friday workshop take 2

 friday came around mightily speedily this week. 

it seems only 2 minutes ago that lizzie came over for a one-one workshop and here i was this week with jess, her mum wendy, vicky and chrissy round for their workshop.

 in my former life i used to be a teacher and doing these workshops has made me realise that it's not the teaching i grew to dislike, but the being in a classroom teaching unmotivated kids.

 teaching screen printing on the other hand has given me my passion back. 

when you have keen, star students in front of you and you get to pass on the wisdom of something you are passionate about, well quite frankly life doesn't get much better.

it is a privilege to have such lovely people come and want to learn something new and to show as much passion as i have.

 it was quite an intense day, in the best possible way. everyone was full of ideas and creative juices were running high.

i never saw such looks of concentration in the classroom.

 when all stencils had been cut we headed down to the print room (the basement) and after a quick session on how to actually pull a screen everyone set to work on their own screens.

 

i don't know about them but i was beyond excited at this point! i couldn't wait to see how their designs were going to turn out.

seriously, i needed to give myself a pep talk at this point.

and what star students they turned out to be...

after the printing and the cleaning up came the magic...

 seeing their designs transformed...

how cool are all of these?

i just love how different each and everyone's work is...

vicky brought her fab bird and birdhouses design printed out and ready to cut...

chrissy punched holes a crazy to make her striking design...

wendy did 2 - she used cat post-it-notes as silhouettes to cut out - and also took inspiration from melissa bombardiere's wonderful belbird design (i love melissa's work)...

and jess produced a wonderful piece that looks  tribal.

 the next workshop isn't until march 15..i'm not quite sure how i'll get my fix until then, but it's certainly something to look forward to.

if you fancy joining me for a fun passion  filled friday (does that sound wrong?) there are still a couple of places left for march 15. 

please do join us (mother's day is march 10 so put in your request for a great gift)...you can book a place here.

wonderful way to spend a friday...

what a fantastic way to spend a friday!

i had the pleasure of liz coming over for her one-one screen printing workshop.

liz has done a couple of screen printing courses before and so had a good idea of what she was up to.

she claimed she wasn't very artistic but if you see what she produced i think like me you would disagree rather swiftly.

liz brought some sizzex paddle punches with her. I haven't seen these before and they are so cool! It would be very difficult to cut these shapes for stencil printing and liz used these in such a creative way. I just love the effect she achieved.

we spent some time talking techniques (actually we didn't stop talking for the over 3 hours liz was here) so that we could perfect her already more than basic skills.

 one advantage for liz booking a one-one session was that she had more me time (not necessarily an advantage you might say) and we were really able to work on her skills.

she also had plenty of time and could work on 3 different designs.

 whichever workshop you book on you get tote, tea towel and fabric pack to work with.

i love how the stars came out on liz's tote!

with a little bit of time left liz set to work on her 3rd design - partly hand cut, partly sizzex paddle punched. 

how cool is her tea towel? just genius!

liz really was an a* student in both attitude and aptitude and i had such fun hanging out and 'playing' with her today.

thanks liz for a wonderful time!

if you would like to come and do a fun workshop there are a couple of places remaining on my march class or like liz you could book a one-one for that little bit more me time.

next week i have my next group workshop and i can't wait!

a lightbulb moment...

 i am still a bit giddy from yesterday. 

for those of you that follow me on IG you will know what i am talking about...

the wonderful and talented Leanne Fanny of the little house martin sent me some of her amazing fabrics....and i mean amazing!

we follow each other on IG (i'm blueberryathome, Leanne is leannefanny) amongst other places and we got chatting about doing a swap of our fabrics. i was certainly up for that!

would you just look at what came in the mail yesterday!

Leanne's designs and colours are just too stunning for words.

i have always been a fan of her dotted leaf design so was delighted to have a couple of those in the bundle.

 as for flower pop...just darling and such gorgeous colours.

