follow our Textile Maids blog you will notice this also inspired my Monochrome Challenge).

Hope you have a lovely Easter with family and friend or maybe in the garden. If you pop over to our web site you can catch up with our Spring Newsletter and Workshop Programme.

Bye for now
Sue

Monday, 14 April 2014

Well Hello!!

Just when you thought only Sue could do the Blog here I am........

It has been a very busy year so far in the Richards household, but I am rather hoping that the arrival of Spring will see things level out a little.

Saying that, Sue & I have been busy with the 'Begin Patchwork' workshops (which hopefully you have been following on the blog).  We have a lovely group of ladies and as usual it is great to see friendships develop and beautiful quilts emerge.  We have a little break now but will be cracking the whip again in May!

We have also enjoyed visiting groups for one day workshops and we are looking forward to the next couple we have planned after Easter.

Recycled Log
We are also getting excited about running our first 'Recyled Logs' workshop in June.  The idea behind this workshop is to use any of items of clothing that you no longer wear and create a beautiful quilt using a variation of the 'Log Cabin' block.

We have used old shirts, skirts, jeans and curtain fabric, but the choice is endless.  This idea can also be used to make a delightful cushion, if you prefer to make something a little smaller!
Recycled Cushion
Well, I think that is all for now. 
Thank you for reading and hopefully I will be back again a bit sooner than last time!! 

Happy Easter,
Carolyn



Friday, 11 April 2014

Creative ensemble...

Here is the next instalment by our Begin Patchwork ladies showing their beautiful ensemble of Log Cabin and Courthouse Steps blocks.


At the next session the blocks will be joined and begin to look like a quilt...very exciting!


We're taking bookings for our future workshops so here's a reminder of what's coming up -
Thursday 5th June Recycled Logs - using recycled fabric or patchwork fabric (excellent for clearing your stash).

Thursday 3rd July Marvellous Markals - create a cushion top or make extra prints to use in a future project.

Thursday 7th August Fabric Collage - add a personal touch to your wall hanging with a saved treasure.

Thursday 18th September Manipulated Fabric - creating textures with pin-tucks, bow-ties, fillets and prairie points.

Thursday 9th October Strip Cushion - the first of our designs using the Quilt-As-You-Go Method, a quick and easy cushion.

Thursday 6th November Mixed Media Wall Hanging - derived from a round robin 'turtle day' challenge, involving spray paint amongst other media!

Thursday 20th November Square Strip Cushion - the second of our designs using the Quilt-As-You-Go Method, a very popular workshop.

We provide all the art materials needed to complete the course. All our workshop are suitable for all abilities, so don't be afraid to try something new, we will guide you through each stage and have fun.

All the details and photos can be found on our web site.

Thanks for dropping by, have a super weekend and enjoy the sunshine
Sue

Friday, 4 April 2014

Patchwork Bug...

Yesterday was week 3 of our Begin Patchwork Course, everyone has the patchwork bug and I was in my element as one of our blocks was Log Cabin and you can't beat a bit of Log Cabin as far as I'm concerned.
We've chosen blocks that include a number of techniques from strip piecing, squares and points, so as to provide a good grounding for future projects.

Here are the blocks they've made so far...

Pat
Hazel
Ruth
Caroline
Deborah
Christine (making extra for a double bed quilt)
They are all quilted and looking absolutely gorgeous.

One of our students was on her hols this week, so we'll photograph her blocks next week along with this weeks work.

Have a lovely weekend
Sue