New Patterns and New Classes!

I have had a VERY busy weekend! In fact I have had a very busy couple of months! And tomorrow I will be lying beside a pool in the sun as I am off on my hols to Tenerife!! I can't wait!

But before I go, I just have time to tell you about our new pattern release and our new 2017 prospectus!

Karen, Lynne and I have just released three new patterns under our The Thread House brand. Above is Karen's Painted Village quilt, which I absolutely love! It's my favourite of Karen's TTH quilts so far. 

Then there is Lynne's Cube Quilt. As usual with Lynne you get fantastic value with two versions of the same pattern, the new one above or the original version below - both absolutely stunning!

And then there is my Starlight's Quilt. I posted about this here, and if you would like to buy any of our patterns new or old, please visit our payhip store, or you can also find us on Etsy or Craftsy.

The Starlight's Quilt isn't only a new pattern, it is also a new myBearpaw evening course!

We launched our 2017 Prospectus this weekend with 8 new classes! And I thought it would be good to have a look at them all in more details here.

These cute little amigurumi critters below were made by my colleague Jane Wilson (who is taking over teaching some of my classes now). Jane will be showing you how to use simple double crochet to create adorable little friends. She designed that cat herself, look at that cute outfit!

Do you remember my Embellishing Patchwork Tech piece for Love Patchwork and Quilting earlier this year? Some of my regular students have been hassling me to turn this into a class so it will now become a 5 week evening course starting in January.

Another new make (as of two days ago!) this sweet flower taggy (or maybe sunshine taggy? I'm still in two minds) is a great beginner project for new machine sewers.

My Christmas Patchwork Dresden Centrepiece workshop went so well this term that I have made an all year round version (which is now a lovely cushion, with no photo as yet - it was all a bit last minute as usual!). As Nicky said on IG this is very much a 'pimp my Dresden' project, what with patchwork, a porthole ring and priarie point edges!

The centre was a sad neglected class sample from a very old embellishment workshop that I found at the bottom of a basket. It works perfectly with the Hotel Frederiksted (by Jennifer Paganelli) Dresden fabric. Using stuff up which makes me so happy!!

I think the quilt of mine that made the most impact this year was definitely my New York Beauty Parade which featured in Today's Quilter. So I am offering this as a one day workshop too.

My new applique class is yet another TQ project. We will be learning needle-turn applique by making my Spring Garland cushion.

Next term I will offer my Summer Garland cushion, and in the Autumn the Autumn Garland cushion (you are getting the idea now!), so that eventually you can make all four.

Our bag making tutor Naomi Crowley will be teaching a new bag, the Boston Bag, which looks like a cute diddy weekender bag!

Lastly I will be teaching my new Passionflower embroidery (see top of the page) over three half days (one in Jan, one in Feb and one in March). I have tried to incorporate a lot of crewel work type stitches such as coral, buttonhole, long and short, plus some laid work. I am really in love with this piece, it turned out even better than I expected (but I was up till 1am for a couple of evenings last week to get it finished in time!).

So that's a wee run down of our new classes but there are plenty more on offer, check the whole lot out here, and hopefully I will see you in the New Year!

Meanwhile normal service will resume here in a week or so...

Embellishing Patchwork

I felt very honoured to be asked to take over the Technical Feature in Love Patchwork and Quilting for this issue. 

Sarah their Tech Editor is on maternity leave so they invited some 'guests' to fill the gap and asked me to do a feature on embellishing quilts, which or course is right up my street!

This feature needs to include not only the techniques but full instructions to make a project with them. I decided on this wonky curve mini after making this little quilt above in the Blueberry Park swap on Instagram earlier this year. 

I've just realised I never actually shared the finished quilt on the blog, so here it is!

The tech feature project is a bit of a mash up between that mini and this one above that I made for my Scrappy Improv workshop and which I finished with a range of embroidery stitches alongside the hand quilting.

The project includes full instructions to achieve your wonky curves, and then I show you how to do seed, chain, fly, cross and blanket stitch, as well as French knots. We also look at using beads and buttons to embellish your quilt and adding a little felt applique too. 

So lots of embellishment to choose from then!! As usual I used DMC perle cotton #8 or #12 throughout. The border fabric is a charcoal crosshatch from Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander.

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This was such a fun project to do and I love the result (even though my husband says it looks a bit like a scary eye!). The whole thing is very 'me'!

Issue 36 of LPQ is packed with amazing projects as usual including that absolutely stunning Ombre cover quilt by Emily Dennis, which I just can't take my eyes off!