Inspiration by Hand

Last week I was lucky enough to go along to a workshop organised by the Oxfordfordshire Modern Quilters Guild.  Now quilting isn't really my thing, but handsewing and embroidery are so I decided to give it a whirl.  I've been having a really horrible, stressful time at work recently and when someone tagged me in an Instagram post about the day I decided it was just what I needed.  And it was.

It was lovely; very, very relaxing and just what I needed. 

The day was entitled "Inspiration by Hand" and was tutored by the lovely Anna Maria Horner.  If you're a quilter you'll almost certainly have heard of Anna Maria as her fabric designs are very popular.

Anna Maria started by telling us a bit about herself - she's the mother of seven children, how she finds the time for anything other than that I've no idea - and showing us some of her quilts.  They appealed to me as they tend to feature large blocks of fabric with applique and hand embroidery embellishment, rather than lots and lots of smaller squares or triangles of fabric making up the design.

This was one of my favourites - the colour scheme is possibly not my ideal but I loved the design and would love to make something like this myself.

Anna Maria Horner Travelling Blooms Quilt

I love this one as well, but sadly didn't get to see it "in the flesh".

Anna Maria Horner Safe Passage Quilt

After a chat and coffee we set about learning some hand quilting.  Many of the other attendees knew this skill already, but it was completely new to me.  I didn't even have the right thread, but luckily I sat between two lovely ladies who shared theirs with me. 

I started simply, using the design of my fabric as inspiration.  It was hard to know what fabric to bring, as I didn't really know what I would be doing with it.  With hindsight I'd have chosen something different, but I quite like it and it's only a sample anyway.

I'd built the design up a bit more by the time we stopped for lunch.  Sadly I don't have any more of the same colour thread, as I was borrowing it, so I'll need to track some down if I want to do any more to this. 

After a lovely lunch it was time to switch to hand embroidery, something I already knew that I love doing.

Again Anna Maria passed round some samples for us to admire, as you can see from the few photos below they really were lovely.  I particularly like the tufty section on the flower in the last photo.  I'm definitely going to try that myself.

We were then able to choose from some of Anna Maria's embroidery designs to use for our own pieces, which came as transfers to be ironed onto our fabric.   I chose a letter S, which actually made Anna Maria's Insta-stories.

I've added more to it since I got home from the workshop and am finding it quite addictive.

I'm now thinking of ways that I could combine hand quilting, hand embroidery and free motion embroidery.  I've got a lot of other commitments at the moment, but watch this space!