Warm fuzzies

The other day I heard someone describe teaching as something that could either give you "warm fuzzies" or "cold pricklies".

Wednesday and Thursday were definitely warm fuzzies!

I forgot (as always) my camera for Wednesday, so I'll have to grab some pictures next time.  We are approaching the end of the City & Guilds course and there is some utterly fabulous work emerging.  I am stunned at what people have been able to go away and do after a session of vague and waffly teaching with me...(well, it feels vague and waffly to me sometimes!  I get side-tracked by ideas).  Promise photos next week...

Meanwhile, on Thursday we have been making holes in things.  Someone told me a while back to confront my fear of teaching with craft tools that could potentially burn down the building, as it was fun...and I think I'm finally convinced!

Here is my original sample (in a sudden flash of inspiration it is backed with FOIL - I have after all got quite a lot of the stuff)

And here is Ann's piece, pre-burning of the holes - this is Ann who said she was no good at free machining...I beg to differ:

 

Angela's (also pre-burning).  I love the frayed edges of the silk that Angela has used:

And Carole has been very busy, displaying her work beautifully in a hard-backed book:

 

And Sheila has also conquered free machining and produced some beautiful work:

 

Now that we've burnt holes in anything that will stand still long enough, we've started to play with shirring elastic:

The Girl has also been stitching cut-through circles for her plant cell quilt:

Girl tacked all the hexagons, I did the triangles (because the points were fraying) and then Girl stitched it all together by hand, and free-machined and cut away the blue vacuoles.  All nuclei and chloroplasts also stitched on by Girl's hand.  Since this (blurry) photo, I have stitched it up with wadding and a backing, and Girl will machine quilt it next time I can grab her to come and use the sewing machine...

Science homework isn't what it was in my day...

FINALLY we also managed a spot of tray-dyeing in class yesterday (no wonder the car was laden to the roof!)

 

Sneak preview...

I haven't ironed it yet...

Not so stuck part 1

I think I've hit on something.

I took some of my collage fabric paper stuff and used an idea from Cloth Paper Scissors to make some circles, but with the intention of using more stitch.

 But which way to arrange them?

I finally settled on this arrangement. I quite like it.

I could have added a lot more stitch, and I need to expand my repertoire of hand-stitches, but I’m very happy with the result.

It has given me an idea, which I’m going to work on during my half-term hols in Wales.

Definitely not so stuck anymore.  Hoobloominray!

Displacement activity

I have just discovered dumpr. What fun!

This is my displacement activity, because I should be finishing a panel for a machine embroidery taster sesh that I'm teaching on Wednesday. The idea is to demo the sorts of things you can do with machine embroidery, and I thought I would make a cushion rather than yet another sample book. Unfortunately, I don't seem able to finish it - just when I think I'm there, I realise something else needs doing. Now it is too SMALL for my cushion pad (cheapo salvaged from charity shop cushion, so size non-negotiable). As a result I have a cat litter tray full of wet turquoise, as I didn't have any suitable fabric to extend the sides of the panel without creating some myself. I will then do some cable stitch writing on it, something exciting like "machine embroidery techniques"...oh I'm full of imagination today...