Freehand Rainbows and other Zen Stitching

It’s been quite a while since I last posted, I hope you’ve not been missing me too much! I have been fulfilling a lot of teaching obligations which date back two years and were all cancelled due to covid. This has kept me very busy, and though I have been making progress on various ‘class sample quilts’ I’ve had nothing much to show for it here.

However a couple of weeks back I was involved in a really special online event which has given a huge amount of joy and inspiration to many folks (including me!) and as it is still available for a couple more days I wanted to let you know about it and share all the pretty things I’ve been making.

Around Christmas time Karen Lewis sent me some sample pieces for her new Figo Fabrics collection ‘Hampton Court’.  I think this is Karen’s best fabric line to date and and was delighted to get to play with it even though the pieces were pretty small (all she could spare from her initial samples!).

As I was relaxing over the holidays I decided to use it for some meditational slow stitching and my Freehand Rainbow Applique blocks were the result. I wanted to take the pressure off and just cut, pin and stitch without templates or tracing, and without much thought!  I chose a range of different Essex Linen fabrics for the background and used matching Aurifil 80wt thread to stitch down. They were a joy to make! After joining them into a 9 patch panel and adding hand quilting using Aurifil 12wt wool I turned it into an 18″ cushion.

This was such a successful project that I knew I would make more and even turn it into a class. And then Kate Ward of Zen Stitching got in touch to ask if I would like to be a presenter at her Making Zen Online Retreat in May. Kate had fallen in love with the freehand rainbows and wanted me to teach this.

I really loved Kate’s idea for the retreat and her general ethos:

• Make dedicated time for yourself to create and overcome procrastination
• Learn new techniques to improve your stitching
• Develop practices that stimulate new ideas and creativity
• Achieve Zen through the creative process which brings clarity and peace of mind

The event sounded just what the world needed and I got involved straight away and made a second version of the cushion while filming the video tutorials. This one was made out of more Essex Linen and other interesting textured fabric such as Manchester Linen and Bark Cloth.

The event happened between 2-6 May with 4 presentations a day and was FREE for the classes on the day they were shown. The pre-recorded videos were accompanied by Instagram Live chats between Kate and that day’s presenters which were then hosted as part of the online retreat. There is also a Facebook Group for all attendees to join and share their projects.

However if you wanted lifetime access to the video presentations (and a huge list of freebies like extra online classes and patterns from the presenters) then you could buy the Access All Areas pass.  And you can still buy this pass…just!! It’s available until midnight ADT on 20th May (tomorrow!!).

Here is a direct link to buy your pass

I have to say that the Making Zen Online Retreat was a huge success! Thousands of people got involved and all seemed so happy and excited about the classes! I got some incredible feedback and loved seeing versions of the Freehand Rainbow Applique cropping up on social media.

I was so busy during the week of the retreat, getting ready for a teaching trip to Sweden, that I didn’t get time to watch and take part in any of the presentations myself. But last Sunday I finally had a little down time and the first presentation I watched was called ‘Cell Structure Blanket Stitch’ by Mirjam Gielan.

What a fascinating technique!  I used Aurifil 12wt wool (obvs!) in some of my favourite shades. This was very addictive and has so many creative possibilities.

Inspired by some of Mirjam’s samples I added some other embroidery stitches and am planning to grow this virus type embroidery further to cover the whole hoop.

But first I wanted to try another presentation!

I had fallen in love with these tiny ‘treasure bags’ when I’d seen them cropping up in the Facebook group. The presentation ‘Slow Stitched Treasure Bags’ was by Ellie Beck of Petal Plum and was just as much fun as the last one.

These little drawstring bags are all hand stitched so have the same zen vibe as the other presentations. It’s so satisfying to sit down with a little fabric and thread and create something with just your hands.

I used a linen tea towel that my sister Jane bought me from Edinburgh Botanic Gardens which was far to good to use on the dishes! The thread is a shocking pink sashiko cotton I’ve been hoarding forever and the lining is a Kaffe Fassett shot cotton stripe I bought in Sweden. I feel I need to find some special pebbles, shells or maybe some sea glass to keep in this tiny drawstring pouch.

I was enjoying all this zen stitching so much I decided to make another one of my freehand rainbows.  I’d been inspired by Kate and some of the other participants who had just made the one rainbow and turned it into a little coaster or tiny mini quilt!

I even left my quilting knots on the outside as one of the other presenters was doing in her class (still to watch that one!). This was a lovely quick make and would make a fab little handmade gift. Again this won’t be the last of these.

I was feeling the slow stitching love so much that I decided to finally finish a long standing WIP – a second Siddi Inspired Cushion.

I originally found out about the Kawandi quilts made by the Siddi people of India when I attended a lecture by Shruti Dandekar at QuiltCon in Savannah in 2017. I was so fascinated and inspired by the technique that I suggested a collaboration with Shruti to write a feature for Today’s Quilter. Shruti wrote the article and I did a pattern for my own version of the technique. You can see this one and read all about it in this post here.

This became a popular class at myBearpaw, and in a coaster version, a Quick and Easy class at Festival of Quilts (I’m actually teaching it for the third time in August. Book your tickets here!). I had been working on a large square class sample for the myBearpaw classes and decided to add just a few more lines and then to cut my losses (and the sample!) and turn it into a rectangular pillow.

I’m delighted with this one and I think the shape is perfect!!

I don’t really call my versions of this technique ‘kawandi’ as the authentic way to stitch these is from the outer edge inwards to the centre (very counter intuitive to most quilters who always work from the centre out!), instead I stitch in rows from the centre row out. In this way they are a sort of kantha/kawandi mash up!

Well I hope you have enjoyed my little tour through the current slow stitching that is occupying my hands and mind. And a last little reminder about the Making Zen retreat pass if you want to experience some zen too…

Here is a direct link to buy your pass