book bag

Last Monday I joined a workshop "Indian Stitching: Embroidered Book Bag" at Hansons Fabrics.
I always enjoy Hansons workshops, they are so well run. All the materials are included in the cost, as are all the refreshments; tea, coffee and biscuits on arrival, a splendid buffet lunch and afternoon tea and cake, all this organised by Sheila. Thank you, Sheila, for looking after us so well!

Our tutor was Tiggy Rawling. Do visit her blog here, to see her fabric dyeing and read about her travels to India.
The object of the workshop was a sample of a cloth book bag. This type of bag is used in Asia to protect precious books.

First of all we traced the embroidery pattern into the fabric, then embroidered the design using chain stitch for the outline and Indian filling stitch ( Romanian stitch) and closed herringbone stitch as a filling stitches, with shishas in the centre of the flowers.

After completing the embroidery, we made up the bag, including the lining.

 

 

my Indian book bag

Another very enjoyable day spent in the company of Tiggy Rawling.

textile group

Our textile group is meeting one morning a week. Originally started as a social meeting, with some encouragement towards all things textile, we found that some people are only too happy just to come and sit and chat and drink coffee or tea, not engaging in any activity. To give our group more structure, we decided to share any textile knowledge we have among us in a form of short in house workshops. One of our ladies makes fabulous bags, which we have been admiring. She showed us how to make a simple, but well finished, lined bag, in fabrics, design and size of our choice. Most of our materials come from donations to the Centre or have been purchased in charity shops, emphasis being on recycling.

I decided to make a craft bag (of course) and this is the result. I made it with lots of pockets on the outside and a couple on the inside (for mobile phone etc).

My bag was a curtain in its previous life!

 

I will be leading the next meeting, based on a wall hanging I made a couple of years ago, to encourage our ladies to do some simple stitching and embellishing.

These squares are from dyed blankets and they are fun to do, just using your imagination. I look forward to seeing the results, which we hope to display in the Centre.

what should postman bring next?

I have been reading Jennie's blog, she has been learning "stitch and slash" technique in the course she is currently attending. I remembered that I learned this in one of the workshops I went to quite a while ago.
Jen is much more creative with her sample, it will be interesting to see it when finished.
The object of the workshop I went was to make a bag. It is one of the projects I actually finished!

I remember that our tutor brought various objects made using this technique, from cushions to a waistcoat.

Depending on fabrics used, you can get some amazing results.

I am waiting for the postman to bring me no 4 of BOM, so I can finish my Christmas tablecloth. I need one more corner to embroider plus the rest of the design. I might even finish it before Christmas!

Some of you, who have commented on the Tail Feathers quilt, wondered if they too should have a go at machine quilting. Let me say, that I don't think it is something I will take up in a big way, but I am glad I have done it and I will be confident to have a go if I need to in the future. It is very scary to start with if, like me, you haven't done any free motion embroidery before, but it gets easier. I practiced on a small Tilda stitchery before starting on the quilt, which proved to be a good idea.

freeform designer bag

A couple of days ago I attended a lovely workshop, Freeform Designer Bag with Julia Hall (mother of Jane Hall) at Stitchncraft in Semley.

We were making knitted and crochet bag. The requirements listed Noro yarn, but we could use anything we wanted. I chose Noro as I have never used it before and the colours are so beautiful. In fact, I have not done any knitting for a long time, so I was really looking forward to this workshop. It makes an interesting change from knitting garments.
The idea is to knit and crochet various shapes and then attach them to the plastic bag frame. When the whole bag is covered, it then can be embellished with buttons, beads etc and a handle is stitched on and the bag is lined. Julia brought some bags she designed and made herself, they were fantastic. I can see that it is something which can become addictive, as so much is left to you own imagination, no two bags will ever be the same. Also, it is something that can be picked up and put down at any time, while working on the individual shapes.
I have already been looking up books on knitted and crochet flowers on Amazon!

This is as far as I got on the day! I will try to make as many pieces as I can before arranging them on the frame. So, watch this space!