Harbour Scenes and Rice Pouches

After a six month absence I am back in Today’s Quilter this month.  And I think they must have missed me as they’ve announced me on the front cover!

They’re are a few quilts coming up over the next few months but I’m starting back with a small project. It’s this Harbour Scene Picture!

I’ve been teaching my Tiny Improv Streetscape workshops for almost a year now, but obviously not everyone can attend and it’s quite hard to write patterns for improv.

So I scaled it up a little and squared it up, and turned it into a regular patchwork pattern.

I then finished it with some hand quilting using Aurifil thread 12wt cotton. It was fun adding the window sashing and the clouds!

And then I added the perfect finishing touch of tiny button door knobs.

That fishy fabric is from Reef by Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman and it worked so well for the water.

Issue 49 is out now if you’d like to make your own version. If you are overseas and don’t want to wait for the issue to reach you in a few months then you can always download the digital version. Check out the details on their website here.

I am still teaching the workshop though, it has become one of my favourites.  In fact I will be heading to Houston for the first time in October to teach at Quilt Festival and this is one of four classes I will be teaching there!  Booking starts in June but you can check out the faculty now.

I used to turn my Tiny Improv Streetscape class samples into pouches or pots, but I have now started saving them to go towards a larger project.  I have something in mind but no time to work on it yet. Meanwhile here are all the bits and pieces I have saved up so far – quite a little village already!

A few weeks ago I taught the Modern Japanese Rice Pouch class for the first time. You may remember that I made my first Rice Pouch for QuiltCon back in February, the excellent pattern is by Karen Stevens and is available to buy from her Etsy Store here. You can read about that first rice pouch here.

Karen very kindly allowed me to teach a class using her pattern at the  studio.

I thought I better make at least one more before the class so I used a bunch of HST that are left over from recent (yet to be seen) quilts and made the smallest 6 inch version of the pouch.  I just love it! So fresh and summery.

I then prepared a more ‘rice pouchey’ panel to make along with the class.

The whole idea of the workshop is that we spend most of the day making an improv panel with all sorts of interesting scraps and small orphan blocks (like that blue tit), adding in some different textures like linen and selvedges, and even a few raw edges (gasp!). We also add applique circle or yo-yos and then some hand stitching such as quilting and simple embroidery stitches.  My students absolute loved making these panels!

My lovely friend Dolores gave me a large piece of a fabulous Laundry Basket Quilt Panel with outlines of flowers and leaves (perfect for applique!), I used a running stitch in red over the outlines. My students liked it so much that I gave them each a piece to try, as you can see below…

Didn’t they do well making these gorgeous pouches! I’ll be repeating this class in the Autumn, new prospectus coming in a week or two.

I’ve also started using a cork fabric on the base of the pouches.

It’s practical and easy to use, plus we are selling this in our Edinburgh shop at the moment 🙂

These rice pouches are so practical for storing your latest craft project in. I am doing some embroidery at the moment and I have all my threads, scissors etc. in this pouch. The great thing is that you can open it out so wide that you can clearly see all the contents. Then you gather it all back together again to safely carry it around. Get started on your own by purchasing the pattern here!

As you can see I have already started on a panel for the next one.  When Today’s Quilter arrived I suddenly remembered that I had an ‘orphan’ house left over from making the harbour scene, so now that’s going to be part of a rice pouch too!