Friday 10 February 2012

Cath Patching

Hello everyone, firstly can I say how sweet you all have been about Alice's stitching efforts, she blushed when I told her and said "Aaawwww muuuuuummm, that's embarrassing you putting me on your blog!". I guess she is coming to that age when it's totally uncool to be on your mum's blog. I'll try and eek it out a little more though :0)Thank you anyway and to say we have been doing a little more stitching this week is an understatement, it truly can become quite addictive indeed. I'll be sharing this with you next week.


Anyway, I'm here to post about my little Patch workshop I went to on Wednesday night in Tunbridge Wells at the Cath Kidston{CK} shop. You see, each Christmas and birthday I buy myself a little gift..not sure how or when this started but I sure ain't going to give it up. Christmas of 2011 was a very reasonable £16 gift of a 2 hour workshop in a CK shop to start to make the Dresden Plate from her latest book Patch.



It was freezing cold on Wednesday night but fortunately didn't snow as Tunbridge Wells is about a 50min drive from the coast.




It was all very civilised with tea, cucumber sandwiches and carrot cake.




There must of been about 12/14 women there all at different skill levels but with one common desire...to make hand stitched patchwork. The shop had brought in an experienced quilter and her assistant to help the likes of us and she was really good fun.




It was an opportunity to chat to like minded people and although the actually patching wasn't terribly difficult or complicated it was nice to meet people who came from a variety of backrounds, both younger and older women and some who had been on week long intense quilting courses {maybe one day when I retire?}.




We were all given a free copy of the book to take home, which RRP's at £16 and has all the fabric included to make this Dresden Plate. I thought the workshop was a rather good bargain at this price. We also of course had an opportunity to shop with a 15% discount on anything.



I like to look around CK shops once or twice a year either in Brighton or Tunbridge Wells but I find it all a little too much and only have a washbag and a carry bag of her range as I personally prefer the vintage things where she gets her inspiration from. Please excuse the blurred photo, but I did decided to purchase this cute button for Alice as she loves London double decker buses and a new washbag for her as her's is split and old now and she can use this for her sleep over's and when she goes on her Isle of Wight trip this year with school.




I chose this pattern as it's a little different from her normal floral designs and Alice is rather pleased with it too.




Oh and I also couldn't come away without these sweetheart buttons too, I can just envisage a cardigan with these beauties sewn on.




All in all it was a bit of fun and I am glad I went. I did learn a very important thing and that is I need to be less lazy and get my iron out to press my patches in place, it sure does make a difference {note the difference between the patches on the left and right}. Oops my hexies need serious pressing attention. 


I hope to finish this little project in the next few days and have the luxury of next week off with Alice. There after I return to work for 1 more week and that's it with my current job. I start my Macmillan job on 27/3/12. Back to full time work again, eek it's going to take some adjusting that's for sure.


I hope you all have a fabulous {snowy?} weekend and see you soon xox 


Last year's snow on the beach

16 comments:

  1. That looks like a fun workshop. I confess to being lazy with the iron when sewing too!

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  2. That sounds like a really lovely course even if the stitching wasn't too complicated. I bet it was really lovely to just meet everyone there, knowing that you all had a common interest..
    Your patchwork is looking lovely, very neat! :-)
    Love the buttons.

    Ashley xxx

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  3. Oh Wow what a great evening that looked ;-) I love the dresden plate design its lovely and those fabrics are so pretty. What sweet buttons to. Look forward to seeing your projects when there finished. Have a lovely weekend, dee x

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  4. What a great evening! I reckon this kind of self- present is definitely a good idea. I would love to have a go at something like that and finished off with carrot cake, what could be better?

    I've never seen snow on the beach before, what a great picture!

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  5. That workshop looks like it was amazing!
    And I love your idea of buying Christmas presents for yourself!!

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  6. I love the washbag - I was eyeing those out the other day. Very pretty pattern - not too OTT like some of the other stuff. But oh man that patchwork looks like hard work - lovely as it is. I have no patience.

    And that carrot cake! I have such a 'thing' for carrot cake - and so does my Mum - I had to email her my recipe yesterday (an old Ina Paarman recipe). She said the latest thing in Knysna is beetroot and carrot cake....sounds delicious!

    Happy weekend to you too. :)

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  7. Sounds like you had fun! Lovely patchwork, and the tea and cake look pretty fab too!! XX

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  8. That's exactly how I feel about CK - too much in one place just makes my eyes bleed! That said, I do like the idea of patchwork class - yours is looking great xx

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  9. Alice deserved the attention! I'm not a big CK fan, but what a bargain the workshop was. CK Rose Hand Cream, that's another story, it's wonderful stuff.

    Have a great weekend Penelope, enjoy your stitching :D

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  10. Your patchwork looks lovely! And that workshop does seem like a major bargain. Also I don't think I got round to leaving a comment about Alice's beautiful stitching, so tell her she has another fan! So lovely to see someone happy to just make it up as she goes along, and coming up with such a lovely piece at the end of it.
    Have a great week
    Jane x
    PS Love your snowy sea photo

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  11. A CK workshop sounds like so much fun! Yummy food and sewing with other crafty ladies is a great day indeed. Take care!

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  12. that sounds like a lot of fun! Love those sweetheart buttons, they are just gorgeous,
    looking forward to seeing the end result!
    XXX

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  13. Looks to me like the perfect evening... tea... cake... sewing... and all in a Cath Kidston shop.... heaven!! :) Your dresden plate looks fab I can't wait to see it finished... are you planning on making it into a cushion or bag?? I really enjoyed doing mine :)

    Yours and Alice's embroidery looks amazing... you are making me want to try it now... all that hand sewing looks wonderfully theraputic, no wonder your Alice couldn't put it down :)

    Much love xxx

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  14. I am fairly new to your beautiful space here but I look forward to visiting you for inspiration more and more. It is past midnight here and my eyelids are drooping (they are also very dry and itchy from the subzero temperatures we have been living with). I was determined to read your latest post. When I read the words TUNBRIDGE WELLS my eyelids opened wide and started quivering for that is where I hail from! Now I realise this fact will probably not interest you very much but when you are living in France (happily) and you read and see pictures from the town where your parents live... well it really made my evening.

    Goodness, I hope I'm not sounding too mad?

    Warmest wishes,

    Stephanie

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  15. Oh wow - what a totally fantastic workshop! I am green with envy - and that's a really bright green too! I have to confess that I too am lazy with an iron when it comes to pressing things but just recently a lady in my fabric shop was in total disbelief that I could possibly sew without pressing, that I have now been guilted into ironing from here on in!!! Have a fabulous week hon. Can't wait to see your finished project. Leah xx

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  16. love the heart buttons.

    I have an award for you over at my blog, if you would like to accept. If you don't participate in blog awards, that's fine, I just wanted to show you my appreciation for your blog.

    littleorphanskein.wordpress.com

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