Pouch Problem?

Is an addiction to zippy pouches a recognised condition?!  If so I think I better get some help as I can't stop making them!

I've been talking about my Tendrils Technique in my last few posts.  The pouch above was the first one I tried with this technique, using Dashwood Studio 'Paper Meadow' fabric. I sold this the other day with funds going towards the Makers for Grenfell fund.

These next three were all made with leftovers from my Shangri la farm Sherbet Quilt, with the one at the back using the panels I made in my FOQ Aurifil stand demo.

Talking about Aurifil, my new thread collection got a proper launch on the Aurifil blog on Sunday. You can read the post here which includes an interview with me and a giveaway to win a box (which has one day left to run - so don't hang around before entering!). 

I should get my stock of thread boxes very soon and I'll be sure to let you know when they are ready to sell!

Back to the pouches. This narrow pouch (without a gusset) was made from the bottom part of my aborted attempt to make a new laptop case (documented in this post).

I put this one up for sale on the Makers for Grenfell site but it didn't sell (I am going to use it for  a giveaway soon instead!). But I did sell the other pouch I made from the rest of my failed laptop case.

So that's four pouches sold and a total of £135 raised! A huge thanks to all four buyers!

Here's a close up of the finished pouch made with my Tendril Technique demo sample. I'm holding on to this one as a class sample. This is going to be a new myBearpaw Craft Class next term and also one of my Thread House workshops for our 2018 Retreat. 

We announced all our Thread House workshops yesterday. Here's a wee look at them...

We are so excited about the 2018 retreat classes! I wish I could do them all! Take a look at our website here for details.

As we are unlikely to have enough time to make a scrappy improv panel AND a zippy pouch in a class session I thought I would try the tendrils technique over a plain quilted panel. So I broke into my hoarded stash or the amazing Outback Wife fabric by Cathy of Gertrude Made fame. This is a beautiful bark cloth and the slightly heavier feel works so well here.

I also experimented with a more rounded leaf shape, which is a little bit tricky but probably worth it.

And here's the finished pouch. I call these large gusseted pouches 'Project Pouches' as they are large enough to carry around your current craft project. They measure approx 10in high by 12in wide and 2in deep and the base.

We'll have the new myBearpaw classes for sale at some stage new week including the Tendrils Project Pouch. Meanwhile we have plenty of space on some of our current classes. Check them all out here.

Now, I think it's time to make another pouch! Oh dear!

Quilts and Pouches for Grenfell

I'm sort of on holiday at the moment. The studio is having it's summer break for the next 6 weeks so I'm not teaching, but I still seems to have a lot to do! I think that's the problem with this 'gig economy' they keep talking about - I just have too many businesses to run!

But I managed to take a break from my computer over the weekend and finished this quilt top.

I've been teaching the ingenious Scrappy Trip Around the World method for a few years now and have amassed a number of sample blocks. I got the idea of keeping it monotone with just one other colour from a student (if you come to my class with a good idea for a quilt I will steal it from you!). Of course I was going to keep it to just red but pink and orange found it's way in too!

Anyway this was the last class I taught 10 days ago and all I needed was another 5 blocks and I had a good single bed sized top.

I was originally going to donate this to Siblings Together, but finding out that they have enough for the summer camps (though they still need more for the Autumn!) I'm donating this instead to the Quilts For Grenfell appeal.

I'm sure everyone around the world will have heard about this awful disaster that took place in London a few weeks ago. Some wonderful quilters have started a group on facebook here (they are also on Instagram @quiltsforgrenfell) and they have been deluged with donations of quilts, blocks and fabric. In fact they have had so many quilts promised already (including this one) that they don't need anymore just now. But they really need help to sew blocks together, plus donations of wadding and backing fabric. If you think you can help, head to the facebook page for all the info.

Meanwhile the lovely Portia Lawrie has set up @makersforgrenfell on Instagram which is raising money for the victims by asking for donations of stash or hand made items that can be sold with the proceeds going to the fund.

So with my left over scraps from the Trip Around the World top I made some improv panels.

I then matchstick quilted them using Aurifil 50wt variegated thread, and then added a few lines of hand quilting and turned it into a zippy pouch.

 This is something I have been doing more and more, every time I finish a quilt I run up a couple of panels with the scraps, matchstick and hand quilt them, and then make one of these large pouches.  I have decided to call them Project Pouches as they are big enough to carry your current craft project in (as long as you are not hand quilting a whole quilt!). They measure 8 x 12in.

I even add my own 'handmade' label (more on these in a future post).

