Jessie Chorley Workshop May 2017

Following the workshop last year making journals, we were all intrigued by Jessie's quirky embroidered pictures.  

She has revisited us to share her techniques and give us a helping hand.

Jessie Chorely

Taking in all the wonderful pieces of embroidery Jessie is showing us.

Jessie's workshop explored the following three techniques - Embroidery, collage and applique. 

These three techniques are what Jessie uses daily when creating her own work

 Using items that she has collected saved and cherished is a very large part of her making progress and also her inspiration as a maker.

Using found and collected items as a starting point and giving them a new beginning is always a strong if not the starting point to all of her work.

Jessie uses couching stitch, running and seed stitch.

Jessie incorporates found objects and her own printed fabric.

To start our day we chose our centre piece from a range of printed fabric provided by Jessie.

We had all brought our favourite pieces of material and found objects to incorporate in our work.

 Then we got down to sewing.

Some of us started by outlining our embroidery using couching stitch.

Others of us started by adding found objects and used fabric in a collage around the pattern.

 You could tell who were the embroiderers were in our group as the raced ahead of the rest of us.

Unfortunately the day sped away.  We shared how far we had progressed.  It was interesting how the choices of materials reflected what people were wearing.

Jessie has a shop in London and is having a Summer Exhibition and Open Day of August 12th 2017.

Ardingly 2017

Let me wish everyone a Happy New Year.

We have been back to  Monday mornings for a while now and new quilts are making their presence known, some to look forward to in our next Quilt Show.  We were sad to say goodbye to one of our members and wish her well in her new home.  It was also great to see Viv, making use of the space to lay out a vibrant quilt. 

Several of members got their first fix of quilt shows at Ardingly.  We met up with some old members (Dawn) who didn't disappoint when she showed us her many material purchases.  I hope she left something on the stall.  Looking forward to Monday to find out what purchases everyone made.

The quilt displays were interesting and here is a flavour of quilts we saw.

Sashiko Quilts

Would like to try this!

One for Pam.

How much work are in these quilts. Amazing.

One for Dorothy.

There were several quilts with a poem theme.

Magpies -'One for Sorrow, two for joy..'

' I must fo down to the sea again..'

Must try 'Four and twenty Blackbirds'

Looking forward to the next show.

Carolyn Forster - Perkiomen Valley Quilts

The quilting group had another successful day with Carolyn Forster. 

Her workshops are always inspiring and this one took us through the many ways of arranging light/ dark squares and half square triangles to make 9 patch blocks used in Perkiomen Valley quilts.

 Carolyn had several beautiful examples to show us and we had a fun day cutting, sewing, chatting and laughing. 

Thank you Carolyn.

Lynda was so inspired that she has managed to finish her quilt top and shared it with the rest of us on Monday.

Finally, we would like to welcome two new members to our group:  

Gill Smith and Marian Tibbo.

Sandown Quilt Show 2016

Twelve of our group went for their annual Sandown Quilt Show fix.  The weather was a bit dull but the variety and colour of the patchwork materials shone.

I think we all managed to get something for our stashes but didn't go too mad.

The exhibition quilts gave us a lot of ideas.

This Irish Chain was made completely from scraps and on closer inspection had a simple way of creating the pattern.  (One idea to keep for all those scraps of fabric)

An idea for that roll of Kaffe Fassett shot cotton fabric fq's!