I was a bit disappointed with the tutor as she seemed to be more interested in showing off her quilts and telling us about her dogs than anything else but we managed to coax some technical tips from her in the afternoon session.
I learnt three things that rocked what I thought I knew about patch working: 1) accuracy is everything, 2) if your accuracy is only slightly out then you can do what my tutor called "beating it into submission with the iron", and 3) a lot of patchwork isn't as hard as it looks - shocking, huh?!
My interests were mostly in patchwork over papers because if I have to cut material extremely accurately I wont ever make anything worth using - accuracy and fiddly measuring is not my thing.
When patching over papers you fold the material over a paper template before stitching the shapes together (ironing at every stage). It sounds like a lot of faff, and not at all the sort of thing I'd usually go for but I found it strangely addictive because once you get stuck in, the project can grow quite rapidly.
I came home from the course with seven hexagons stitched into a flower shape. By the same time the next day I had more than doubled it, just by fiddling about in spare moments and working whilst watching a film with Cameron.
I'm not 100% sure what these bits are going to be yet, but I'm going to turn them into something, just to practice, and then get started on a 'proper' project when I'm comfortable using more precious fabrics.
How wonderful to have some time to yourself to learn what you want to. I am going to find a local course and get on it too, of I can get MadDad to look after the boys. Maybe it will help me find my crafting mojo again
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of patchwork but it just seems to complicated and fidley! It looks lovley btw.
ReplyDeleteJen - I hope you find the free time to get your crafting mojo back x
ReplyDeleteThanks, A. I thought that too but I've been surprised by how easy it is (hexagons, anyway!).