More lovely workshops

So far this year has been really very busy in The Make It Room, we've had our six week sewing course running twice on Fridays - one group in the mornings and another in the evenings and they have made beautiful things)  A few examples:-

Patchwork cushions

Beautiful Bags

Bucket storage

Ladies working hard!

Zip purses

Lots of lovely makes:)  More images later!

Lovely Courses!

Over the last couple of months we've had some amazing new six week courses running here - jewellery making, textile and design  screenprinting your own designs, art and sewing, these have been very successful and all the ladies taking part have made lovely things.

Make up bags

Square patchwork

Fat Quarter Dress

Pearls & Flowers Bracelet making

Part of our six week art course

And lots more lovely courses to come in the new year!

So in February 2013 I promised myself that I would write regular blog posts and yet here I am again!  My only excuse if that things have been frantically busy at The Make It Room with workshops, courses, children's parties and hen parties.

Summertime in our courtyard

So a quick whizz through the year here! There are lots of images of our workshops and what's been happening on our facebook and twitter pages too

In March  I taught felt making at the Knit & Stitch Show at Olympia, a perfect excuse to have a look at all the lovely stuff on offer and spend a fortune on yet more fabric, my favourite being a piece of handpainted silk.

Making felt bowls at Olympia

This year our cushion and lampshade making workshops have been really popular and it seems that interest in sewing has been on the increase following the Great British Sewing Bee and Kirstie Allsopp's craft programmes. Screenprinting, jewellery making and our new art classes have also been very popular.

Lovely lampshades

Cushion Making

So we had lots of lovely workshops all over the summer and paid a visit to the NEC at Birmingham for the Festival of Quilts which was amazing, we all came back buzzing with so many ideas for new projects.

Children's stitch and stamp holiday workshop

Mums and daughters summer sewing

There are so many more things to write about but instead of posting all in one go, I'm going to try and be good, pace myself and write blog posts on a regular basis - we'll see!

Keeping up to date!

Feeling slightly guilty that I have not written my blog for over six months, I thought I had better rectify the situation!  My only excuse is that I have spent most of my time trying to get The Make It Room off the ground and I am glad to report that my hard work is paying off.

I have run lots and lots of workshops - sewing, knitting, crochet, lampshade making, rag rugging and many more.  Andrea has run silver clay, copper clay and jewellery making workshops, all very well attended and very enjoyable.  We have plans for many more new workshops for the new year and as well as running our regular classes, such as polymer clay beads with Jess and bookbinding with Jo Gross, we now have lots of lovely silk screenprinting workshops with Candice Wren. We've also been joined by The Cake Lady who is running fabulous new cake decorating classes, if you need cakes made for a special occasion, she should be your first port of call.

Chainmaille Jewellery

Lampshade Making

Handsewn Patchwork

Decopatch

Lovely Lampshades

Owl Cushions

Vintage Apron

Valentines Cupcakes

Vendor Apron

Pearls and Flowers Bracelet

Rag Rugging Workshop

Party time!

Understanding Sewing Patterns

The Make It Room Courtyard

From one extreme to the other!

Usually I forget to write my blog for weeks on end and yet, here I am, three posts in two days!

Over the jubilee weekend my daughter Jessica of Time for Tea Beads and my friend the lovely Jo Gross of Floating on the Breeze, both had tables at Spitalfields Market in London, they both sold plenty of their beautiful makes and I went along with Blooming Felt's Sarah to browse!

Jess looking slightly apprehensive but gorgeous as always!

Some Time for Tea Beads

Jo's Floating on the Breeze handmade books

It was a really lovely day and we managed to squeeze in lunch, coffee and cake and a visit to Brick Lane as well!

I also taught a lovely group of ladies about sewing patchwork cushions by hand, this workshop took place in the Richmond Room at Hylands Stables Visitor Centre, where I have a studio space as one of their Resident Artists

Finally, I must mention a pretty little shop which has opened selling handmade crafts made by local people.  It is called Handmade High Street and is at 6 Sir Isaacs Walk in Colchester town centre.  I have some felt flowers and decopatch hearts for sale and there are lots of other lovely crafts to see and buy.

Exciting Stuff

Workshops seem to be taking up all my time at the moment, not only do we have an absolutely fantastic selection of workshops at The Make It Room and at Hylands House but I have been invited to teach wet feltingat the Knit & Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace.  I am running this in conjunction with the very lovely Sarah from Blooming Felt who has lots of exciting stuff going on at her Shedquarters!

I have spent today listing new sewing workshops on The Make It Room website, have a look!http://www.themakeitroom.co.uk/epages/587985.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/587985/Categories/Workshops/Sewing

Beginner's Sewing

Summer Top

Sewing Workshops

S

I went on a trip to Snape Maltings with my lovely friend Pauline, such a beautiful place, really inspiring - galleries and lots of interesting little shops plus Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth sculptures, I can highly recommend a visit.

I have been making felt pods this week (as well as lampshades!), lovely Sam from the WI came to a felting workshop last week and having made bowls with her, wanted to make more!

So a big thank you to Sam, for making me start felting bowls again, I hadn't made any for a year!

We had a lovely polymer clay workshop on Saturday, taught by my daughter Jess of Time for Tea Beads (see the link at the side), the two Mums and daughters who attended had a wonderful time and were surprised by what they were able to create!

More news tomorrow!