The 'ayes' have it!

In my last post, I asked whether I should unpick the letters on my 'Learning at Work Day' quilt or just hope the puckers would quilt out. Well, everyone I heard from or spoke to said they thought they would quilt out. Tonya gave excellent advice (as usual) to say that if it was going to need to be flat (ie. in a wall hanging) then it would be best to unpick them (would be best to unpick the whole thing, actually!), but as it was going to be a child's quilt, the more snuggle, the better! Thanks for that Tonya and everyone else who was so encouraging about the quilt.

Actaully, I have a confession. Despite all this good advice, some of the letters were so awful that I unpicked the worst couple, recut and reapplied them. I found that if I starched them and the backing, it made the whole thing much more stable. Mind you, unpicking satin stitch isn't something I wanted to do more of, and I'm sure the finished product will be appreciated by both creators and recipient!

Zigzag heaven or hell?

I have been sewing the minibeasts onto the Learning at Work Day quilt, and it hasn't been all plain sailing. I'm more of a needleturn girl myself, but didn't feel that I wanted to needleturn minibeasts of others' making for a Linus quilt!

On the plus side, it has been a quick and easy way to fix the beasts to the background.

It's also been a good opportunity for fun with all the variegated threads I have succumbed to buying, and then never used.

On the minus side, the fabrics have frayed a bit, and there are lots of threads to cut off (although they make the legs of some beasts look authentically hairy!).

But the biggest problem has been thread tension. The fabric I used for the sky wasn't particularly good quality - it was the biggest piece of blue I could find at the time, and I wish I had sewed some better quality pieces together instead. Even though I used Vilene at the back to stabilise it, the letters in particular are quite puckered. I reduced my thread tension and increased my stictch length for the rest of the applique, which has made it much better.

You can see the problem here, although it looks better in this picture than it looks in actuality.

The question is, do I unpick the letters and resew them, or just keep my fingers crossed that it will 'quilt out'? Your opinion please.

Group quilt

I was quite nervous about how many people would be able to come to the 'Learning at Work' workshop yesterday, and how they would get on, but I didn't need to have worried, as it all went off very well. About a dozen people came altogether, popping in and out as their work schedule allowed and although they were mainly non-sewers, they quickly set to work, and have produced a fantastic quilt!

I decided the theme would be Minibeasts, as this is a science topic taught in schools. I prepared the background and selected fabrics of all colours from my stash. I devised instructions for 4 different groups, and make sure there were at least 2 people in any group at one time.

The groups were 1. Letters.

Chris and Louise needed the security of outlining the letters before they cut, and they remembered to reverse them!

2. Flying minibeasts (butterflies, bees, wasps etc). Sarah is finishing her lunch, while Sue (who could only stay for 20 minutes but made 3 fantastic figures - one of which looked rather like a flying chicken, but who cares!) is busy cutting a body for her butterfly.

3. Crawling minibeasts (snails, ladybirds, spiders). Jo made the most beautiful snail with a carefully cut spiral shell while her partner concentrated on a big, fat, purple slug!

4. Leaves and stems. Dilys and Jane had different viewpoints - Dilys is a traditionalist, who liked her wood brown and leaves green (mainly) while Jane happily cut into multi-coloured Kaffe Fasset fabric to make her plants. It's all good!

This is an example of a multi-disciplinary consultation meeting, as important minibeast placement decisions are made!

The workshop was fun, and since it took place over lunchtime, made very little difference to peoples work output that day. It allowed people to relax, do somehting different and meet people from other offices who they might not have had the opportunity to speak to before. Now all I have to do is sew the pieces down. Zigzag heaven!

Learning at work day group quilt

It's 'Learning at Work Month' at the moment and guess who's volunteered to run a workshop tomorrow? I was recently inspired by Roberta Horton's book 'Scrap Quilts', where (among other things inspirational) she shows photos of group quilts which she facilitated, one of which was made by the passengers on a tour bus! If they can make a quilt, I'm sure my work colleagues can!

Since we're an educational establishment, I've chosen the theme of 'minibeasts' - that's bugs to all you on the other side of the pond! I've made the background already.

It's supposed to be the sky, the grass and the soil, so the different types of minibeasts, flying, crawling or burrowing can have their place.

I have lots of fabric scraps ready to go, in every colour I can imagine might be needed.

Iron and ironing board, scissors, pins and of course a bag to put the waste scraps in for recycling are ready too. I have only to add my camera, some scrap paper (in case anyone needs to make a pattern), and the instructions for each group, and we're good to go!

Incidentally, congratulations to my American readers on having chosen a new president so wisely! I'm sure Barack Obama is the right man for the job and I look forward to great things from him.

Learning at work day 2

Learning at Work Day was yesterday, and the patchwork went very well. I held it over lunchtime, so that people would be able to eat, sew and gossip at the same time, which was much appreciated. There were 8 people who came at various times, but several people came in to see what we were doing, so I was quite pleased.





The sewing-onto-Vilene method worked very well, and enabled all the people to be successful and complete a block or two. It was heart-warming to see the sense of satisfaction and pride on the faces of these professional ladies, as they completed their first block. Two people didn't have time to finish a block, so have taken fabric to complete the block at home.

All agreed that it was both relaxing and satisfying (we all knew that already!) and said it would be nice to do it again one day.

I now have 16 blocks, with 2 more to come, so have been playing with arrangements. I can easily make more blocks to make enough for a Linus quilt. What about this radiating diamond?

Individual diamonds like this will be easier to extend, I suppose.

Flying geese look quite good.

This attempt at a pinwheel hasn't worked at all!

Let me know which arrangement you like the best and as soon as I get the extra blocks, I'll make it up.

Learning at Work Day

Apparently it will be 'Learning at Work Day' on 22nd May, and my workplace has decided to mark it by holding some informal workshops. So far, there is German Conversation, Croquet, Belly Dancing, a rounders match (upstairs v. downstairs - could be very exciting!) and patchwork. I bet you can guess who has been volunteered to do the patchwork!

I'm happy to do it, but since it will be over lunchtime (people can drop in and sew for a while anytime between 12 and 2, depending on their work schedule) worried about what can realistically be achieved?

I decided that since I am a teacher, and all the people at my workplace deal with children, a children's charity quilt might be a good place to start. I wanted something which would be easy to hand sew, and not be hexagons!

My solution is to do some string blocks in pink, so that there will be a uniformity to them. I wanted to do multicoloured blocks, but thought that people new to patchwork might find it easier to stick to one colour at a time.

I have cut some squares of lightweight Vilene and marked the diagonal on them.

Then I cut lots of pink scraps into strips. The idea is that you lay a strip along the diagonal line, and then sew another one on top, flip and continue until you have covered the Vilene.

I have made a few blocks so that people can see what they are aiming for. I did them on the machine, rather than by hand, but it'll be the same.

I'll let you know whether it is a success or not in a couple of weeks.