Quilting for Beginners Workshop

There are some great workshops coming up at TeesCreatives in Middlesbrough, including how to Make Your Own Jeans, and Design and Make a Cushion. I am also running Quilting for Beginners, a series of five 2.5hr workshops aimed at those totally new to patchwork and quilting, or those who need a refresher in the techniques. I will show you how to make four different quilt blocks using a variety of hand and machine piecing techniques, and then how to make them up into a wall hanging or a set of cushions.

TeesCreatives provides sewing machines and all the tools you need for each workshop so all you need to bring is fabric and enthusiasm. The on-site Sewmotion pop-up shop will be open an hour before the class to purchase your materials where you'll also get 10% off as you are attending a class. You can find out more about this workshop here and see TC's list of workshops here

Meanwhile, back at Sewmotion, I've been buried in half-square triangles making up a gorgeous Medallion quilt for my next appearance on Sewing Quarter TV Channel next Tuesday (26th March). You can watch me demo this and a lovely embroidered cushion at 9am and 11am on Freeview channel 73, Sky 687, online and on YouTube.

Wishing you all a creative and peaceful week, linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday.

New Beginner's Quilt Kits & a Pop-Up Shop

Over the years my Beginner's / Quick & Easy Quilt kits have been instrumental in helping many of my lovely customers embark on their quilting adventure. As you may know this is how Sewmotion came into being, while working in a fabric shop who didn't run classes, someone would come in near enough every day wanting to learn how to quilt. So I designed and wrote this Beginner's Quilt tutorial to help them along, and of course, once I started Sewmotion, it just had to be the first kit I released!

These kits are ideal for those who maybe haven't bought the rotary cutter, ruler and mat as yet, and just want to have a go, for those who aren't too confident in their cutting, or even for those looking for a quick project.

Each kit comes with all 36 pre-cut squares, borders, binding and thread and full instructions, which also include links to my very thorough online tutorials for even more help. Each kit is £30 and would make a great Christmas gift for someone wanting take up this wonderful craft, you can see my whole collection of quilt kits here.

TeesCreatives workshops start this weekend, Laura will be teaching the Tilly and the Buttons Cleo dress on Saturday, Jen will be teaching the Linden Sweatshirt on Sunday, while I will be holding a Sewmotion pop-up shop in Creative Room 2. So if you're in need of beautiful fabric, sewing inspiration or just on the hunt for sewing gifts for special friends, why not pop along? I'll be there this Saturday 10-4pm.

For a full list of TeesCreatives workshops, including my Diamond Star Cushion and Flower Hoop Art classes next week, click here. We are also currently meeting up with lots more tutors who want to work with us in the New Year, so it would be a good idea to sign up to TC's Newsletter to be kept up to date with new classes and workshops!

Wishing you all a happy and creative week!
Linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday.

TeesCreatives Open Day

I'm so proud to have been involved in the setting up of Middlesbrough's newest creative space, TeesCreatives. The brainchild of Jen - a friend as addicted to dressmaking as I am to quilting, her plan was to offer a space where fellow sewists can come and learn, develop their skills and be sewcial with like-minded makers. Jen is actually a hairdresser by trade and owns a beautiful Victorian terrace building down Middlesbrough's main road. While her salon is on the bottom floor, she once rented the rest of the building to students. However, as her sewing addiction took hold, the dream of a sewing space started to grow, and when she mentioned it to me and a fellow dressmaker and retailer, Laura who owns Cotton Reel Studio, we jumped at the chance to get involved.

The first course of action was to de-student the rooms which involved a lot of work on Jen and her lovely husband's part, then there was painting, and more painting.. ahhh! Finally with a couple days to go before the Open Day, everything was coming together. Laura and I did some last minute cleaning while Jen took the steamer to that beautiful tiled floor, as you can see, even Henry the hoover had had enough!

With Cotton Reel Studio's and Sewmotion's pop-up shops all set up and the machines all raring to go, we had a well-deserved day off before the big day. Jen actually went to a SewUpNorth get together where she met some Instagrams sewing mates, and even bought a few of them back! Did I mention, the building also has a couple of AirBnB rooms on the top floor for visitors to book Sewing Weekenders and for visiting tutors to stay over? So these lovely girls were our guinea pigs, and by the sounds of it they had a great time!

The Open Day was so much fun, we had our 'guinea pigs' working on some projects at the machines, fizz and cake were handed out to the many visitors and there was a lot of excitement about our class and workshop plans - a great day was had by all. Now the real work begins, we're hoping to start running classes and workshops in late November, with the website being launched soon. You can follow us on Facebook and on Instagram to be kept up to date, and if you're from the Teesside area, we would love to hear which  classes you would like to see run, is there a creative skill you have always wanted to learn? We are also inviting tutors to get in touch and work with us in this great creative space.

So thank you to both these gorgeous ladies, and here's to an exciting and creative future!

Linking up with Let's Bee Sewcial, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday

Bolt End Sale, EPP BOM Progress and Workshop Ideas

When designing and making up my quilt and cushion kits I buy small amounts of fabric, which makes these creations limited editions. If you see a kit at a show or online, it's unlikely that it'll still be available in six months time. And I like this, it means not only do I have to move onto to a new design and new fabrics, but I also get to sew and quilt a new product, what's bad about that (apart from time!) However, it also means that if I run out of just one fabric in the range and I don't want to re-order, I am left with the remaining fabrics I can no longer use. So to make room for new fabrics, I thought I'd have a Bolt End Sale! Click here to see the collection, they are based on £15p/m with a huge discount of 25% off. Enjoy!

Meanwhile, I've been making great progress on my English paper-pieced block-of-the-month design, hoping to be released early next year. I've been having some great feedback from fellow quilters, and I can't wait to start sewing the blocks together using the quilt-as-you-go method. 

This BOM will feature Alison Glass's Sun Prints fabrics with that gorgeous Linen-look grey from Makower for the background squares. Each month you will receive the fabric and paper templates you need for the EPP, together with the grey background square to appliqué the shape onto, and of course full instructions for each block, including the quilting. If you might be interested in this program, which at the moment looks at being around £30 per month, though this could change slightly, sign up to my Newsletter and keep up to date with progress and news on its future release.

This week I also had an exciting meeting with a like-minded sewist who has been dreaming of setting up some kind of sewing hub in the centre of Middlesbrough where we live. While she's more into dressmaking, and I quilting, we thought it would be great to join forces to offer workshops and classes, and to also provide a large workspace with sewing machines and tables for groups and individuals to use. This is obviously all in the planning stages, and we have lots of ideas, I would just appreciate some feedback from you... do you go to somewhere similar near you? What do you like about it? If you live in the Teesside area, would you come along? Any thoughts below would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

More exciting news - I was chuffed to be asked by Popular Patchwork to write their Patchwork Of My Life column in October's issue which is out now.

We're taking a much needed break next week, off to our favourite land of the Netherlands for some great food, walking, and maybe even cycling, so I'll see you in a couple of week's time. Meanwhile, don't forget to check out these great Linky Parties - Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday.