Gathered and Pleated Cushion

Caroline is my PA and she started with me in January and 

has got hooked on creating textiles!

She brought in this gathered , pleated cushion she had made

and everyone wanted to know how it was made.

So I said,"How about teaching it to the class?"

"Ok" she said and on Textile Thursday she did.

She did fantastic and you can see it was a very busy morning.
 She said she preferred doing her job though not mine!
I have asked her if she would teach it again in December
when I am away in India as everyone enjoyed it so much.

The main task is marking everything out before you

gather stitch it all up.

The gathering stitch is called Canadian Smocking.
See a great You Tube video how to do the smocked cushion
HERE

Thank You

Thank you to so much to my City and Guilds Students for presenting me with 

cards, a beautiful basket 

of flowers and an Amazon Gift Card.

It means alot.

Both groups went out to lunch and we had a lovely meal and caught up.

We all worked so hard on Creating Textiles,

Well done and Thank You!

Small Purses and Rotary Cutter Holders

Along with the small purses I showed how you

could make a quick rotary cutter or scissor holder.

Keeping scissors and rotary cutters safe in your bag is so 

important so having a nice holder is great. 

It often becomes a talking point too as they are all different.

Small Stitched Purses

Each week at Textile Tuesday and Thursday

I teach a new item or technique and these are some of the

completed purses by some of the students.

What I love is that everyone starts with the same pattern

and then because of the fabric and trimmings choice

they all turn out individual.

The pattern can be enlarged to any size.

Those that have just started, I show how easy it is to put a zip in.

Sylvia's purse (the top one) has a necklace brought from

a charity shop.

See how the purse was put together 

HERE

City and Guilds Creative Textiles

The above embroidered pictures are made by Bev as part of her

Level Two City and Guilds for Machine Embroidery in

Creative Textiles.

Nineteen Level Two students have passed with me this year.

So, Congratulations to them for a year of fun, hard work and

experimenting.

See more of the students work by visiting 

HERE

I teach City and Guilds Creative Textiles in 

Machine Embroidery and Patchwork and Quilting from Level One 

through to Degree.

Courses are available throughout the year, so if you are interested

please contact me.

I now teach the courses at The Old Art Room Swaffham

in my fully equipt Art Studio at The Art, Craft, Antiques and Cultural Centre

in Swaffham.

The centre was once the old Sixth Form College.

Kings Lynn Embroiderers Guild Exhibition 2013

The Kings Lynn Embroiderers Guild Exhibition this year 

was lucky enough to exhibit the Guild Members collection 

of Olympic Postcards. 

The postcards were on display at The Olympics and

they are now part of the Guilds permanent collection.

Each Guild Group was given a country and then members had to depict

it, in stitch within the postcard format.

There were so many it was hard to choose a favourite.

The Members work was diverse and individual as always.

I had submitted pieces for the table. 

A Lace Book, a Sketchbook exploring Metal Work Textiles

and a Contemporary Suffolk Puff and Embroidered Panel.

The cakes were delicious and sparkly, 

I just had to have one with my tea!

What an inspirational exhibition! 

Samphire Quilters Exhibition 2013

Samphire Quilters Exhibition is held in St Nicholas's Church in

Kings Lynn, every year and is always spectacular.

The amount of quilts and the standard is breathtaking and 

the special areas of interest. This year, 'Children's Corner'.

I think we all fell in love with Humpty Dumpty.

There is the Chairman's Challenge, Daphne and her daughter

with their amazing art work and embroidery. 

Sian's Fabric and The Members Sales Table.

There are several raffles and Jo was buying a ticket 

for The Osteoporosis Quilt, a worthy cause.

To see more about Samphire Quilters and their exhibitions

click HERE

Pink Stripped and Stitched Background Fabric

As you may know I like to encourage recycling and trying new techniques.

Sue wanted to try one of the stripped pieced background techniques.

She had brought some of her own scraps and then

 delved into the big scrap jar I have in the studio.

Sue also wanted to try one of the studio 607 Janome sewing machines

to see whether she would like to buy one.

She was going to put it through its paces by trying as many of

the embroidery stitches as she could.

As you can see above it looks fantastic and it is

going to be made into a book cover.

Well done Sue.

I think I see a new machine on the horizon!

See more backgrounds by clicking the written labels below.

Bags and an Owl

Bags are always popular and so are Owls at the moment.

This Owl was made by Sylvia 

and came as a kit on the front of a Magazine.

See more bags and Owls by clicking the written labels below.

Little Plum Purse

Each week at Textile Classes I show an inspirational project 

so that there is always something to make and techniques

to try.

This is a small purse, based on a Pride and Prejudice Bag, I saw

in a printed fashion plate illustration.

I break the design down into simple patterns and instructions.

Everyone was excited and there were lots of purses made

 in various materials.

I will show you the results shortly.

Hexagon Pincushion

Eileen made the purple hexagon pincushion and

brought it to class. It was plain with no embroidery on it.

She asked our opinion and we all agreed it need some stitch detail.

It became a real discussion point what embellishment to put on it.

It was decided it needed embroidery and so above you can see the results.

It looked great and won 1st Prize in a local show in the pincushion section.

Well done Eileen.

In Stitches Blickling Hall Exhibition

Stewart and I had a Saturday off and went off to 

The In Stitches Exhibition at Blickling Hall.

We love going there and enjoy the journey, the exhibition 

the gardens and the pub lunch!

An all round day.

We did the 5 mile walk this time.

The work was outstanding as usual, hundreds of pieces of work 

made by just seven Norwich Textile Artists.

Pat Burkes was as inviting as ever and I got them to have a photo.

See Julie Smith's website of

exquisite embroidery.

HERE

Visit Blickling Hall website

HERE