Author Archive

Brioni Greenberg http://www.flossyblossy.blogspot.com/ http://fatquarterly.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/flossyblossy/ on Flickr @flossyblossy on Twitter

Cathedral Window by Brioni Greenberg (3 hour Workshop without machine)

Cathedral window quilts take their inspiration from stained glass windows and are contructed differently to a usual quilt. The technique involves folding fabic, folding back sections of fabric and then stitching them down by hand. This is easier to make than it looks as there is no quilting involved, just patchworking. The hand stitching makes this is a great portable project so put your English paper piecing down and come and join me!

Fabric Bag Charm or Brooch by Brioni Greenberg (Table Top Session)

This bag charm is pretty instant gratification and can be made as either a bag charm or a brooch, so if your bag or cardi needs a pick-me-up or you need a last minute gift then you can whip one of these in about an hour using up your scraps!

Laura Taylor http://www.needlespinsandbakingtins.com Laura @ Needles, Pins and Baking Tins on Flickr @laurajane7789 on Twitter

Granny Square Crochet by Laura Taylor (Table Top session)

Fancy trying your hand at crochet? This class will cover the absolute basics for absolute beginners. We will look at the 3 stitches used to create crochet granny squares – chaining, slip stitch, and double crochet.

Crochet Flower Pillow by Laura Taylor (3 hour Workshop without machine)

Fancy taking your basic crochet skills to the next level? This cute pillow is easy to achieve using some of the basic stitches. It’s striking, modern, quick to hook up and looks great in different colourways.

Trudi Wood http://trudi-quiltingprolifically.blogspot.co.uk/ Trudi-quiltingprolifically on Flickr

Free Motion Quilting by Trudi Wood (3 hour Workshop)

Join Trudi in a hands on class to learn (or build on your) free motion quilting skills. Focusing on technique, will share tips she has picked up over the years, which will enable you to finish a project without unpicking or throwing it out of the window! We’ll also look at the choices you make for thread, needles, wadding and speed, and how they can affect your quilting.

Free Motion Quilting Design by Trudi Wood (Table Top session)

A happy hour of doodling! We will look more closely at quilting designs to identify how they are formed, learn how to execute/progress designs and also how to adapt existing designs to make them your own. Free motion quilting is very much like hand writing as basic shapes, once mastered, can be built on to create patterns and designs of your own.

Lucie Summers http://blu-shed.blogspot.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/lusummers/ on Flickr @lusummers on Twitter summersville.etsy.com

Improv by Lucie Summers (3 hour Workshop with machines)

Get out of your comfort zone for a few hours with this really informal relaxed class where I will be teaching a few of my favourite improv techniques. The aim of the class is to create a mini (12 – 14 inches square) quilt ready for quilting and you’ll create a truly unique piece of patchwork art. Learn how to create chevrons and curves (*really* drunk drunkards path) done my way!

Portholes by Lucie Summers (3 hour Workshop with machines)

Portholes is a techniques/experimental based workshop rather than a taking-home-finished-item workshop, so expect to head home with 3-4 samples for finishing at a later date. If you want the pieces you make on the workshop to be the starting point for a new quilt, please bring fabrics that will work together. I shall be teaching the basic technique of a round porthole to begin with, then you can get fancy schmancy with the other shapes.

Hand Quilting by Lucie Summers (Table top session)

I am not an expert hand quilter, but I love to stitch my mini quilts using thicker thread than usual, mimicking the look of Indian Kantha quilting. This informal class is not aiming for perfection, it’s a more organic way of quilting using different coloured embroidery threads to create a striking mini quilt. If you have made a mini quilt in my improv class, you might like to join me for a relaxing chat and quilt!

