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Well I'm really getting ahead of myself this year!! Most years I sew a little something to add to my collection of homemade Christmas decorations, but this is usually a last minute affair when there's less than a week to go!
I've recently seen two lovely tree decorations that take my fancy especially as they both involve a folded circle and I have tried them out already - Angels and Squares
I used a circle 4" across to make mine but this does make the squares a bit teeny at only 2", so possibly a 5" or 6" circle would be better (depending what you have handy to draw around).
I cut two contrasting squares of fabric ½" larger than my circle (the corners of the square give you something to hang onto while you're sewing) and marked one of them on the back using my circle template - a small bowl. When you mark fabric with a pen or pencil it's helpful to lay it on a piece of fine sandpaper to stop it moving about.
I put the two fabrics right sides together and sewed by machine on the marked line, starting and stopping with a back stitch to secure, and leaving a gap through which to turn the circle the right way out. Curves like this are easier to sew if you use a small length stitch.
I trimmed off the excess at the corners and turned the circle the right way out, giving it a bit of a press. Then sewed up the opening.
With the circle you can make either an Angel with this link from Selimut-ku
(For my angel's wings I used a heart cut from cheap 2oz polyester wadding which I had ironed between two sheets of paper to make it stiff and thin)
or a folded decoration with this link from Katrina's Tutorials - do have a look, Katrina's are so pretty.
Both of these are really quick and simple to make and might be ideal for Christmas craft stall sales.
Happy Sewing - Anita x
I so enjoyed entering two of my quilts - Scrap Quilt and Large Quilt, in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. The reason? I got to visit so many different blogs that I wouldn't have otherwise discovered. In fact I have spent many, many hours reading interesting quilt blogs and not had the time to write my own!! Bloggers are so generous with their methods and tutorials - my head is spinning. Thank you to everyone who left me lovely comments about my quilts.
October is the start of a new quilting year for Flowerpatch Quilters and begins with our AGM. We gave ourselves a big pat on the back for another successful exhibition in August and for raising £2,500 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association with our quilt raffle and stalls, etc. Karen Lang came to the meeting to accept the cheque and gave a very informative talk about MND and the Association, for whom she has raised funds in the past. Here is a link to our picture in the local paper
AGM matters were dealt with swiftly and then Suzi Argent told us about her new venture - Ashmead Designs. She has developed a new method for doing English Paper Piecing using her pre-cut templates (called Hexiforms) that don't have to be removed after sewing and before quilting, as you do with the paper ones. A brilliant idea! It made me think about the foundation pieced hexagons that I have done as I can see that I'll have a tedious time removing the papers from them.
Suzi had brought along lots of different shapes of Hexiforms, some delightful kits to make Christmas decorations and examples of some of the English Paper Piecing that she has done.
Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule, Suzi, to pay us a visit.
Dy V showed us the progress that has been made with our entry for the Cowslip Workshops "Through the Window" exhibition in June next year. So good to get things started nice and early and Dy has a small team of ladies to help her.
Monica B is organising the making of the charity quilt this year and has a beautiful design in Autumn colours including apples, pears and grapes. Members collected packs to make up parts of the design and I think there are still some packs left over which will be available at the 10th November meeting. Subs are due at this meeting and remain at £15 per year.
We are delighted to be welcoming Louise Nichols in November to give a Talk about her designing, sewing and fabric printing experiences. Not to be missed.
Happy Stitching - Anita x
PS Cartwheel Crafts Centre have their Christmas Craft Fair on 5th and 6th November.
