Sticking and Stitching at Stitchscape

Last weekend a group of us booked the Stitchscape sewing studio in Newton-le-Willows for an entire day and took along lots of  Liberty scraps and glue to try something different to our usual sewing. After unloading the cars (free parking is available next to the studio), we found that Diane from Stitchscape had made place names to welcome us and had the kettle on for cups of tea and coffee.

The studio accommodates six people and we used the large central deskspace our morning’s activities. Cutting tables, ironing boards and a sofa were also available so we had everything we needed to hand.
 

The morning was spent upcycling various objects by covering them with Liberty fabrics. A variety of tins, boxes and even an old cassette storage case were given new leases of life. I created a tabletop waste bin for my sewing threads, trim-offs, etc from a catering-sized coffee container and some of my Liberty scraps, before moving on to covering a pair of shoes that had seen better days.
 

After a break for lunch (there are kitchen facilities available including kettle, toaster fridge and microwave), some of us continued with the glue whereas others switched to a needle and thread for sewing projects, hiring a sewing machine from Diane when needed. My afternoon project was to cover a mini suitcase in more Liberty lawn. Liberty’s mini suitcase retails for £65 but a case at about a tenth of the price from Home Bargains and a jar of Mod Podge were more in keeping with my budget.
 

(Image from www.liberty.co.uk)

(Image from www.homebargains.co.uk)

I had primed the case in preparation so that the original design wouldn’t show through, but given my final choice of fabric this wasn’t necessary (if I do another, I’ll just sand it down with some fine sandpaper or wire wool). Covering the case was fiddly in parts, but a thin-bladed craft knife helped me to hide most raw edges under the brass hardware. I made good progress with the case at Stitchscape and just a bit more sticking and trimming was need the following day to finish the case. Once any stray primer had been removed (or covered with a metallic marker pen!), the final result looked quite neat and tidy.
 

We enjoyed our session at Stitchscape so much that we have booked it again for a day of Christmas activities in December. Stitchscape also offer classes, details of which can be found on their website along with contact details for Diane should you wish to discuss booking the studio for your group.

(Please note, our Saturday sessions at Stitchscape are booked and paid for by the group members and all opinions in this post are my own.)

Last of the summer sewing

Well, there’s no escaping it – summer is finally over. October saw the start of autumn and the end of British Summer time, and just a few sewing projects completed.

First to be finished (and now put away for next year) was a picnic blanket to go with a new picnic basket. It was made from a fent of wool curtain fabric which was only £7 from Standfast & Barrack and backed with some ripstop nylon from Abakhan. I found the same fabric online for over £400 but I’ve no idea if that is for a metre or a complete roll.

 

Next was a quick foldable shopping bag for future fabric purchases. Now the carrier bag charge has been introduced, I usually have a plastic bag with me, but it seems wrong to put new fabric in a bag that has carried groceries and the like. This bag was made from less than half of a 50p misprint of Liberty lawn, again from Standfast & Barrack, and will be kept in my handbag just for fabric (and maybe clothing) purchases.

The final project for October saw me return to dressmaking for the first time in many, many months. This is the drapey knit dress from the Great British Sewing Bee and I managed to find the pattern and instructions free online. There is rather a lot of ease in the upper part of the pattern which makes sizing uncertain and Melissa from Fehrtrade had warned me on Twitter to check the hip size, but I also wanted to lower the pockets, so a toile was definitely needed. Dropping the pockets by 3” was a success, as was cutting a smaller size than usual for the top, but I forgot about how this would affect the sleeves and a fat arm adjustment was needed. The toile was made wearable with a small insert in each underarm seam to widen the sleeve and the addition of a wide cuff to lengthen the sleeve.
 

As this was only supposed to be toile, the inside finishes were quick and easy – pinking shears for the seam allowances and a twin needle for the hems. The pockets are my favourite feature on this dress, whereas I’m not too taken by the main design element of the folded drape at the front. For the next one, I might remove this and just make a feature of the seam lines. I could even dust off  the overlocker and coverstitch machines if I’m feeling really keen! 

If you fancy making this dress, Love Sewing magazine featured this dress in issue 12. The pattern pdf is free to download from the magazine website and the instructions are part of the free magazine sampler available via the Love Sewing app for phones/tablets or from Pocket Mags on a computer. The dress also features in the latest Great British Sewing Bee book, "Fashion with Fabric".

Hint of Pink

Back in 2013 I was awaiting the arrival of a great niece (or so the ultrasound would have had us believe), but a great nephew arrived instead! Just over a month ago, a great niece arrived and I was finally able to dig out the pink fabrics from my stash and put them to their intended use. 

The starting point for the fabric pull was the elephant and tortoise print which was used for the single piece blocks. I matched this with a few pinks (including sheep and humming birds!) and a couple of greens from my stash and used these for the nine patch blocks.

The backing was pink fleece (also from stash) and the quilting was diagonal lines, mainly through the nine patches, so that the elephants and tortoises were unquilted. Some machine stitched binding in the same fabric as the centre of the nine patch finished off the quilt.

The quilt is heading off to its new home where I hope my great niece will have fun spotting the eclectic mix of creatures.

Colourful Kaffe

Last week I used a day’s holiday and some rail vouchers for a midweek trip to the Quilt Museum in York. After hearing Kaffe Fassett’s talk on colour at Festival of Quilts, I desperately wanted to see his Ancestral Gifts exhibition at the Quilt Museum before it ends on 5^th September.

