On Saturday we were in pretty historical Rhuthin, the county town of Denbighshire: it is built around a hill in the southern part of the fertile and lovely Vale of Clwyd – Dyffryn Clwyd.

I was there to teach a Wholecloth Quilt workshop with Dyffryn Clwyd Quilters in the large, well lit hall they use for all their meetings. This was not my first visit and hopefully won’t be my last.

It was lovely to see Jean Smith in the group – she was a member of my Beginners’ Course a few years ago. I currently have two other D C Quilters on my Courses and Ceri was there on Saturday, acting as one of my ‘angels’. Thank you to both Ceri and Pippa – I was very well looked after.

Bethan Hughes, another DC Quilters member and also a fellow member of Cwilt Cymru popped in with her Mum at lunchtime to say hello. We (Cwilt Cymru) currently have an exhibition in the Futures Gallery at The Pierhead in Cardiff.

The day went well and there were times of deep silence in the hall as everyone concentrated on developing her individual design and transfering it to fabric. The results from this workshop are always very personal and lovely. Saturday was no exception.

I rounded off the session with a demonstration of hand quilting and gave everyone a needle. I work with John James size 11 Big Eye Quilting Needles, which are tiny but are the best way to get small, even quilting stitches. The first aim is to get the stitches even, then work at making them smaller. Thimbles are a must!

10th November 2015
Dorothy