Folded Cathedral Window

Folded Catedral Window Patchwork and Quilting is always nice to

see as you respect the amount of folding and precision involved.

Jenny and Marion gave us a Demo of how to do it.

They made it look easy!

Here is a video that shows you how to do

Cathedral window on the sewing machine.

Clever once you have worked it out.

Show and Tell Bags

Weeting Quilt Group

On the first Monday of most months Weeting Quilt Group meet at Weeting Village Hall from 11.30am until 3.30pm. It's a really friendly group and lots of quilting, chatting and sharing of skills goes on.
Here is one half of the group listening to Chris give out the notices and start the 'Show and Tell'.

Quilters Cottage Garden

The last two weekends Stewart and I have been in the garden

working hard. We tend to start at the top of our, three quarters of

an acre garden away from the house! and work towards it.

The walk gets shorter but we still have to water some plants/seeds

at the end of the day.

We have started replacing some of the raised beds which

have made dividing the garden into manageable areas

and maintaining vegetable growing easier.

The raised beds need replacing every now and then.

As you can see, these ones we have just put

in The Secret Garden

are quite solid ones this time.

At 2" thick and 8" high.

All painted with plant friendly paint.

We have replanted strawberries, lettuces, herbs and leeks.

Planted seeds and sets of,

Peas,

Runner Beans,

two different types of....

Beetroot,

Lettuce,

Raddish,

Spring Onions,

Potatoes

and

three different types of Onion Sets.

Why the different varities?

We like them not only for flavour but they crop

at different times.

We will plant seeds again in a couple of weeks time in pots,

so we get a continual supply.

We are surrounded by fields and live opposite a Fen land so

everthing in the garden has to be protected from wild animals!

such as Roe and Munc Jack Deer, rabbits, hares, several

different types of birds and of course the usual bugs!

We try natural persuasion with netting,

complimentary bedding plants and perseverance,

so we all get to share nature!

We just love going into the garden and picking

our own food.

The main flower garden which we renovated last year got a

weeding and a mulching of two tons of wood chip,

yes! all man handled by Stewart and myself around all the

flowers and bushes. It saves time in the long run, I don't have

to weed so much!!!

We also delivered a ton of wood chip to Mum's Garden and

did her flower beds too!

We now ache!!!!

See more of of our garden on

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Embellished Flowers

In the afternoon I got to play with the papers

I had made in the morning.

I cut two lots of the postcard sized ones into 1cm

strips and then stuck them onto a piece of lace.

Then, it was lots of free motion machining.

I gathered it all up and then beaded!

I had a wonderful time!

I think it was also because it was a lovely

sunny afternoon and I was able to sit and stitch!

It also reminded me of being a child and

making paper flowers, sticking and stitching

anything together

for presents for my Mum.

I have made varying paper flowers over the years

using similar techniques.

More inspiration can be found with

work by a textile artist, Jill Flower,

You can visit her website at

www.jillflower.co.uk

You may also like these flowers with buttons as centres.

You can also do this technique with any colour paper and

ink stamp the edges, make a hole in the middle and put a

brad through it to hold the petals in place.

Scrunch and arrange as before.

Stamping Background Papers

On Wednesday I went along to the Gallery as a student

for the Cardmaking class with Kim.

This week, we were learning how to make background papers

for our cards and other projects.

Above, you can see just a small selection of the inks, chalks and stamps

we had to choose from.

Kim is such a good tutor, she showed us postcard sized

backgrounds of her own and told us how they were made.

We then were let loose with our blank postcards

and you can see the backgrounds I came up with.

I knew I would be using the papers in the afternoon

so chose a similar colour palette

except for two!

See more cardmaking and collage on my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Stained Glass Patchwork

Just look at the colours in Carol's

Stained Glass Window Patchwork Wall Hanging!

WOW!

Carol has had real patience with this piece.

We've all given her encouragement at different times.

The binding between is less than a quarter of an inch wide

and is sewn either side of it to keep the pieces in place,

almost like applied applique.

Here, we were seeing what colour border to put on and

how many black strip borders to add.

Well done Carol!

Alpaca Inspiration

Nikki's family owns an Alpaca Farm and has many quilts

her Mum made from the woven alpaca wool.

She is making a waistcoat out of the wonderful fabric.

To visit the farm and find out about Alpaca's and their

history visit

www.azsualpacas.co.uk

or visit the Barn Shop

www.alpacabarn.co.uk

Crazy Patchwork Cushion

Brenda enjoys Tuesday afternoon creating work that

she doesn't normally have time to do.

She's making herself some crazywork patchwork cushions.

Here is the top being stitched with embroidery and beading.

See more cushions and crazywork patchwork on

my website

www.art2inspire.co.uk

Mixed Media Trees

Pat is adding the texture to the background fabric, so her trees

become 'grounded',

(see earlier posts by clicking label below, textile trees).

