Summer Garden With Creative Women

I spent some time at my friend K's last night, and didn't get around to doing the post about the weekend workshop as promised, but here it is.

Saturday morning people started arriving early, and the hall was soon buzzing with happy voices - eager to begin working on the beautiful projects presented by the designers.

The four ladies had made such gorgeous projects for the workshop!

From left to right the projects were: the lovely quilt Fresh Breeze and the pretty bag Blossom & Bloom by Natalie Lymer (Cinderberry Stitched), lovely Summer Garden table runner by Rose Johnston (Threadbare Creations), the cute Sally doll and beautiful Summer Garden cushions by Rosalie Quinlan (Rosalie Quinlan Designs), and gorgeous quilt Summers Bouquet and the really pretty bag Saturday Morning by Gail Pan (Gail Pan Designs).

Sally from The Country Quilter opened the workshop and presented the designers, and they presented their projects,

and then everyone got to work! In the bag we got when we arrived we received the patterns for all the projects and a piece of fabric and some cotton floss to get us started. We could choose freely what project(s) to work on, and the designers walked around the hall, chatting with us and guiding us while working on their projects. It was all very casual, and it was a wonderful way to spend time with these wonderful and creative women!

Here is Gail Pan and I

Natalie Lymer and I

I shared a workstation with a lovely woman called Pat, here she is with Rose enjoying morning tea on the Saturday:

It was also great to get to meet blogging friend Christine! She is just as sweet in person as she is on her blog. Here she is with Rosalie Quinland getting some support on making her Sally doll:

and here she is showing her gorgeous red and cream stitchery cushion during show and tell on Sunday morning

What projects did I work on? On Saturday I worked on one of the stitcheries for Rose's beautiful table runner - Rose had given me a crash course in french knots on Friday evening, and her table runner is perfect for practicing them (believe me, it is a gazillion of them!). This is how far I've gotten on it:

Hope I can get more done on it soon, it is such a pretty project, and I want to have it finished so I can use it! And sweet Rose was generous to let me dig into her left over fabrics, so that I could have my table runner just as hers :o) ('cept for the binding).

On the Sunday I worked on Rosalie's Sally doll - here is Christine and I working on our dolls:

I actually finished my doll this weekend - this is how she turned out:

I didn't have any pink ric-rac for the hair, so I gave her cotton floss hair in different shades of pink and braided it, and in stead of painted shoes on her feet I stitched her some socks/shoes from some of the left over pinafore fabric - I think she looks ok and I'm very happy with my first attempt at doll making. She is now hanging next to the mirror in my hallway :o)

The weekend workshop gave me lots of inspiration - I want to make the other projects that were presented as well, and several of the projects in the display will be on my to-do list for the future, and will be keeping my hands busy for a long time.

I'll soon be back with some more pictures and memories from my days in Tassie.

Until then, take care!
Sincerely, Anne Ida