We have lots to share with you this week so I’ll start by getting straight back to this piece. You’ll remember that last time I showed you how I layered the print up for quilting, and how I made a start with the freehand machine quilting. Here’s how it looks now all the machine stitch is complete, it’s trimmed and bound.
Even though this quilt is small (about 10” x 11”), I thought a very narrow binding would finish it nicely. A binding adds an outline to a piece, just like a painting in a frame. If you’d like a detailed insight into how I trim, bind and hand finish my quilts you’ll find a separate post with all that information. Here’s a link to it. We’ve made the post about binding free for everyone to read. Partly because we’d like to give you a taster of what our paid subscribers enjoy, and hopefully encourage you to sign up, and partly because I think knowing how to bind a quilt neatly is a really important skill that every quilter should have!
So if you’ve missed it, do pop over and give that post a read and then come on back here as I’ve got more to tell you…
Now even though the quilt was trimmed and bound, I didn’t think it was quite finished. I’d used that lovely turquoise thread to quilt within the moon area and I felt that I needed to sprinkle some of that colour elsewhere in the composition. Layering up hand stitching over machine quilting is something that I enjoy doing and I knew that seed stitches would work perfectly for my plan.
I had a look through my stash of hand dyed threads and found this bright turquoise that’s almost identical in colour to the machine thread I’d used. Yes I know it looks like a bird’s nest! I have cut the skein into short lengths so they aren’t actually the knotty mess that they look like.
As I printed, I’d made short parallel marks to fill the background area. I’m mimicking that with the seed stitch so instead of making a single stitch, then change direction, I’m placing them in threes, before changing the angle.
I didn’t need to do too much of this stitching, just a few on either side of the blue machine quilted area and it’s spilled the turquoise into the background and created the effect that I was looking for.
I’ve put the completed piece on my website so do take a look. Here’s a link.
Short courses at Bobby Britnell’s studio
Our good friend Bobby Britnell is offering a selection of courses from her studio this year. Some are with Bobby herself while others are led by guest tutors. Her studio is in a really beautiful part of Shropshire and I’d encourage you to take a look if you’re tempted to treat yourself to a creative retreat. Coming up next month is a three day course with Alex McIntyre called Finding Possibilities. Followed in July by a short course with Jenny O’Leary called Hedgerows - Batik on tissue, paper and fabric. Also coming up this summer: learn to draw with Bobby, Kantha style embroidery with Dorothy Tucker, and working with wild fibres with Alice Fox.
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You can browse all of the upcoming courses on Bobby’s website where you’ll also find she has online classes if travelling to Shropshire isn’t an option. Take a look at her website here.
The Bettws Triangle Art and Music Festival 2024
Bobby is also part of the Bettws Triangle Festival (14-16th June), and will be displaying her work along with her students and other artists at this year’s event.
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There’s a lot going on in this three-day festival so do be sure to check out the website for all the info. Here’s a link.
Compressed Sponge
In one of our recent posts Linda talked about using compressed sponge to make print blocks for some new work. If you missed it, paid subscribers will find the article in the Archives (the post is called Backgrounds and Negative Space). Compressed sponge is such a useful item to have in your art kit. When it arrives, it looks like a piece of cardboard, you can draw an outline on it and cut it out with scissors. Then as if by magic when popped in water it expands into a lovely bubbly sponge that you can print with.
Don’t forget, we also have a free video introducing you to compressed sponge on our website. Here’s a link.
After our recent mentions of the sponge we had some messages to ask if we still had any in stock. The good news is yes! I’ve added sponge to my shop so you can order it online. Here’s a link. We’ll be shipping out orders from Monday so do head over and get yours so it’s sent out in that first batch.
I post all over the world, but obviously the postage overseas can be expensive so you might want to buddy up with a friend and order a couple of packs to share. At the moment, any orders in my online shop automatically receive a free pack of ten postcards too!
Thank you for reading our newsletter this week. Don’t forget about that bonus free post about the binding. We really appreciate your support as always. Please leave any comments or questions below, we love to hear from you.
Bye for now,
Laura and Linda x
Beautifully finished quilt Laura. The added turquoise was just the perfect finishing touch.
About compressed sponge. I know I have watched a few of your workshops on this and it's nothing but fun. There is no other way to get those holey marks.
When I read Linda's article I remembered that I wanted to ask you at the Birmingham exhibition if you have any compressed sponge left. I was many times looking online without success.
Will send you an email regarding the shipping.