She is sewing on threads and snippets in a circular motion

so there is movement in the piece.

The trees have just been pinned on at this point.

To see where to go next and how much depth

Pat needed to add, I got her to masking tape

the wall hanging to the wall and

then stand at the other end of the room.

Pat, could see, it needed deeper colour stitching, more

circles and where they needed to go.

As you walk nearer the piece you can pick up the details

and richness already there.

Pat worked on it all morning, many more hours to add

but this piece is becoming an outstanding one!

Well done Pat!

I will grab it for it's finish photo soon!!!

See more of what happens @ The Gallery

www.thegallerydereham.co.uk

Gallery Tuesday 5th April 2011

As you probably know by now Gallery Tuesdays

@The Gallery Dereham is always busy and creative.

There are many different projects in process.

Barbara has nearly finished her Cherry Wall Hanging.

This week it was machine quilting and making bias binding.

Now it's sewing the bias on the back, some

hand quilting round the cherries and the leaves,

label and hanging sleeve.

I think it is a really lovely wallhanging.

I say it again " made out of scraps!".

Well done Barbara!

See more Cherry quilts and quilting on my website

by clicking the Cherry image on the right.

Diana's Dresses

Mrs Peggy Umpelby had lots of samples but the ones which were

the most intricate were those on Diana's dresses.

Peggy often made up several samples for the designers and Diana

for them to chose their favourite.

The top sample is from one of her famous State Occasion dresses,

the sample was magnificent, no wonder this became one of

Diana's favourites.

These lower samples were from the 'Elvis' dress as it was called

because of it's raised 'Elvis' type collar.

designed by Catherine Walker and beaded by Peggy

and her team at S.Lock Ltd.

The dress was beaded with thousands of varying sized pearl beads.

The right hand sample is beaded in a quilting/embroidery pattern called

'vermicelli'.

The border which was the hem of the dress has three lines of

bugle beads which is then wrapped stitched with crystal beads.

A lovely way to finish a piece, a technique I think I

would like to use in the future.

See the fantastic You tube video of Diana's dresses.

Wedding Dresses

Peggy still works for Fashion Houses,

beading from her own home in Norfolk,

although she told us she had really retired!

It was very apt with Prince William and Kate's wedding this month

Peggy showed us some wedding dress samples and pictures.

This is a section sample of a recent wedding dress.

the layering of the beads to form flowers are beautiful.

Peggy's Husband sources all her beads and motifs for her from

around the world. Often taking days to find the right ones.

click

Creative Beads for a supplier they use.

Peggy beaded Princess Diana's wedding veil

using over 10,000 3mm pearl sequins.

See this really good article about the dress which mentions Peggy here

www.trindadad.com

View this amazing video to see how some tambour beading is done.

Queen's Dressmaker

Mrs Peggy Umpelby has been beading The Queen's dresses

for over forty years. Mrs Peggy explained that the dresses

come in pieces or lenghts of fabric which then have to

be beaded. It is Peggy's skill at where to bead the beaded design

so that the shape and form of the body and design will look their best.

Tambour Beading is always worked on the reverse of the fabric.

The beader doesn't see the front as they work

often feeling the design as they go.

Peggy explained that it is easier on the sheer fabrics to see! the design

and that a 'pounced' pattern is often put on the

heavier fabric such as taffeta

so it can be followedThe sleeve section above and includes cutwork.

It is one of a pair which replace ones on one of

The Queen's favourite dresses.

See Hardy Amies Royal Exhibition

(use the scroll button on the right of the wedding dress photo on Amies

site to read the information)

and then watch the video which includes some of

Mrs Peggy's work

click

www.hardyamies.com

Royal Dress Maker

On Wednesday evening I went to my local Embroidery Guild meeting.

Mrs Peggy Umpelby talked, shared and showed us some of

her amazing tambour beaded samples and work.

She has been part of the royal dressmaking team for over forty years

and has a personal Royal Warrant for her work.

"Mrs Peggy" as she is known by many works with designers such as

The Emanual's, Hardy Amies and Catherine Walker

to mention a few, producing amazing beaded creations,

which many of us have seen

in press photographs.

Mrs. Peggy uses a tambour needle which looks as fine and is as

sharp as a fish hook.

Mrs Peggy demonstrated her technique on a piece of lace

( a sample left over from Diana's dress!)

with 4mm Pearl sequins!!!

She told us about her favourite pieces and some of the

stories behind them.

We were able to touch and admire her beading close up,

Beautiful!

See more photographs in The Queen's Dressmaker

Visit our Guild website for more information

www.kingslynnembguild.wordpress.com

Watch this amazing video for an insight to the work.