 I recently finished a quilt using Sarah Campbell's 'Sandpiper' line (for Michael Miller) for Today's Quilter and again I made up a couple of panels (these were actually made as class samples at a fortuitous 'Scrappy Improv' class, love a bit of multi-tasking!).

As you can see I am still enjoying styling my photos 😉

This is such a gorgeous fabric line - Sarah Campbell is a really famous British designer who used to design for Liberty, her new 'Our Yard' line has been chosen for the MQG Michael Miller challenge this year!

So how do you fancy owning one of these pouches and donating to a special cause at the same time? I will be putting them up on the IG feed tonight, and hopefully they will sell quickly. If you wanted one and have missed out then I am happy to make more as long as the fund is getting decent donations (of course they may not have sold at all and maybe one of my lovely blog readers will buy one!).

If you fancy having a little de-stash or donating a handmade item then head over to the Instagram feed for more info.

Meanwhile I have a bit of a pouch addiction so am happy for any excuse to make more!

Stitch Gathering 2017 workshops and news round up!

Our workshops for this year's Stitch Gathering Retreat have just been announced and I thought I would share my two new class samples with you.

As you can see from the mosaic above there is a fabulous selection of classes on offer this year from our new guest tutors, Mandy Munroe, Lucy Brennan and Sarah Ashford, as well as returning regulars Trudi Wood, Fiona Calvert and Julie Rutter. You can read all about our teachers here.

Every year I find it harder to come up with a new class to teach. This will be our fifth event and I have taught at least 2 classes every year. In the end I decided to do just a little more improv this year!

It turns out this will be the fourth year in a row that I have taught an improv technique for the morning class - so far we have had Freehand New York Beauty, Patchwork Portraits, 3D Improv Dresden Plate and now this year - Improv Flowers!

This will be a condensed version (very condensed!) of the 8 week evening class I sometimes teach for my Improv Meadow Quilt. Initially this quilt was begun in a workshop with Anna Maria Horner a few years back and is very much inspired by her work.

In this 3 hour Stitch Gathering class I will be showing students a couple of different improv flower and leaf blocks and also how to make bias stems. We won't have time to applique and leaves but...

...in the afternoon I will be teaching Appliqueing Leaves and Circles, so some people might want to spend the whole day with me!

Or just come along to the afternoon class and make a start on this cute panel (which I will turn into a zippy pouch as soon as I get hold of a zip!). This is a version of the applique class I taught at the Thread House Retreat where I show students clever ways to prepare fabric shapes for applique. You can read about all this year's workshops here.

The Stitch Gathering  is now fully booked but we usually get a few cancellations every year so if you would like to join the waiting list then email me through the SG website.

Speaking of the Thread House Retreat, we have just announced the launch date for next year's retreat tickets! You will be able to book from 2pm on Friday 23rd June (2 weeks today!).
Check out all the info here.

I've recently been making another quilt with gorgeous Kaffe Fassett Spring Collective fabric for Today's Quilter magazine (you'll be able to see it in August). I made this matchstick quilted zippy pouch with some of the scraps. But I still had quite a bit of fabric leftover and as I like to share the love I am currently giving away 14 Fat Quarters PLUS this zippy pouch on my instagram account! So if you have an IG account why not pop on over and enter, giveaway closes on Monday night, just search for @mybearpaw.

I promise to balance things up with a blog giveaway soon too!

Lastly I wanted to share a letter with you that I received from Acorns Hospice.

Do you remember the Words Quilt that was made from all the amazing 'ticket words' that were brought to the Stitch Gathering 2016? You can read about them here. They were made into two quilts one of which was donated to this wonderful place. The other quilt is still being hand quilted by the amazine Lynsey. I would apppeal again for any suggestions for a permanent home for this last quilt when it is finished. Please leave a comment below or email me.

Thanks so much to everyone who took part in the ticket project that year!

Feathers Quilt for Siblings Together

I finally had some time to finish a quilt this weekend! This is a version of my Feathers Quilt that I've made during the last three years that I've been teaching this workshop.

The pattern was in Love Patchwork and Quilting issue 9 (and it made the cover!), and has been one of my most popular quilts. Every time I've taught it I've made a couple of blocks and now I have enough to make another quilt.

I know I will have people asking me if they can still get this pattern and all I can say at this stage is, yes, if you hang on till July (all will be revealed in a couple of months).



I've decided to donate the quilt to Siblings Together (more on this below) which meant it took the pressure off me as far as quilting was concerned and I could have a little fun with it.

