New Workshops for the Autumn!

We’ve just launched our Autumn Term prospectus at myBearpaw Craft Studio!

I’ve been very busy over the last few weeks making some new class samples, and feeling quite festive despite it being July (not that you’d know it as we have had the most atrocious weather this summer in Scotland – it’s just starting raining again as I type!!).

The one I struggled most with was this Christmas Tree Skirt. First of all I tried out a patchwork Dresden wedge type idea. This proved way too hard for a class (and too hard for me!), and I have now accidentally made a  Christmas place mat with my failed samples (photo to follow in a future post).

Looking around for inspiration I encountered the pattern that Brioni Jenkins had made for Fat Quarterly a few years back. This had houses around the edge and small stars in the centre and was machine appliqued. I realised this was too much work for a day class, but then I remembered the ticker tape quilts that were all the rage a few years back and this cot quilt I had made to sell in the shop…

And so this Tree Skirt has been made using this quick, easy ‘glue and FMQ’ method. And it worked really well! But I must say a huge thanks to Brioni for the initial inspiration. I hope my design doesn’t look too much like her original!

I had a few goes at this and got it right with my third attempt, that’s the flowers on the right hand side, one flower was outright rejected. After the class I plan to post the pattern for this so look out for it sometime in late November!

Next up holly leaves. I found an excellent pattern on Attic 24 which really couldn’t be bettered so these were all made with this.

The mistletoe pattern was pretty easy to make up. I added pretty pearly buttons for berries on all the leaves.

And lastly snowflakes. Again I turned to Attic 24 for my first try at these, and then made the rest up. I wanted them to each be different like actual snowflakes.

And here is the finished garland!

Lastly I have designed a new embroidery on felt for a hot water bottle cover.
I wanted to make this quite a simple design so it wasn’t too daunting a project for a beginner, or for anyone really.

I like using felt for embroidery as you don’t need a hoop and when finished you have a more versatile material than linen.
But it can stretch at openings, so my little tip is to sew ribbon to the raw edges as you can see on the back of the cover below, which reinforces it as well as looking pretty 🙂