Yesterday I taught Machine Quilting at Talgai Hall and it was lovely to get back to work after my hip operation. Everyone worked hard and the room was very quiet: you can see the concentration in every face.
Machine quilting is always a tricky workshop as it’s all about the technique, followed by hours of practising and polishing; and not about the piece of fabric you take home with you, but it’s very rewarding to see everyone taking big steps towards learning about their machines and how to control ‘stitch in the ditch’ and following a straight line, avoiding slippage of the quilt layers, while also learning and practising more decorative free-motion filling stitches.
If you can draw something without taking your pencil off the paper, you can machine quilt it – so there’s a lot of freedom to plan and execute your own ideas once you master the basic technique. It’s fun too.
Talgai Hall was the village primary school and is next door to a very pretty church and well tended churchyard…
…so with the doors open during the workshop, we had the constant sound of birdsong in the background. The village was built to serve Castell Penrhyn, a magnificent National Trust property whose grounds border the hall’s carpark.
It’s a wonderful place to hold workshops.
I still have three workshops left to teach in this series:
- Silk Painting on Sunday 3rd May
- Boutis on Sunday 17th May
- New York Beauty on Sunday 24th and 31st May
Dorothy
20 April 2015