recent projects

I have been a bit lax with my blog over the last month, but only because I have been so busy. The lovely weather has dragged me away from the PC and into the sunny studio at the top of the house. I have been working on a sampler quilt for the spare room (with the help of my quilt teacher Ann Stacey) and it is coming along - 12 squares out of 16 completed. This is it laid out on it's eventual home so I can get an idea how it will look. Besides, it is very satisfying to see it laid out on the bed rather than piled up on my desk!It is quite a traditional pattern, with flying geese, Dresden plate and four card trick squares making an appearance. But as this is my first attempt at quilting it is a great way to be introduced to the techniques. I am loving quilting, though the thought of getting the whole thing through my sewing machine is a little scary.

This has been today's project:

Her name is Milly and is from a pattern I bought yesterday at the National Quilt Festival in Birmingham. She is destined to be my gift to my beautiful niece Jade who is 7 today. I will be delivering it tomorrow and I really hope she likes it.

The rest of my time has been taken up with planning the teaching of my first course; Beaded Button Fancies at Art and Stitch in October. I have been working on the supplies list and producing more samples. I have 7 in total now, and I plan to have a few more done by the class so that people can see what the possibilities are. I am very excited about this new departure. As a software trainer I teach all the time, but never anything quite so personal as this. I hope that people will take away a new skill that they can apply to different areas of their work. That is the joy of buttons - you can use them anywhere!