So I've been trying a little 'doodle quilting'. Basically it's a kind of greatest hits of my previous FMQ patterns! I've just ranged from motif to motif, doing anything I please, with loops and spirals to travel between.

It's a great way to loosen up and try some new variations and it also means you get less bored!

It was a bit of a warm up for me as well as this is the first full sized quilt I've made this year. I'm about to make quite a few more over the next couple of months so this was really helpful.

This took me about four hours to quilt in three sessions, using my trusty Pfaff QE 4.0 domestic machine and of course some gorgeous variegated pink Aurifil 50wt thread.

The thread shade is number 4660 and it is quite dark in places against the light background (a Carolyn Friedlander print from 'Doe').

In fact I was worried it was way too dark and standing out too much while I was quilting it, but my husband gave me the thumbs up so I pushed on through and now I like it. I also think it will be fun to follow the meandering lines and pick out all the different motifs for whichever young person ends up with it. I'm hoping it will be stimulating but meditational at the same time!

It's backed with an old duvet cover, and I've used a neutral thread in my bobbin rather than the same as my top thread.

We are having the most incredible weather in Scotland at the moment, with day after day of clear blue skies. So I just had to drag the new quilt around Shangri la Farm for a bit of a photo shoot.

We also have a lovely new garden bench, situated behind the Gothic Arbour which faces on to the pond.

As I mentioned this quilt is going to the Siblings Together charity and is the first of three or four quilts I am planning to finish before this summer's camps.

If you don't know about this charity and the wonderful work they do to bring children in care together with their siblings for summer camps every year, then please read about it here.

They need around 100 quilts a year and so are always looking for donations.

Can you help? A charity quilt is a great way to practice your FMQ, or try out some new designs. Letting yourself loose on a whole quilt worth of practice can really push on your FMQ skills. I think people are often put off doing FMQ as they don't want to ruin a beautiful top they have just finished. But if you can put something together out of scraps or orphan blocks then you can take the pressure off yourself and just go for it. Your quilting will really benefit!

And you have the pleasure of knowing that you are making a huge difference to a disadvantaged child's life by making something homemade and precious just for them.

For those of you local to me - are am hoping to organise free transport for a huge box of quilts sometime in the summer (once I've confirmed deadlines with ST), and will be happy to include any quilts provided. Maybe you'd like to donate one but are put off by the cost of postage? If so get in touch and we will try to coordinate a Scottish Siblings Together Quilt Drive.

OR do you make regular car journeys from Scotland (or North of England) to London? Or know someone reliable who does? Maybe you could help too!

White Roses for Jo Cox - can you help?

Here's a little call for help for all you knitters out there! Can you knit a white Rose for a special Jo Cox memorial in June?

Barbara, who works in our shop is helping her niece and the school she works at with this project. We will happily take roses dropped at the Edinburgh shop from local folks. Or send to direct to Barbara from wherever you are:

Barbara Keenan

41 Howden Hall Court

Edinburgh

EH16 6UZ

Here is a bit of information about the white roses and why they need them. 

"On Friday 16th June, 2017 it will be exactly one year since the MP, Jo Cox, was tragically murdered in Birstall, West Yorkshire. The schools (23 primary and secondary schools) in the local area are working together on a project to raise the awareness of all young people about tolerance, equality, diversity, respect and community cohesion. 

The school children are keen to continue the legacy of Jo Cox's work around developing the community to be a stronger place, where people are united and work together to bring about long term, sustainable improvements in terms of employment, education, life skills and much more. Jo Cox had several projects underway about bringing the community together, tackling loneliness and supporting people in the community who may feel isolated as well as people who have mental health issues etc. 

Our schools believe in the values of equality, respect and celebrating diversity. Our ethos is all about Achieve, Believe and you will Succeed. If children believe they can be a better people and bring about positive change, then we are half way there in building a better community and a brighter future both locally and nationally. 

Our learning community at Upper Batley High School celebrates diversity and works hard to tackle stereotypes around gender, cultural matters and ethnicity. Jo Cox worked closely with our school and she was an inspirational woman who really valued education. Our boys are passionate about continuing her work within our community. Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day. She believed in equality, tolerance and humanity, and that people should work together to create safe and cohesive communities to provide a better future for ourselves and our children. Our boys are continuing her legacy and are involved in a number of projects ranging from environmental matters, feeding families from poorer backgrounds, supporting hearing and visually impaired children in India to working on local mental health projects such as the Dementia Friends. A key focus of our work in schools has to be tackling the poverty of aspiration and raising the hopes, ambitions and aspirations of our young people. They can be whatever they want to be if they set their mind to it and work hard enough to achieve it. Why not?

