Needle Felting Project with Perle Cotton

By strange coincidence with the previous post, which shows a customer's small ringbinder with floral embroidered decoration, I was working on a felted project of a flower over the Bank Holiday weekend too.

Here are a some photos of the work in progress. I wanted to try out the new Presencia Perle Cotton (No 8) threads that we got in just before Malvern and with a few felted pieces from Oliver Twists and other bits I had in my stash I drew two petal templates and before you knew it was placing my felt petals in position on the Felting Mat!

The next stage was to use the Clover Pen Style Felting Needle Tool to secure them to the base fabric. Punching through the edges of the felted pieces secured them sufficiently for me to then blanket stitch them in place. Using the Felting Mat gives a stable base, protects the needles and stops your worksurface from becoming a pin cushion.

The back of the fabric then looked like this...

Using the Perle Cotton thread I then blanket stitched around each of the petals in a variety of solid and variegated threads.

The next stage was to use the Oliver Twists Silk Strata Pack - the Sunset colourway for this project to add texture to each of the petals and provide

more interest in the centre.

More photos to follow...

Ringbinder Creativity

Needing a bit of inspiration? Or do you have boxes of beads or skeins of embroidery just waiting for a home? Maybe you're not an embroiderer and are happy to just work with fabric...whatever category you fall into, here is a great example of what can be done with the Small Ringbinder (Ref 9576). Creativity unleashed!

Georgina said ...

"Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the ring binder kit I bought at Malvern. Got one for my DIL's b'day and thought I'd better get one to check it worked okay. I used up a bit of embroidery I have had hanging around waiting for a home for 10 years!I had such fun and can't wait until payday so I can order more kits!!!

For a bigger picture you can view it the pic on Flickr!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/35769193@N02/3554475796/

Electric Quilt Workshops from Barbara Chainey

If you've ever thought that you're not making the most of EQ6 or you want to get started with Electric Quilt as a beginner then this is the class from you. Well-known quilt teachers Chris Franses and Barbara Chainey have teamed up to bring you a hands on class using "their favourite quilt design program" EQ6 - their words not ours!

From blocks.....

to quilts!

All this creativity will be happening in Stone, Staffordshire which is easily accessible from the M6 and A34 - just one hour from Birmingham, Manchester, Chester, Shrewsbury, Worcester and Leicester.

The workshop is on Saturday 12th September 2009 and will run from 10am to 4pm. Places are limited to 12 students and the cost is a bargain at £40 - just think about how much fun you'll have designing quilts, playing with colour and enjoying their famous chocolate biscuits throughout the day!

Further details and for how to book - visit their website - http://www.chrisandbarbara.co.uk/

Kirstie Allsopp's Homemade Home - Kaffe Fassett and Quilting

Last Friday all the talk at The Cotton Patch was about Kaffe Fassett on Kirstie Allsopp's programme Homemade Home - Kirstie, having moved on from Location, Location, Location with Phil has turned her hand to rennovating an absolute wreck of a cottage in Cornwall. Her focus has been on using local crafts people and materials to furnish it and recycle where possible. All good!

Yesterday featured an old patchwork quilt (red and green - any thoughts on a date?) that Kirstie bought in a textiles antique shop and she also made a quilt with Cowslip Workshops. Its great to see so many crafts being showcased on the programme and although not everyone will appreciate Kirstie's style we think she's doing a great job!

So if you're new to quilting we hope you find our site and blog useful - but beware - it can be addictive!

Bag Envy

Have you ever seen a friend's bag and thought "I'd like a bag just like that". Well this has happened to me on many occasions but today I was happily in bag heaven (or its earthly equivalent) when I had to forcibly remove my bag from the shoulder of someone else at The Cotton Patch who had taken rather a shine to it.

Not that my bag will appeal to everyone of course but its kinda funky and quirky and that's the kind of bag that works for me. We saw the fabric by Echino at a show in February and could not resist it (the fabric is on our website with other fabrics by Echino as well as some embellishing tape, some of the fabrics are even more quirky and funky!). The fabric is great for bags being a linen/cotton mix. The pattern is the Swing Bag by Amy Butler which if you've never made a bag before is a great starting point - its not that difficult and in total took 3 hours to make (including a substantial amount of checking it looked good in a mirror and taking some photos so really about 2.5 hours)

To give it stability I used Duck Cloth 10oz which is what Amy recommends in her pattern.

The green fabrics has a design that runs from selvedge to selvedge so it would also make a great blind. Watch out for these fabrics on our website soon!

So a great project for an evening when you can't get in the garden due to torrential rain :-) and its reversible too!

Z44 - Enorme!

One of our customers in France recently bought the Grace Z44 quilting frame and has posted the photos on her blog. Its great to see the frame all set up and ready to quilt a King Size quilt.



Here's the link - Les Ouvrages de Nat - Nat's Works!

If you need the English translation there is a button you can press but these translation tools have their limitations, particularly its seems, where the words that quilters would use don't quite translate seamlessly (if you'll pardon the pun) from French into English!

It looks like a great blog - and what a view from the window for quilting in front of.

Comfort Quilts Scotland

Many quilters are familiar with Project Linus, whose aim is to provide a sense of security and comfort to sick and traumatised babies, children and teenagers through the provision of new home made patchwork quilts and knitted / crocheted blankets. It also is positive outlet for all that creativity that quilters, knitters and crocheters (how do you spell it!?) have that needs a purpose once all the bed space and wall space has been used up.

Well a group in Scotland wanted to do something similar but for adults as well as children and also to tap into various funds that are available. As a result Comfort Quilts Scotland was born. As Rhona, current Chair explains, "Comfort Quilts was born officially July 2007, with just 12 members. Our aims are to give children and adults a hug through the medium of quilts - sick, disabled, traumatised, wherever the thought that someone else does care might just give a glimmer of hope, and raise the spirits a little. Our secondary aim is to spread the word about quilting - on our quilt days we encourage folk to come along and have a go, and our lottery funding meant we could buy workshop machines for folk to try sewing, and get quick results. Our unofficial aim is also to have fun while doing the above, so that we don't take ourselves too seriously!"

"We have delivered over 200 quilts and blankets to date, and have average membership of 45 last year and this. Not all are stitchers, and we just ask everyone to give of their time and talents, not just stitching, as it takes all kinds of skills to keep a group thriving.
Most members are in the Central Belt in Scotland, but we do have members in Aberdeen and Bath, and supporters in Puerto Rico and Canada!

We don't expect distant members to send quilts to Scotland - we ask that they donate locally to save on postage, and we will try to support local hospices to our members, especially if we are made aware of a need. One recent need that we managed to fill was for adult quilts for a more distant cancer hospice, based in a hospital. Having quilts on the beds made it more homely, and the patients were happier after the quilts were placed out on the beds."

If you're interested in finding out more, particularly if you live in Scotland then I'm sure Rhona would be delighted to hear from you. Just visit Comfort Quilts to find out more.

The Sunday Express did a feature on the group and you can view the article here or on the

Comfort Quilts website.

Photographs by Graeme Hunter of the Sunday Express Newspaper