Kerry Green http://verykerryberry.blogspot.co.uk verykerryberry on Flickr @verykb on Twitter http://sew-ichigo.blogspot.com

Fantasy Fabric Shop by Kerry Green (Table Top session)

The ultimate fantasy for the fabric lover, imagine you have your own fabric store and you need to display a range of fabrics to tempt the eye, this workshop is all about fabric and colour. Annie from Village Haberdashery is providing a huge selection of fabrics for us to work with and we will be putting bundles together using a range of techniques from a colour wheel to story telling.

If you struggle bringing different fabrics together combining colours, prints or creating a ‘look’ this is the workshop for you. You can create your perfect bundle, bring fabrics from home that you struggle to work with and we can trouble shoot any specific requests. I will set a series of bundle challenges to bring a range of fabrics together in different ways. There will lots of opportunity to buy fabrics at the retreat including bundles that you make in this workshop.

P J Pants by Kerry Green (3 hour Workshop with machines)

If you have always wanted to sew a garment but were too nervous to try, this is the class for you. The pyjama bottoms are made with one main pattern piece. We will be using an easy Simplicity pattern with which is available free to download as a PDF or is widely available to buy as a tissue paper pattern. The pattern is sized XS to XL and is suitable for tween/teenage children, women and men.

I will be showing you how to follow a clothing pattern including alterations to leg length, the option to add contrast cuffs to the hem and an alternative waist finish with an elasticised back and a drawstring front. You can trace the pattern in your size and bring to class or do the whole process- trace, alter, cut and sew in class. The aim is to make PJs from start to finish in class!

Not long to the retreat now and I am sure all of you who are coming cannot wait to sign up for classes and get together all the bits and pieces you will need. We have been working hard behind the scenes to offer a mix of different classes whilst still trying to make sure that we all have time to chat and just hang out over the retreat weekend.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be posting more information about each of the classes. Keep your eyes peeled since once we have posted all the class details we will send out a link to every retreat attendee to sign up for classes.

So without furthermore ado let us begin!

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Lynne Goldsworthy http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/ www.fatquarterly.com Lynne @ Lilys Quilts on Flickr @LilysQuilts

Touchdraw for iPad by Lynne Goldsworthy (Table Top session)

Learn how to use Touchdraw (a very reasonably priced vector graphics app for iPad) to make buttons, design quilts and blocks, calculate block measurements, re-size blocks and draw up quilt block templates.

Precision Piecing by Lynne Goldsworthy (3 hour Workshop with machines)

Learn how to improve the precision of your piecing. We will be making two class sample blocks and covering cutting, accurate seam allowances, 4-patches, 9-patches, half square triangles, quarter square triangles and economy patches as well as piecing this all together into the 2 sample blocks.

The Pink Castle Fabrics, Sew Amelia’s Garden and the Contemporary Cloth coupons in Issue 11 of Fat Quarterly will expire on 31 December.

Turn to page 2 of Issue 11 to find the coupon code for 15% off your purchase from the Pink castle Fabrics.

Turn to page 3 of Issue 11 to find the coupon code for 10% off purchases over $50 from Sew Amelia’s Garden.

Turn to page 3 of Issue 11 to find the coupon code for 20% off your purchase from Contemporary Cloth.

Looking for a few Christmas presents for those crafty people in your life? Hurry over to Barnes and Noble where there is a Holiday Crafts sale with a whopping 50% off!

Be quick and you might just snatch yourself a real bargain like the Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop for Quilters!!

Just wanted to remind you all that the Fat Quarter Shop and the Sew Modern Online coupons in Issue 11 of Fat Quarterly will expire on 30 November.

Turn to page 2 of Issue 11 to find the coupon code for 20% off your purchase from the Fat Quarter Shop.

Turn to page 3 of Issue 11 to find the coupon code for 15% of your purchase from Sew Modern Online.

The coupon from Quilted Castle will expire on 31 November.

Turn to page 2 of Issue 11 to find the coupon code for 20% off fabric from the following manufacturers: Alexander Henry, Andover, Art Gallery, Benartex, Blend, Clothworks, Michael Miller, Kokka, Lecien and Quilting Treasures, from Quilted Castle.