Leanne mixes the most stunning colours and i am determined to spend some time on doing what i started doing a couple of weeks ago and mix better colours. it makes such a difference.

you may have come across her sewing machine patch that she has made a very cute needle case kit with. i think that is due to be in the shop very soon.

so there i was, lucky me, with all this sitting on my desk. 

taxes were done so there really was nothing (imminent) stopping me from creating with them.

as soon as i opened them and pulled (in a very refrained kinda way - obviously) them out i knew exactly what i was going to do with them. I had no preconceived ideas at all and thought they would sit on my desk for several days waiting for something very special to use them for.

but no sewing commenced rather swiftly...

 i was being a little bit of a tease posting photos on IG for Leanne to guess. she had absolutely no idea and nor did anyone else, although i did like one suggestion of it being a headboard for a bed.

 in typical karen can't-possibly-stop-to-rest-eat-or-do-anything-until-it's-finished mode at about 9.45pm last night the patchwork lampshade was completed. 

 i absolutely love it.

Leanne absolutely loves it

and judging by the reaction on IG last night a load of other lovely folks do too!

i can not tell you what a pleasure it has been to get to know Leanne and to have this wonderful experience with someone so lovely.

in fact, in less than 24 hours we have set up a collaboration of working together to devise the first in a series of lampshade kits! (there is already a very exciting second one in the pipeline, but can't say any more at the moment)

these kits will be available very very soon (or to buy ready made if you don't fancy making your own) so you too can have your very own beautiful Fanny Park lampshade in your house!

umbrellas and other quilt tops...

 is there any better sight than a pile of quilt tops?

 the only thing i can think of that is better is possibly a pile of completed quilts.

 january has seen me not only make 2 quilt tops from scratch but also finish off one from the WIP pile...big YAY!

 i jumped on the scrappy trip along bandwagon and made my first quilt top of the year.

 this was swiftly followed by making my Glimma quilt top...

and whilst the pressure of relative ease was still present business wise, i finished off my umbrella prints top.

i really love this top. 

the girls at umbrella prints are design geniuses and rank right up there with lotta jansdotter in my eyes (as does someone else who i'll tell you more about tomorrow).

i am hoping to tweak a little more time into my days to get these 3 quilted and bound before real work gets back to its crazy mayhem.

i'm not sure if i'll succeed but i think you will agree it's a damn good start to the year!

my week in pictures...

what a week.

it's quite amazing what you can fit in when you have to.

first up, the week here in the uk has been hit by mega snow which meant kids have been off with snow days. 

second up, I have been avoiding the issue of tax form deadline looming which always means throwing myself into other suddenly way more important jobs.

thirdly, my poor frail father went for a fall and broke his hip at the beginning of the week which has meant lots of round trips to the hospital visiting and shuttling mum to and fro.

it's quite a wonder i have done anything more than get dressed this week, but looking back on it a fair amount of activity has actually taken place...

1. a snowy walk around the lake...

2. trying to stick to my january fitness regime, but not easy to drag myself out of my cosy bed in this cold...

3. starting to organise my new spring collection with a canvas and linen foldover bag...

4. getting through a few more blocks for my low volume scrappy trip along quilt...

5. a nice little selection of fabrics sitting on my desk at the mo waiting to be tested...

6. beautiful views all over at the start of this week...

7. getting details for some new designs...

8. dumpling pouches galore! just loving making these little pouches (courtesy of michelle patterns)

9. arm warmers made out of an old favourite jumper that simply couldn't bear to throw away.

i hope you have had a good week with not too many stressful interruptions and

have a great weekend x

sneaky sewing...

like most ideas i have, this heart cushion came from nowhere and by the time I had finished, a progression i'm itching to try has sparked off as a consequence.

the other night i needed a quick fix sewing project...y'know the type when everyone else in the house is busy or amusing themselves and you are itching to sew and know that you can pinch an extra bit of time?

the thangles were out and being cut before i was really sure what i was doing.

not long later and the heart was forming and in no time at all it was pieced, quilted and sewn into a zippered cushion.

so gratifying!

as i said before, this has now got me thinking about a project along a similar vein and with the help of the arrival of some ordered fabric, it shouldn't be too long before this idea is realised.

 just need to make sure everyone is happy for me to ignore them for a little while again so I can sneak off and try it...

what have you managed to sneak off to do lately?

an unexpected treat day...

today was supposed to be all about this...

but the fluffy white stuff got the better of us :(

i had got the printing room all ready (albeit in the very chilly cellar)...

i had made soup...

and cake.

i would much rather be screen printing with lovely peeps but the consolation prize is i have cake and a day to do what i like.

if i was conscientious i would be taking advantage of the extra day and do my taxes...

but i'm not.

i hope the snow isn't interrupting your plans and if it is you are having a treat day as a consequence.