June round-up

A busy month filled with lots of good intentions to post, so this is really a case of better late than never.  At the start of the month I packed The Tank and went down to The Bramble Patch to teach the follow-on to my Essentials of Hand Quilting class.  This follow-on class is something I have neatly avoided doing for the past 20 years – despite many requests, I always felt that, when it came to the crunch, there would be insufficient demand to make it viable.  Amazing the places your mind can take you!  It was a great day and we had a lot of fun, too busy to remember to take pictures during class – but I did take a couple of shots of the newly-extended premises, which are packed with excellent quilty stuff

This pilot version of “Essentials of Hand Quilting – Part II” went so well that I have been persuaded to put it on my official workshop list for future bookings.  Sally White over at Threads & Patches has already picked it up and put it on their class schedule for September, and that’s before I teach the first class there next week …  And a Thank You to Jan, who signed up for the Essentials Part II class and brought along just a few of the lovely things she had made ( based on the “The Essential Quilter Project Book” ) since she took the first class last year.

A small non-quilting diversion at the beginning of the month – a terrific concert in Cork and a warm weekend strolling around the city

Back home there was lots of that familiar packing and unpacking to do.  A selection of Tentmaker hangings  taken down to Denman College to adorn the main staircase until August,

a visit first to Mead Quilters and then Lutterworth Piecemakers to give talks on Tentmaker applique followed by a workshop.  We managed to bring a little Eastern atmosphere to the lovely hall the Lutterworth group use for their meetings -

I promised to keep identities secret, but here are some busy hands hard at work during the workshop

Packing and unpacking for a Chris and Barbara class – it may be “local” but the volume of stuff that needs to be taken isn’t any less.

Still carrying around the Jubilee version of a Whigs Defeat block that is now reasonably close to a finish – or closer than it was anyway

Just as an aside, it’s been really fascinating seeing how much interest there is in this block – lots and lots of “Whigs Defeat” searches showing up on the stats pages.  The pattern I am using is an adaptation of one I found online, designed by Cate Tallman-Evans in Quilters World magazine, January 2008.  There’s a growing feeling that I should add a handpiecing class, featuring this block,  to my list  … Hmmm.

This last week I needed to send pictures to accompany requirements lists for next year’s  classes so I thought I’d finish up with a couple of those, just to remind myself that hand quilting is my main focus … you’ve probably seen the Celebrate Hand Quilting buttons on various blogs - all very well worth investigating, I haven’t got around to joining up yet!

Two more classes on hand quilting will finish off this week and then it will be July – how did that happen?  Time to start thinking about Festival of Quilts ….

happy stitching!

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