At the moment, we have Julie and Anthony staying at the Cottage, along with members of their family who have dropped in for a few days, one or two at a time. Julie, already a skilled needlewoman, has been having quilting lessons with me and is enjoying herself, adding new skills to her repertoire.
She hit a good time to holiday here as she caught the last of my current series of Individual Workshops and was able to join the group doing Reverse Applique (contemporary style!). She was pushed well outside her comfort zone and had fun escaping her usual symmetrical approach to produce a really lovely piece of work which you can see for yourself in the photograph taken at my group’s ‘end of term’ Pot Luck Lunch, on Sunday 4th July.
While Julie has been doing patchwork and quilting with me, the other members of her family have been discovering Anglesey and North Wales before being guided gently towards one or two of the quilt shops we have on the Island. They have climbed Snowdon, visited Bodnant Gardens and Beaumaris Castle, watched nesting seabirds at South Stack, been body boarding at Cable Bay on the north coast, enjoyed ice cream at Red Boat and a lot more beside.
While at Cable Bay Julie sat quietly quilting a piece of wholecloth work she had designed, layered and begun stitching in a private workshop with me. You can also see how that’s developing in one of the Show and Tell photos from our lunch party on the 4th. The section you can see is only part of a bed quilt Julie is planning to make – the drawing is done and at the rate she’s working, it won’t be too long before it’s finished.
Having come to grips with Machine Quilting, at our next session together she tackled a version of Magic Tile; so keep an eye on the blog to see how that looks later on. I must ask her to let me have photos of all her finished work.
I have to add that I too have really enjoyed myself: Julie has been very good company, always open to new approaches, fun to spend time with and at the Pot Luck Lunch she blended in with my regular quilt groups as though they’d all been friends for ages.
Dorothy
July 9th 2010