There are many different projects taking place this summer  and this school's project starts on 16th June with a PSHCE (Personal Social health & Citizenship) project that runs for 2 weeks in all schools and will culminate in a celebration event on Thursday 29th June where 1000 children, together with volunteers, will walk together through the town. The walk goes to a stadium where the children take part in a range of drama, art and sports activities to all work together around the key principles. It is for this walk that we are hoping to have 100 white roses for the children and staff to wear.  The white rose symbolizes Yorkshire and Jo Cox. We are hoping to be able to re use the roses every year that the event takes place. 

Our community is resilient and will come back stronger, better, more positive and more united following the atrocities of last June, and exciting projects such as this will play a key part in building a better future for Batley and Birstall. This is an exciting opportunity to showcase the talent, creativity and positivity we have in this area."

What a wonderful initiative! I have made one white rose - can you make one too?!

If you need a pattern then here is a link to one. And here is a link to a crochet pattern on Attic 24. Please make sure you include the green leaves so it looks like a corsage - thanks!

Thanks everyone!

QuiltCon 2017 Report

I can't believe it is already two weeks since I came home from QuiltCon - it really seems just a beautiful dream to me now! But I was there and I'm sure you want to hear all about it!

The photo above is the crowd surging into the show on the first day, and you can just see ahead the quilt that one Best in Show. 

This was the completely off the scale 'Bling' by Katherine Jones of Tasmania. Oh my goodness this was SO impressive! I can't get my head around how you would even start to make this! Just WOW!! And a huge congratulations to Katherine who I met not long after she got her prize - she seemed a little stunned by all the attention! 

Just to give you an idea of scale it was 98 inches square.

But let's rewind a day. The show started on the Thursday but Karen, Pam (one of my Edinburgh MQG buddies) and I got there on Tuesday night. After a little prep for Karen's classes on Wednesday morning we were free to be tourists for the day. Here's me and Karen on River Street, Downtown Savannah as we start to explore. Unfortunately it was a little grey and very soon it was a lot rainy!

I really wasn't expecting Savannah to be so drop dead gorgeous is it turned out to be. These few snap shots do not do it justice, round every corner lay more beautiful streets or gorgeous houses with wonderful architectural details.

Lining every street were 'Live Oak' trees, they don't look anything like oaks but are green all year round and are covered by 'Spanish Moss' a cobwebby type of lichen which gives a wonderful atmosphere to all the views.

On Karen's recommendation I had been reading 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' which is all about Savannah and centres on the murder trial of Jim Williams who lived in the (now called) Mercer Williams House. We went to take a look at the house and were delighted to find we could do a tour that was starting in 10 minutes! The tour was excellent and really brought the book to life for me. 

After a delicious lunch at the Bohemian Hotel with Pam and three lovely Danish quilters Helene, Suzanne and Maria, in which I tried Fried Green Tomatoes for the first time (a wonderful revelation!) we were off for more wandering.

I spotted this lovely woolly fellow in a delightful yarn shop (which was also full of quilters - of course all of Savannah was full of quilters for a few days!!)

One of the first things I did when the show opened on Thursday was to find our Edinburgh MQG Charity Challenge quilt and have my photo taken beside it. The charity quilts were absolutely stunning with so many different interpretations of the theme!

One of the best exhibits in the whole show was the Quilts For Pulse stand. After the terrible massacre that targeted the LGBT community at the Pulse night club in Orlando last year the local MQG started a quilt appeal. They asked our community to send heart blocks to make quilts for the victims and their families. They hoped to make 200 quilts...

... they made almost 1800 quilts!!! They were able to give quilts to EVERYONE who was involved in the tragedy, including all the first responders (police, fire, ambulance), hospital workers, legal aid, city council workers...

The stand was one of the most moving things I have seen and I am tearing up again while I type this. I spoke a couple of times with the Orlando MQG members who were at the stand and every time we all ended up crying. Huge congratulations to the Orlando guild, the work involved in doing this was IMMENSE!

They had a photo of every quilt on the stand all collaged into heart shapes. Our guild made blocks and then Lesley turned it into the most amazing quilt after attending Sarah Fielke's wonky letters workshop. Lesley made 'love is all you need' and surrounded it with the heart blocks. I was therefore able to find and photograph our quilt amongst the others as it is the only one that says this. Thank you so much for doing this on our behalf Lesley.