It is no secret that all of us at Fat Quarterly are big fans of the Sizzix Big Shot Machine. Anything that can shorten the time taken to sew up projects is a huge plus for us. In the build up to Christmas I have been using my machine almost daily to churn out the pieces I need for my never ending list of holiday crafting and home made gifts to make.

To give you a little more inspiration as to how to use your machine to its best this holiday season, Sizzix have put together a blog tour packed with tutorials and also best of all, a chance to win your own Big Shot machine and dies to go with it!

Monday 19th November – Angela Southey

Tuesday 20th November – Tacha Bruecher/Fat Quarterly

Wednesday 21st November – Katy Jones

Thursday 22nd November – Hadley Gordon

Friday 23rd November – Lynne Goldsworthy

Saturday 24th November – Lory Bucaria

To be in with a chance of winning a Big Shot machine and a selection of our quilting dies worth over £130, click here! Closing date: Wednesday 28th November 2012 at 10am GMT.

I’m on a mission this year to make our Christmas table as festive as possible and it struck me how lonely our cutlery will look amidst the holiday tablecloth, placemats, napkins, crackers etc. So I decided they needed to snuggle up in a festive blanket of their own.

What you will need

Sizzix Big Shot Machine
Sizzix Bigz L Die #657622
4 scraps of fabric for the trees approx. 5″ square
4 pieces of fabric 4 1/2″ x 10″ for the front of the snuggle (I used the same fabric as for the trees)
8 scraps of background fabric approx 3″ x 5″ for the sides of the tree
4 strips 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ of background fabric
8 strips 1 1/2″ x 2 1/8″ of background fabric
4 pieces of brown fabric 1 1/4″ x 1 1/2″ for the tree trunks
4 pieces of batting 10″ x 4 1/2″
4 pieces of batting 4 1/2″ x 6 1/2″
4 pieces of lining fabric 4 1/2″ x 6 1/2″
4 pieces of backing fabric 10″ x 4 1/2″
4 strips of ric rac trim 5″ long
4 strips 1 1/2″ x width of fabric for binding

Note: If you do not have the Sizzix machine and die you can make the snuggle by creating your own template. Draw a 4″ square on a piece of paper. Mark the centre point on the top edge. Draw a line from both bottom corners to the top edge. Cut out the triangle and side pieces. Trace around the templates on the back of your fabric but remember to add a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Make the Trees

Position the 5″ squares of fabric for the trees over the isoceles triangle die and run it through the Big Shot machine.

Position the 3″ x 5″ strips of fabric for the tree background over the right angled triangle die and run it through the Big Shot machine. Be careful with directional prints.

Sew a right angled triangle to both sides of each isoceles triangle. Trim to 4 1/2″ square.

Sew each brown 1 1/4″ x 1 1/2″ strip between 2 background 1 1/2″ x 2 1/8″ strips. Sew to the bottom of each triangle block.

Sew the background 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ strips to the top of each triangle block.

Layer the 4 1/2″ x 10″ front strip, 4 1/2″ x 10″ batting piece and 4 1/2″ x 10″ backing piece and baste in place. Quilt as desired. I quilted using vertical straight lines about 1/4″ about.

Layer the tree block on top of the 4 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ batting piece and quilted using vertical lines about 1/4″ apart.

Finishing

Place the lining 4 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ piece on top of the tree block, right sides facing and sew along the top edge. Turn so wrong sides are facing and press. Top stitch in place.

Position the ric rac trim behind the top edge of the tree block so the humps are just showing. Baste in place and sew along the top edge to secure. Trim away any excess ric rac.

Align the bottom edges of the tree block and 4 1/2″ x 10″ piece and pin in place. Sew around the side and bottom edges of the tree block to secure.

Bind using a single fold binding.

Why not make a few trees and use them to whip up a couple of festive pillow cases as well?

For more information about the Sizzix patchwork and quilting range, click here