March Speaker

The March Speaker will be Roxanna from Hannah's Room of Ibstock.  Her talk is entitled "The Beauty of Batiks".  

In June we have a workshop with Gail Lawther.  Information about the workshop is below, if you wish to attend contact details are on the workshop page or talk to Pat at the next meeting.

TWILIGHT SILHOUETTES PUBLICITY BLURB
Workshop with Gail Lawther

As the light of the sun fades, the silhouettes of different birds appear against the twilight landscapes. All the dark motifs are fused onto backgrounds pieced from strips of fabric; your background can be quite detailed (eg using Jelly Roll strips), or created from three or four much deeper pieces. You can even use a single piece of dramatically-shaded fabric. (On the day, I’ll bring a few different pieces of shaded fabric with me that would make good backgrounds, either for the design you’re doing that day or others you might want to do in the future!)

You can copy one of the five designs I’ve created, or design your own version on the day by mixing and matching the bird and plant motifs I’ll supply. And during the workshop we’ll explore lots of different methods of simple machine-quilting.

TWILIGHT SILHOUETTES
Workshop with Gail Lawther

As the light of the sun fades, the silhouettes of different birds appear against the twilight landscapes.

All the dark motifs are fused onto backgrounds pieced from strips of fabric. These backgrounds can be quite detailed if you wish – for instance, behind the swallows and the nightingales I used eighteen Jelly Roll (2½in) strips graded from dark to light. In contrast, the backgrounds for the geese and heron just use three or four larger pieces. You may even have a single shaded piece of fabric that would work beautifully – in which case you don’t even have to piece the background. When I do this workshop I often have a few random-striped batiks with me, cut to the size of the background, which you’re welcome to buy either for use on the day or if you want to do more designs in the future.

The projects are wonderfully versatile; if you don’t want such a large wallhanging, simply reduce the length of the pieced background, then use fewer bird and branch motifs, and shorter plants. You can copy one of the five designs I’ve created, or design your own version by mixing and matching the birds and plants. You can choose to quilt the final design very simply, or as intricately as you like; during the workshop we’ll explore lots of different methods of simple machine-quilting.

These designs work best in cotton fabrics for the pieced backgrounds; for the silhouettes, choose a tightly-woven cotton, or polyester/cotton sheeting, then the edges of the motifs will stay really crisp as you cut them. If you cut your fabrics to size before the day of the workshop it means you’ll be ready to get straight on with the creative bit (remember to alter the dimensions if you’re making your background a different shape or size from mine).

As well as the things below, you’ll need your usual sewing kit of small and large scissors, pins etc. Simple machining is used to hold the fused patches onto the background (and quilt the shapes at the same time), so you will need a sewing machine; if you’re new to your machine, or not quite sure of all the things it can do, bring the manual too. And don’t forget to bring everything that goes with your machine – foot pedal, flex, knee lift if you have one, and all the feet and other bits that go with it – then we can choose the best feet etc to use on the day!

Finished size: each of my panels is 42 x 21in (roughly 108 x 54cm)