Birmingham Blogger Meet-up

I went to my first blogger meetup! Very exciting, got to meet the lovely Marie of A Stitching Odyssey. I won't tell you all the details of the day, as you can find wonderful roundups from most of the attendees blogs (a list of them here, along with some sneaky pics of me... can you spot me and my not-yet-blogged changed dress?) I'm going to do a proper post on this as soon as I get a chance to get some close-up shots of it. I definitely made the right choice re-making though as I haven't stopped wearing it since it was completed.

Here are some pics  of the meal.. where we talked fabric, patterns and jobs (definitely not as exciting as dresses I think we all agreed).

There was a massive swap shop!

I got some brilliant finds, including the material that Amy of Almond Rock made a lovely dress with. My two swap finds were cotton viscose, which I haven't sewn with before but are lovely, soft and drapey, so I'm thinking some more sleeveless Mathildes maybe?

I bought some lovely fabrics in Barrys, but didn't get anything in the afternoon (one very full canvas bag was enough for me, seeing as I'm trying to stash bust, not stash build.

One fabric that will actually help with stash-busting is below, it's a gorgeous digital rose print in a thick cotton-type material (never very good at remembering to write down material contents when in the shop). I already had about half a metre of this material which I had found in a bargain bin... probably 3-4 years ago? It was never enough to make anything from so it has wallowed in the stash. But now I have bought a further 1 1/2 metres so my options are almost limitless. I say that, but of course I'm going to make another New Look pencil skirt so my options are limited by my imagination apparently. One problem is that the quality of the material is different (though the pattern is exactly the same) my bargain piece is mostly polyester with a bit of stretch, and as I mentioned before my new bit is cotton. I'm thinking of using the poly for the pockets, as it won't matter if this is different. However, if you can think of anything I should do with it... matching bag, purse, flamboyant headwear... I'd love to get some suggestions.

Thanks to Marie, Claire and Kat for organising. I know we all had an amazing time, and you made the nervousness of going to my first meetup a breeze. I have already had a lovely email from an attendee and we are planning a fabric shopping trip in the near future, very exciting! As well as some technical help from Hannah of madewithhugsandkisses and a SuperSweet Blogger award from Dreaming of Avonlea Thanks! Long may meeting continue! We were discussing on Saturday a possible meetup in Manchester, maybe taking over Abakhans? Anyone interested?

Introduction to Embroidery, and teaching stuff

So over the past few months I have been hinting at a very exciting something coming up in the future. This is something I've wanted to do for the longest time, and I thought I'd share my feelings on why! But first, details of the course.

Dun dun du-dun dun duuuuh!

 

I will be teaching a hand embroidery class at Fred Aldous in Manchester for the wonderful people at Ministry of Craft.

In a three hour slot you will learn how to make this Russian Doll design on a classy tea towel, and take away two patterns for smaller Russian dolls to complete the set.

You will learn basic embroidery stitches, including backstitch and chain stitch, then progress up to daisy chain, blanket stitch and french knots.

The class costs £35 and you can reserve your place here.






So onto the philosophising! I'll begin at the beginning, when I was at School I decided to be a teacher, probably a secondary school teacher (because teaching teenagers for some reason didn't scare the bejesus out of me) and teach them English, possibly Drama. So I went to uni to do Literary Studies, Classic Civilisations and Drama. This was when the train became derailed slightly. I was put off teaching, I had exhausted my brain. I didn't want to go straight into teacher training, I wanted to do nothing, sit around all day and stare at the TV and not think about the future. This is something I've heard from alot of other people at university, that actually instead of motivating you to go forward you feel demotivated, lacking in energy and generally depressed by the end of it. Is this something you've encountered/ experienced? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

So I decided to take a couple of years off, whats the rush? I said, teaching will always be there, and what with the further study and the hell a lot of work involved when you get the job I just couldn't face it. So I worked, first in a fabric shop, where I learnt loads of new crafting skills, and then got into admin jobs (another thing loads of people from uni are now doing). I attempted to sew and sell stuff for a while, but realised that I don't like doing lots of the same item over and over, I don't have the patience for it. Also, selling to people who have that look in their eye (I could make that) became depressing. Therefore all power to those who manage this! I bow down to your patience and perseverance. If you do this, share your thoughts on how you manage it, I'd love to hear them.

And then I moved to Edinburgh, where I decided now was the time to apply for teacher training, so I became a Scout leader to gain experience. I also joined Granny Greens and started helping out on the workshop evenings, throwing in tidbits of help here and there, which then grew to become leading most of the workshops at the craft group by the time I'd left (bigging myself up here). Now I loved the teaching aspects of these (due to the aforementioned wanting to teach) but they took up a lot of my free time, especially Scouts. And it occurred to me that I enjoyed doing this more than I would teaching. I was doing the things I wanted to do, leading young people (Scouts) and teaching crafts!

So! In conclusion, my dream now is coming true, and I'm going to be teaching a classroom full of people the basic skills needing to embroider. I'm so excited, and can't wait to get started. I can do my day job, which gives me the perfect balance of money, challenge, and going home not thinking about work, and I can do extra projects which fulfil my need to teach. I hope I see some of you at the class.

A very excited Deborah

Swap shopping and packing post

The date of the big move is inching ever closer, and so I'm afraid my blog posts will start to slow down a little while I try and get packed and sorted out.

This is also due to having to pack away my sewing machine, and paraphernalia including a massive amount of fabric and wool that I don't actually want or need. So the Granny's Swap Shop came along just in time. I went through all of my craft materials and packed a (shamefully) massive suitcase of stuff which I took along to work with me (donating some wool to work mates along the way), and then took over the Central Hall for some swapping fun!

You can see here the suitcase once it was empty, and the single ball of wool I took home with me, very proud of myself for not swapping my masses of stuff for more masses of stuff.


Everyone was super generous with all of their donations, with everyones gems from the back of the cupboard coming out of the woodwork, including vintage patterns, half finished socks, loads of wool and even some knitting needles!

I had a brilliant night and I feel like I've made my first step on the road to packing. I hope you can see from the pictures below, that I think the rest of the Granny Greens Gang had a great night too, thanks Andrea for organising this brilliant event!

Have you ever done a swap shop? Any hints and tips for finding a brilliant bargain? Or would you like to do one but just don't know where to start? Leave a message below and I'll get back to you.

Thanks, Deborah