Fay Maxwell Workshop

WoW!  What a brilliant day.  

Fay wowed us with her exuberant colours and examples of the different ways you can use the new textile you create.

Some of the examples from Fay's work.

We spent a wonderful day with Fay, learning about her method of creating new textiles using different fabric scraps by layering then in a fabric sandwich.  We learnt not to be 'picky' with colours and types of materials - all have their place.  In fact we have learnt that all materials have a use.

Once we had all made our material 'sandwiches' and chosen our top fabric we set about stitching the 'sandwich' together using wavy lines, spirals and squares (all will be revealed later).

Once you have filled your area of fabric with stitching - 

- the hard work began.  We cut between the stitching, through the layers of fabric to the backing.  Sounds simple, but after the first few lines  - well.  What kept us going was we knew how impressive the end result would be.

A pair of small sharp scissors are very important.

Then the fun began.  To create the lovely effect we washed, scrubbed and beat the fabric against a wall.  Great for all those pent up emotions.  Hard to believe but the result were wonderful.

We couldn't wait until we had completed the. whole piece of fabric.

Beginning to see all those lovely scraps hidden in the sandwich.

The result of a hard days work!

Most of us chose bright colours, but muted colours gave a different effect.

Here is a link to the video we made about making a bag:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xnM5m6BHBI&feature=youtu.b

Thanks Fay for a great day, and thanks Maddie for organising it.

For more information about this technique follow the link below

http://colouricious.com/homemade-craft-ideas-textile-art-techniques/textile-artists/fay-maxwell-embroidery/

In House Applique Workshop

Monday 15th February

Many thanks to Pam for  sharing her knowledge and expertise of turned edge applique today.  
Those of us who worked with Pam feel a lot more confident approaching applique and learnt about the wonders of Freezer Paper (as I found out it is not for use in the freezer).

 Pam showed us how to use the freezer paper with a heart shape and how to negotiate the difficult parts of the shape.

Then we moved onto leaves and flowers.

How to mark out leaf shapes with out using freezer paper.

Now we all need to do a lot more practicing.

Brenda brought in her beautiful baby quilt showing off blanket stitch applique. 

A Typical Monday Meeting

Just a view of what goes on at one of our meetings.  We do get on with quilting, but there is also lots of chat and most importantly, coffee and biscuits.

Getting on with our projects.

Shirley's quilt, finished and ready to raffle at our quilt show.

Two more shoe box shuffle quilts pieced and now layered.  It is lovely to see the variety of quilts.

Some of the different projects we are doing at the moment.  Hopefully all of them will be ready for our quilt show in April.

It is always exciting to see a completed quilt after watching it grow over the weeks.  This one has been many hours of work.