Patchwork Play

One thing I’ve been dying to try for ages (since I was about 10 years old actually!!) is patchwork and quilting. When I saw that York School of Sewing were running a beginners class I couldn’t wait to sign up. A whole 2 days of sewing and learning new techniques. In this class you learn the basics of both patchwork and quilting and make your work into a lovely squishy cushion.

We were asked to provide our own fat quarters, and I had a piece of fabric which I’d bought 6 years ago with the intention of making a blind for my son for his bedroom. He was then and is now a very keen golfer and this fabric is bright green with black ‘golfing’ figures on it and I thought it would look great in his room. However, the blind never got made, and the son is grown up now! The plan is that he will be moving out of his current bedroom in 2017 (just as soon as we get our loft converted and a new bedroom for us!!) so he won’t be needing that blind after-all. I decided I would use the fabric to make a cushion for him to celebrate his move when it finally happens.

York School of Sewing has a fantastic range of fabrics to choose from so I was able to choose some co-ordinating fabrics suitable for a young mans bedroom. We started off by experimenting with combining our fabrics to decide what balance we liked best, and then got down to cutting out all the pieces we needed for our patchwork.

We were a small group of only 5 ladies so it was sociable enough but it also meant that lovely Nadine was able to give us all plenty of attention too.

Once we had cut out the front of the cushion we started stitching it all together. It was good to have Nadine to tell us what was the right technique and equipment (such as the proper foot on the sewing machine) to use, and I think that is why my patch-working turned out to be far more accurate than it would have been had I tried to learn at home by myself.

We were going to be using the quilt as you go technique to make the back, and the layout was slightly different to the front with lots of very small squares to cut out for the centre.

On day 2 we learnt the quilt as you go technique for the back of the cushion, and then we were shown how to put the wadding and backing together with the front panel. We practiced different quilting techniques, before finishing off the panel for the front of the cushion. Once again having expert advice and the correct equipment were invaluable.

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I loved being able to try free-motion quilting and was extremely proud of myself  for putting my sons’ name on his cushion!!

I was very pleased too when I showed it to him and heard the words

“cool…thank you”

He certainly looks happy with it 🙂

Nadine said it would be ok if I shared some of her photos from the workshop to show the variety of designs produced.

Take a look at the website to see the range of classes on offer at York School of Sewing. They also have regular days when you can go along and buy from the vast range of fabrics and accessories available.

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