I met up with a couple of friends from Leeds MQG and we spent a very enjoyable hour or so looking at the quilts. The exhibition combines quilts from the Quilters’ Guild collection with modern versions of these quilts designed by Kaffe Fassett and made using fabrics from the Kaffe Fassett Collective. Photography was allowed, but the sunny day and the lighting in the gallery mean my photos with the iPad don’t really do the quilts justice.

Photo credits – Kaffe Fassett and The Quilters’ Guild Collection

The old quilts were amazing, especially given the circumstances in which they were made – all hand pieced, no fancy rulers and rotary cutters, and no daylight light bulbs! As well as admiring the colours and fabrics of Kaffe Fassett quilts, it was interesting to see how these quilts had been “modernised” by use of different cutting or piecing techniques and clever pattern placement.
 

Photo credits – Kaffe Fassett and The Quilters’ Guild Collection

After a few purchases from the museum shop, there was time for a leisurely lunch sat outside in the sun at the Italian Deli next to the museum during which there was lots more quilty chatter and discussion. Then it was time for me to get the train back home.

 

(But only after a flying visit to one of York’s other speciality museums.)

Festival of Quilts 2015 – Learning, Listening, Looking (and Lots of Liberty)

This year’s trip to Festival of Quilts is over and I don’t really know how to sum it up. There were some good bits (such as learning new skills, meeting up with friends and attending a Kaffe Fassett talk) but overall I just feel a bit meh about it and I’m not sure why. 

My trip was over two days and each morning was spent in a half day workshop. The first one was New York Beauty with Judi Mendelssohn and covered foundation paper piecing and curved piecing. This was my only third attempt at foundation paper piecing and was the first one where I have managed to get neat ¼" seams thanks to Judi’s excellent teaching. The majority of the time in the class was spent doing the foundation piecing, but the latter part was learning how to piece curves. Whilst I don’t know if I will make a New York Beauty pattern, I can see how the techniques would be transferable to other designs such as mini flying geese, Drunkard’s Path or apple cores.

The second workshop was with Sarah Humphreys and was free motion quilting. I could have spent much longer in this class and was just starting to get into the swing of it when it was time to pack up. We started off trying various patterns and it soon became apparent that each of us found some patterns easier than others. I think I tend to favour variations on straight line free motion quilting – I was happier with "square spirals" than with curves and my pebbles/bubbles (in the bottom right of the piece) soon turned into bricks/boulders and looked more like wall than a pebbly beach. 

One advantage of having to be in the NEC for workshops at 9.30am was being able to get a last minute ticket for the Kaffe Fassett talk "Past & Present: Colour in Design". This was supposed to be for 45 minutes, but lasted for nearly an hour. The talk was most interesting and covered the background to the Kaffe Fassett Collective, an insight into where he finds inspiration and a bit about his exhibition at the York Quilt Museum. It was illustrated with plenty of slides including many gloriously colourful scenes.

As to be expected at Festival of Quilts, there were some stunning quilts on display but I took no photos this year as there were either too many people or I had too many bags. There were some quilts that just took my breath away with the detail in their piecing or quilting and there were some items that just left me asking "Why?". I was hoping to come away full of inspiration from the quilts, but instead I came away with the realisation of my own limitations in terms of time, space or skill to produce such quilts. Another blogger has described it as being "intimidated by perfection" and I think this is an excellent description of how I feel.

Of course, no trip to Festival of Quilts would be complete without a bit of shopping. This year I didn’t browse the stands and instead focused on a few key stands. First up was some Liberty for my stash – lots of Liberty in fact. There were some quarter metres of sale designs (£8/m) from Fabrics Galore, some £1 scrap pieces from Alice Caroline and some further small pieces from Worn and Washed (who were a new-to-me supplier).
 

Other purchases (most of which were on my shopping list) were some Bosal R-form, Oakshott charm packs, Kaffe Fassett shot cotton scraps, a couple of reels of Aurifil, a bobbin ring, fine glue dispensers (for if I try glue basting when piecing) and a really sweet pair of Ernest Wright scissors.
 

My bargain of the trip had to be the first issue of Simply Moderne magazine as it came with a free pack of Aurifil thread (I think I was one of the last to get the offer as there were only five thread packs left). The magazine has some lovely photos for inspiration, but this issue has very few UK-specific features, so I’m not sure if I will be tempted to get future issues.

There were also a few freebies to be had – Fusible Warm Fleece and Steam-a-Seam from the Warm Company and a couple of mini charm packs from the Moda Bakeshop.
 

All in all, I enjoyed the workshops and lectures at this year's trip to Festival of Quilts and am pleased with the additions to my Liberty stash. By not taking photos of the quilts and not browsing all of the stands, I wonder if I feel guilty that I have not made the most of my trip, even though it probably would have resulted in me buying more fabric I don't really need.

Festival of Quilts seems very keen to put quilts into different categories – contemporary, modern, art, miniature, traditional, etc – and has made me think about what type of quilter I want to be. After some contemplating on the train home, I think I want to produce “useful” quilts; quilts that will be used and not ones to be admired from a distance accompanied by do not touch signs. At the moment I can't see myself spending many months trying to produce just one quilt to show standards and would rather use that time making several quilts that will be used and loved. With that in mind, it was serendipitous to come home to news that I have new great niece and will finally (after several great nephews) be able to use some of the girly colours in my stash.