Butterfly Fantasy Quilt and the Thread House Virtual Retreat

One week into Lockdown here in the UK and it feels like things are settling down a little.  It’s still an incredibly strange and sometimes scary time but I have not had to make the same adjustment as others. I usually work from home anyway, as does my husband and our children are grown and living independently. The big difference for me is no more face to face teaching for a while.

Karen and I love hosting our Thread House weekend retreats and they are a big part of both our incomes. Unfortunately we’ve had to cancel our summer retreat and I’m not sure yet whether this year’s Stitch Gathering will go ahead. And really it’s right now that we need to bring folks together, but of course without leaving their own homes. So we’ve come up with a way to host a virtual retreat.

We will be using Facebook Live along with video tutorials to teach and share a number of techniques and projects over the weekend. We will be creating a special private group on Facebook where our Virtual Retreat will take place.

Only those booked on the retreat will gain admission to the group and there will be time before the retreat to get to know your fellow Retreaters through posts in the group.

Over a weekend I’ll be teaching my tendrils techinque and Karen will be showing you how to turn it (or something else) into a pouch. Then Karen will be using the templates from my New York Beauty block to teach FPP and I’ll be showing you how to turn this into the Butterfly Fantasy block using curved piecing and needle-turn applique. You can read the full details and timetable here on the Thread House website.

Once the retreat weekend is over the group will stay permanently available to all Retreaters, which means you can go back and view both the pre-recorded and Live videos, download templates and continue to communicate with others.

The cost of the Virtual Retreat is £25 and you can book a place now at our Big Cartel store here. The retreat will run from 10am – 9pm on Saturday 18th April and 10 – 5pm on Sunday 19th April. You must have a Facebook account to take part in the retreat.

I’d love it if some of my blog readers were able to join us too!

I started the Butterfly Fantasy quilt last year for a Free Spirit Fabrics blog hop to celebrate the release of Valori Wells fabric collection Murmur. You can read all about it here. But I never got around to quilting it.

However with our current state of self isolation all sorts of WIP are going to see the light of day over the next few weeks and this one was top of the list.

I used some of the FMQ designs I’d used for my Dandelion Clock quilt for the butterflies and then experimented with a new overall pattern that I’m calling ‘coffee beans’, it’s basically large interlocking and intersected circles.

The thread is a variegated mauve Aurifil 50wt, number 3840,  and I finished the whole thing off with some faced binding, just in time to launch the virtual retreat on Friday. Having this new venture to plan has been a huge help during this time of panic and uncertainty, it’s really given me something to focus on.

A lot of things have had to be put on hold for the time being, including the sale of the myBearpaw shop, there’s no way this can be concluded at the present time but both myself and Catriona plan to try again when things become more normal.

Obviously we’ve had to close our Edinburgh shop and cancel classes, which also means cancelling our weekly and monthly craft clubs and Crafternoons. I know that many of our loyal customers really depend on these for companionship and community so one of the first things I did was to start a new Facebook group called Jo Avery Stitch. I planned to broadcast a Crafternoon from my sewing room when our regular session would have happened. Unfortunately my rural broadband meant I just couldn’t manage anything watchable.

However I have been producing a few short videos for the group and I’m planning more next week. You’d all be very welcome to join us in the group and view everything I’m sharing. Just click here and ask to join. I even managed a successful Live broadcast on Thursday while visiting the shop, not something I’m going to be able to do every week though.

I was two thirds of the way through an evening class course to make my Avery Garland quilt when this all kicked off but I managed to record some instructional videos to get the students to the end, and now they all have plenty of time for all that hand sewing! I loved making the new version of this block and I’m still planning a sew-along and pattern release later in the year, at present you can only get the pattern through issue 52 of Today’s Quilter, though you can buy a digital copy still.

I’m also not the only one getting organised to support our community during the current crisis. I am very happy to be joining this fantastic blog hop organised by Jo Westfoot of The Crafty Nomad. This means I’ll be planning something very special for my stop on the 9th April. Check out all the details and find out who else is taking part in Jo’s intro post here.

I’m going to be posting over here a lot more regularly too over the next few weeks, as not only will I have more finished projects to share but I also have no one else to talk too!

Stay safe and well everyone.