I attended three lectures which were all excellent (and more about one of them in my next post). One of them, by Shruti Dandekar, was about traditional Indian quilts including those made by the Siddi people in Southern India like the example above. The way they are made and the story about their history (they were Africans brought to India as slaves by the Portugese and then left there) was absolutely fascinating and very inspiring.

And then there were the amazing quilts!! Oh my goodness, so much beauty! My eyes were hurting after 10 minutes! Here are some of my favourites (but this is the tip of the iceberg for that category).

Above is View of the City from the Suburbs by Kim Soper. Below is Fireworks by Jeannie Jenkins.

Here is a detail from Hills and Valleys by Cassandra Beaver.

This is 21 Blocks by Katie Clark Blakesley.

Round Peg, Square Hole by my pal Krista Hennebury (read on to see what Krista's Mum gave me when I met her at the show!).

This one below I think may be my absolute favourite this year - Big Island Blossom by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill.

I love this little guy below by Stephanie Ruyle, in the small quilt category.

If you want to see A LOT more quilts from the show then check out my pal Tatyana's blogpost, Tatyana was taking way more photos then me!

On Thursday night we went on a ghost tour! Not Karen as she is a big scaredy-cat 😉

It was so much fun and actually quite scary at the end when we were all in the depths of an old chandlery and there were some quite clever special effects (certainly Pam got a bit more of a cuddle then she was anticipating!). Plus we also got a tour of another lovely old house, the Andrew Low House (not haunted at all though!).

I also took a couple of classes, but those are for the next post.

Meanwhile, in this chronological photo journey, it appears we are up to the last evening of my stay, and Karen and I managed to meet up for drinks with lovely Karin (Leigh Laurel Studio) at our hotel.

We had a bit of a laugh at our Thread House partner Lynne's expense after it occurred to us how much Karin looked like a 'Lynne stand in' here! Of  course in reality Lynne Goldsworthy is completely irreplaceable 😁

So it was goodbye to beautiful Savannah! Even the airport is beautiful! Pam and I sat in those rocking chairs for a bit before going through security (while chatting to Missouri Quilt Star's Jenny Doan, don't you know!)

One of the best bits about QuiltCon is connecting with old pals, and Dolores is one of my oldest blogging friends (from back in the Flickr days!). I got to spend a lot of time in Savannah with Dolores and her adorable hubby Don which was wonderful. And of course the very generous Dolores brought me presents! Fabric, thread and a Patchwork Threads T-shirt and badges!! That badge there says 'I quilt so I don't kill people' 😂😂 and there was a lovely Bearpaw one that didn't make the photo. 

But the loveliest thing Dolores gave me was this little mini quilt. I had been so inspired by this when I first saw it about 18 months ago that I totally stole used it as inspiration for the sewing shelves wall hanging I made for Popular Patchwork magazine. Thanks for giving me such a special gift Dee!

You will also notice those rather gorgeous handmade socks in the photo below. These were a gift (along with the mug in the pic above) from lovely Sybil who is Krista Hennebury's mum (Superknitter on IG) and who I met up with at the vendor hall. I had no idea I was going to get such a wonderful present - thank you Sybil!

 And speaking of the vendor hall... I may just have spent a few (ahem) dollars on this awesome stash of fabric below!!

Oh and did I mention all the FREE STUFF! Yes I got one of the goody bags (for the first 1000 people that registered to attend)!! Plus the fabric companies that were there were SO GENEROUS and gave away so much fabric!! Especially Cotton and Steel, AGF, Ink and Arrow, Andover, Northcott and Paintbox studio - thank you all so much!

I have shared a lot of this booty with my Craft Club members already, but have kept a little for myself.

There wasn't really an organised pin (badge) swap this year but I knew some people would still have them to swap (as it is so much fun!), so I got Thread House badges printed up (I did myBearpaw two years ago).

These are all the badges I collected in Savannah. And below is the bag I made when I went to Austin with all the ones I got there plus some from our Stitch Gathering badge swap last year. I think I'll have to make a new bag now!

They are such a great reminder of all the people I met. And QuiltCon is really all about the people. 

I had the time of my life but it wasn't because of the quilts, or the free fabric, or the classes. It was because I was with 'my people', my special tribe of quilters who are all warm, friendly, chatty, enthusiastic, inclusive, generous and funny! It feels like I never stopped talking and laughing for the whole 5 days I was there!

Of course the MQG does an amazing job organising this event, and it really does run like clockwork. I got a little peek behind the scenes this year (as Karen's 'assistant') and am even more impressed! Everyone involved works so hard, so thank you MQG!

And so what about Nashville in 2019??!!! I am definitely going to be there - I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Who's with me???!!