Text Embroidery and some more Matchstick Quilting

I've been busy launching our new myBearpaw prospectus over the last week. These are my workshops and evening courses from mid April till mid June. There are 5 new classes, four of them are for quilts and projects that I have made previously like this House Quilt and the Snowball Craft Bag. But I did make one sample for a new class - the text embroidery hoop above.

The idea is to learn some basic outline and filler stitches while embroidering your favourite slogan or just playing around with letters and text. 

I am very happy with this piece above and am already working on at least one more. I will try to publish some patterns of these soon too. The quote is by David Bowie. I am still pretty heart broken about his untimely passing so this was a nice way of sewing a personal tribute.

If you'd like to join me for this class you can check out the details here, and view the whole prospectus here.

Last weekend I taught my Dishes Quilt class for the first time. I made some extra blocks as class samples using Jennifer Paganelli's stunning upcoming collection 'Color Brigade' (which she has very kindly sent me for a commission). 

I made these into two panels and then finished them with matchstick and hand quilting as I'd done with the original Dishes Wallhanging below

This time I used Manchester Linen in Pepper (instead of Stone) and so managed to use my original test block (made with Jen's earlier line 'Circa') in one of the panels. The 'shelf fabric' is from the amazing 'Carkai' line by Carolyn Friedlander.

I turned the two panels into this pretty tote bag! The lining is by Heather Bailey, a fabric we had in our sale, but then I realised I loved it too much to sell it and took the rest of the bolt home with me!!

Despite being somewhat in love with this bag I am actually giving it away! 

Apologies right now for those of you not on Instagram as you won't be able to take part in this giveaway (but hopefully you have still enjoyed looking at the pretty bag!).

I just passed 5000 followers on IG and to celebrate and as a thank you I am giving away the bag, a fat eighth bundle (24 fabric) of the complete new Joel Dewberry collection 'Wander' (not out for a few months actually - another kind donation from the lovely folks at Coats UK!), plus...

...I will also be knitting a pair of socks for one lucky winner!! 

I recently took a ball of our new Arne and Carlos sock yarn (by Regia) for a spin and made this pair for my son. I may have mentioned before that sock knitting is crazily addictive and now I just want to make more! But I am running out of people to make them for - hence my very generous giveaway!

If you do have an IG account why not pop over and enter - you have till tomorrow evening?!

Or if you don't already then maybe you should consider joining? There is so much fun and inspiration to be found over there!!

The Trials and Tribulations of Regia Teddy

Anyone that follows me on Instagram will have seen this Teddy taking shape over the last 6 weeks or so. But it hasn't been a smooth ride, in fact near the end it got decidedly bumpy and I wondered whether Teddy would actually appear at all! 

So let me tell you a little story, all about Teddy's traumatic birth...

It all started when one of the lovely people at Coats sent me a couple of balls of new Arne and Carlos Regia sock wool and a pattern leaflet. I saw that photo of Teddy above and just fell in love - I had to make Teddy!

I decided to swap the lovely turquoise coloured yarn they had sent for this amazing Kristin Nicholas design, also Regia, which I had in stock in the shop.

I made one leg , just like a mini sock, with my 5 DPN's (double pointed needles), and then the next. Everything was going well.

The legs were joined at the body, two arms followed (even minier socks) and all joined up together on 6 needles! Yes I was using 7 needles to knit for a while - proper ninja knitting!!

Everyone was very impressed but actually it is no harder to knit with 6 needles than 2 .

By the time I hit the neck I was back to 5 needles and it looks like the weather had improved !

So everything had been going well and I was pleased and excited, just the head to do now.

Things did get a little trickier here and it's also looking quite painful for Teddy as his face is created in a slightly Frankensteinish way!

At last his snout was finished! This happened quite late at night when my sister, my cousin and my husband were all in attendance. Delightedly I turned Ted around to greet them...

And they just laughed and laughed!!

They became quite hysterical laughing at Teddy. I tried to cover his ears (but he didn't have any yet so it wasn't a problem) and massaged his head to look more 'teddylike'. But still they laughed - I must have done something wrong they said, he looked more like a badger than a teddy!

I was heartbroken, poor teddy... he didn't deserve this! I had been planning on making him for my husband's birthday as he had been quite taken by the photo on the pattern. But Jonathan was particularly cruel, calling Teddy a mutant. I told him I wouldn't give Teddy to him now! He would go to the shop to advertise the wool instead!

Over the next few days I stared at Teddy and at the pattern - what had I done wrong?! Maybe his head did look a bit weird...

I couldn't bring myself to finish him. I kept him safe in my bedroom and left the pattern, remaining wool and needles on my sewing room table. The next day I woke up determined to tackle Teddy.

But something terrible greeted me in the sewing room!

One of my cats (I strongly suspect Simon) had been sick all over the Teddy pattern! So much so that it had dissolved in cat sick and was unreadable! And another cat (I strongly suspect Hector) had chewed the ends off 3 out of 5 of my DPN's!! Were the cats trying to tell me something? Did they hate Teddy too?!

In desperation I took Teddy into my shop to show my colleague Jane. Jane is a much better knitter than me, maybe she could help me rescue Teddy.

And she did! She took one look at him and said he was absolutely fine as he was, he just needed his ears and his face. To illustrate she cut out some paper ears and pinned them to his head and pinned on some button eyes and a nose too. And he looked exactly like the pattern!!

Teddy was saved!

I did then take me another few weeks to knit the ears and then another few days to build up the courage to sew them on, I was so worried I would ruin him!

Luckily the pattern is available online - here.

And just look at him now - a really cute Teddy!! He does have a bit of a floppy neck (I am thinking a scarf might help), and there is no way a child is ever going to get it's hands on him, but other than that he is perfect and I love him!

Teddy is now embarking on a new life living at the shop, wearing a tiny placard and helping to sell the Regia wool!
(Actually I lied about the tiny placard).