Patchwork – for the first time.
Back at the beginning of March, we went to the Stitch Festival. One of the many things I picked up was a patchwork cushion kit from Daisy and Grace.
I hadn’t done patchworking before, and the idea of English paper piecing was completely new to me. But I thought, how hard can it be? And went off to YouTube to find out how it worked! I watched quite a few videos, but this one was very thorough.
The kit came with clear instructions and all the pieces of fabric were pre-cut, so it was ready to go with hardly any prep work. Step one was to draw round the included acrylic template and cut out lots of little house shapes from freezer paper. So I (very sensibly) recreated the house on Cricut Design Space and cut the houses out of freezer paper on my Cricut Maker.
Then I had to iron the paper houses on the fabric and baste them in place.
Before finally stitching them all together. This was quite fun and something I worked on each evening in front of the TV. After two weeks I had a finished cushion front.
Then I had to stitch together the outer ring of paler coloured fabric.
Before finally digging out my sewing machine to create the back panel, with invisible zip, and finally sew the front and back together.
I think it looks really good! I was surprised by how much fun it was, so much so that I decided I wanted more of a challenge. So I’ve decided to make a patchwork quilt. I’ll keep you updated with the progress.
It seems like a lifetime ago, but on the 1st March, we went to the Stitch Festival. I remember joking at the time that we would be surrounded by 100’s of people and we should watch out for people who were coughing. Now it doesn’t seem so funny.
But let’s think back to those happier times, so I can share with how wonderful it was!
We’d bought the tickets ages ago, even splashing out for VIP tickets so we could have somewhere nice to go for lunch. This, by the way, is a brilliant idea! Not only did we get a gift bag with all sorts of crafty things in and priority entrance we also had a nice room to escape to when it got really busy. It was more than worth the extra cost! And I will definitely do it again next time. The VIP lounge was lovely and quiet and had comfy chairs, something my fragile back was very grateful for!
We went on the last day of the show, so it was very busy and lots of the stalls were running low on supplies. However, I did manage to find the stalls I wanted to see.
Top of my list was Ernest Wright, as I wanted to look at their dressmaking scissors. The guys running the stall were very knowledgeable (and hilarious). My boyfriend spent an enjoyable time chatting manufacturing and F1 with them. Meanwhile, I checked out the dressmaking scissors. I can confirm they are as amazing as I’d been led to believe and I bought a pair of 8.25″ dressmaking shears.
We also stopped by lots of stalls that caught my eye. Like Paintbox Threads who had a gorgeous range of embroidery threads (a set of which has also been purchased, probably now for some quarantine crafting!)
Knowing how easy it is to spend lots of money on things that just end up in a cupboard, I was careful. I had a specific budget and I had planned what I wanted to try and get. Looking back now, I managed to get the materials for quite a few complete projects – perfect for the situation I now find myself in.
A quick summary of the project supplies I picked up (you may see these appearing in future posts):
Fabric and stretchy binding to make a t-shirt for a soon to be 2 year old.
A patchwork cushion kit (disclaimer: I hadn’t done any patchwork before, so I didn’t know if I was going to like it – but I did!) from Daisy & Grace.
Embroidery thread from PaintBox Threads (I already have a pattern I want to do with these).
A pencil case pattern from Beyond Measure (it uses Fat Quarters, and I seem to have quite a few of those in the stash).
Will I go back to the Stitch Festival next year? Absolutely yes! If it’s on that is.
But for now, I will continue staying home and staying safe – while getting on with my quarantine crafting.
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