Requirements list for Tomomi's workshop in February

Free motion quilting workshop

Aims and objective:
To learn how to set up sewing machine and sewing environment to do free motion quilting easily.
To learn how to free motion quilt the basic shapes and create other shapes and motifs from that.
Will make a whole cloth quilt for a cushion cover of 16” or 18”.

Each participants needs:

Own sewing machine with a free-motion, embroidery or darning foot.
Extension table for the machine if available.
If the extension table is going to be used, have a sheet of Supreme slider or heavy duty silicone oven sheet from ALDI.
A practice quilt sandwich; Fat quarter size, made of any fabric
A cushion cover quilt sandwich; 20” for 18” finished, 18” for 16” finished, preferably solid colour to show the quilting.
Good quality threads, for the practice, different coloured thread from the fabric to see quilting better and matching coloured thread would be a better choice for the cushion cover.
Please use low loft wadding.
A pen and some paper for drawing.
Some wrist size elastic band.
Water or air soluble marker.
A pair of quilting gloves or any gloves with non slip dots(optional).

Do clean and oil your sewing machine and balance the thread tension prior to the workshop. Not a single lint left in the bobbin area!

Insert a new needle which should be quilting, top stitch or jeans needle and size 80 for 50wt thread and bigger for heavier thread

Do read or bring the manual of machine, if you don't know which dial does what.

Wind at least two bobbins for practice and two for cushion cover with same thread as top.

Extension power supplies might be needed.

Wear comfortable shoes or no shoes

Morning all! Just thought I'd share some photos and let you know where online our photo archive is. Every month I upload the photos I've been taking at our meetings to our Flickr account Midwest Patchwork. 

Flickr is a photo sharing site owned by Yahoo. You have to have a Yahoo account to log into Flickr. It's free and very easy to set up. Flickr offers a limited storage amount for free users but there are paid options too for more storage and you don't get bombarded with ads. If you pay about 25 dollars a year you get unlimited storage and a Pro after your name!

You can follow people on Flickr similar to Facebook and when you first log in you will see a stream of people's photos that you follow. Commenting and hearts to mark a photo as a favourite are all available and you can send emails to people you follow using Flickrmail.

Flickr used to be a very popular place to share quilt photos and join quilt groups to share work in progress and finishes as part of a quilt a long online or share a project made from a pattern or a technique with the designer. As Instagram and Facebook have become more popular amongst quilters, Flickr is not the go to place anymore but it is still worth a look and very handy for storing images online.

Every month I upload the photos from our meetings and last month started adding them to our Facebook group as well. If you want to see photos of past meetings and exhibitions we have taken part in please visit our group page here!

For now here are some images from our Christmas party at last Decembers meeting!
-Ruth

Upcoming workshop

Tomomi McElwee of Slaney Handcraft has prepared this gorgeous sample for our upcoming workshop in February. The workshop is on free motion quilting and at the end of the day you will have a completed cushion cover and learned traditional quilting motifs like feathers and some modern flower motifs like tulips and daisies.

The sample will be shown at this Friday's meeting and if you are interested in attending the workshop please see Grania Preston to book a place!  For now here are some close ups of Tomomi's gorgeous quilting!