The workshops listed below are designed to give stress-free days of patchworking pleasure . These are the current workshops  and if you don’t see anything you like, (or have done them all!),  details of previous workshops can be sent on request. I particularly enjoy working with new quilters and also enjoy being able to stretch the intermediate student. Workshop days are non-pressured after all we have come to enjoy ourselves!

All workshops are from 10am to 4pm and I will take up to  a maximum of 15 students (12 preferred). I like to be able to give everyone a lot of attention and I can not do that if there are too many.  
  

Exploding Squares  

A variation on a Square within a Square  
Very easy and quick to make
A rotary cutter and machine
workshop            

Pioneer Braids 

A classic plait pattern with a slightly Amish feel to it. This sample shows glowing colours set off by a black border. A great way to use up your left over strips.                      

Have a Heart  Classic patchwork with a pretty heart shape. Bond-a-web applique and foundation piecing gives you a chance to try out different skills.  A workshop that you can make your own by mixing or matching techniques.

Chop Suey - what if?  Variations on a theme

Take two fat quarters and make two different style triangles. Then see how many variations you can get by twisting and turning these in all directions. So many possibilities to make so  many quilts. A rotary cutter/machine class. A good one to bring your digital camera to so that you can capture all the variations. The quilt pictured here is just one of the larger variations.


 

 

 
  

FABRIC POSTCARDS Try your hand at the latest rage in quilting – quilted or fabric postcards.  During the day we are going to make a number of 6” x 4” quilted fabric postcards.  There will be a selection of patterns available from the traditional to the quilt art style. Have fun with these mini items and decorate and embellish to your hearts content. When you’ve finished you can actually post them to a friend if you can bear to part with them!  A small kit will be available with the basic card and wadding.

TRAD JAZZ

The "Trad Jazz" style of quilt is one that I have made my own. It is based on the traditional stained glass patchwork but you only use patterned fabric.  The patterns are designed to inter lock and by twisting and turning them you can get a range of patterns. See the altar frontal at Gillingham in the Gallery to see a larger design. In the series there are Art Deco, Pink Pizazz and Florentine patterns.

This is the original pattern and I found it many years ago in an Australian magazine. The piece I saw was by Rosalee Duffield and it has been my inspiration. 

ART DECO  This design was created for Patchwork and Quilting magazine and first published in 2000. I originally designed this as a landscape piece of work but the magazine printed it portrait and thus it has stayed. the fabrics in this quilt came mainly from my trip to America and a spending spree in the quilt shops of Maine.

FLORENTINE was created for the Quilting Web, internet patchwork magazine, and was published in April 2007. This is a slight departure from the other designs in so much as it only has five segments to each block. The photograph does not do it justice as the colours were a bit more subtle than they look!  

PINK PIZAZZ.  I had been playing with this design for a while and then went on a Professional Development weekend in Bristol and had to take a challenge piece with me. I used this design to make the 24" square and added more blocks to make it into a longer runner which was exhibited at the NEC in 2006.

Machine Quilting for the Nervous and the Novice If you always wanted to machine quilt your work but were nervous of how to begin then this is your chance to make a sure start.  Learn how to make your machine work for you with a “walking foot” and more importantly, how to free machine quilt.  With the “no mark” quilting method you can create patterns on your quilts by the end of the day that will amaze you and give you the confidence to carry on to quilt those quilts. 

 

Roman Spirals This spiral is one of the "roman" themed workshops resulting from my holidays in Italy and Rome in particular. The spiral is a design common to so many artifacts of the roman empire. This is a reverse applique workshop.  The picture to the left is a piece in the planning for a course I taught at The Spanish Experience in 2007.  The pieces were laid out several times until I got a pattern I liked. The final quilt can be seen on the gallery page.

Mid-Summer Blues This workshop is one of my favourite styles as I like a technique whereby you make one shape, add a few strips of fabric, then chop it all up again!  This one was never destined to get this big, it is almost a double bed size, but I found making the blocks so easy that I just kept going. Suddenly I found I had made a big quilt. Well big for me that is. It has been a popular workshop and looks lovely in all sorts of colours.  It has recently been on display at Radstock Museum, Somerset, as part of the MidSomer Quilting exhibition. (detail)