Gearing up

Ahhh... A lovely clean studio and a picturesque display of the beginnings of a leisurely craft project...

Yes, well, that didn't last long. 

That photo was from the week after Christmas, when my studio was still empty, having been cleared for our family Christmas lunch, and I was embarking on my holiday quilting project.

For the last month or so, it's been looking pretty much like this...

I've been making garments and step by-step-samples of garment techniques, in preparation for my classes at Grampians Texture this year.

This year, my 2-day and 4-day classes are both about garment sewing. 

The 4-day class - The Endless Wardrobe - is about making the most of the garment patterns by changing around or adding details like pockets, button and zipper openings, collars, cuffs, pleats and gathers. A single pattern can be used as a foundation for endless designs, if you know a few clever patternmaking and garment sewing techniques. We'll be exploring a lot of those.

There have been a couple of late cancellations in the 4-day workshop, which means that there is still room in the class for late enrollments. If you feel like spontaneously treating yourself to a textiles retreat (18th-23rd March), here's your opportunity! :)

I'm looking forward to the lovely bubble of textile goodness and gorgeous Grampians landscape that Grampians Texture is. 

I'm looking forward to friendly kangaroos on my classroom doorstep.

If you want a single day of this sort of thing, I'm teaching at Cutting Cloth in Fairfield again this year.  Apart from March (when I'll be in the Grampians), I'll be there on the 3rd Sunday of each month. You can work on your own projects, and I can help with things like fitting and tweaking and lots of tricks for a faster, easier or better finish. 

And yes - the holiday quilting project was finished.  It was a quilt for my girl's bed. No guessing what she asked the design to be.

The fabric is mostly Jodie Carleton's range "The Cat's Pajamas".  I made up the cat as I went along, and the quilt blocks in the background are from Tula Pink's Modern Quilt Blocks book.  I quilted the whole thing with cat-head shapes.

This is the back of the quilt.

In other news, I have book edits coming in soon for the new book (due out in November) and I'm back at my regular fashion school job.  

It's all go. No more tidy studio.