A Note to Follow Sew: Stitch Gathering 2015

Sunday, 18 October 2015

Stitch Gathering 2015 - Pre-Sewing

At the end of September, I attended the Stitch Gathering in Edinburgh. This is the third time I've been and the first time I finished the items I started - hooray!

I'm going to start with the pre-sewing and write up the classes and day itself in another post.

TICKET
The ticket for the Stitch Gathering is sent to you for embellishment and return at the end itself. This has previously been a quilt block and a canvas bag.

This year the brief was to embellish a piece of white cotton with a word - any word - which could be sewn up into a quilt.

I struggled for a long time to think of a word. My initial thought was democracy, but I didn't want anything too long. The night before the event itself when I was tearing my hair out, I decided to go with VOTE.

I cut the letters out of 3" by 3" squares, to represent the box on voting papers, and appliqued it onto the piece of cotton. I ironed it before I handed it in, I promise!

You can see some of the other fantastic words people came up with in Jo Avery's, My BearPaw and Stitch Gathering organiser, post here.

NAMETAG SWAP

For the name tag swap this year, I decided to make a little needle book which could be used after the event. The hook was attached to a string for wearing on the day but can hold scissors afterwards.

I made the pattern up, which meant I made lots of mistakes and this binding was on and off about three times before I got it right.

I used matchstick quilting on the outside and left negative space for my partners name.

NOTION SWAP

This was a new addition to the pre-sewing homework. Swappers were asked to make something for a partner which they could use as a sewing accessory.

I was flicking through Quilt Now Magazine and stumbled across a EPP kit case which I decided to make for my partner. Having a pattern for this one meant no mistakes!