Sewing Is My Therapy

Welcome back to another week at Patchwork Dreamer. I think a lot of us use sewing as a form of thinking time or not thinking time. The joy of making something or overcoming a tricky technique takes your mind away from things that are troubling you, makes you step away and often puts things into perspective. Of course this can be said for any craft or activity you enjoy. Why this melancholy start for the post? Well things have been tricky for me just lately and with just a few classes this week I have had time to just sew. It’s been fabulous! I realised this as I edited the photo’s for this weeks blog and felt the need to share. If you are feeling down or troubles are piling up grab your needle and thread and do a little sewing.

Meet Matilda one of my sewing projects this week. I have been meaning to make Matilda for some time she is the country cousin of Liberty and will be a kit when I have finished quilting her and make her into a cushion.

My second project which has been much discussed and researched is a quilted jacket. I have settled on following the sweatshirt way of making it by Laundry Basket Quilts. However I don’t like seeing the seams inside and this is where the discussion has taken place. They could be overstitched or overlocked if you have a machine but I am just not keen……. We have talked about binding but that would become very lumpy under the arm where four edges would meet. I had thought about a run and fell seam but think I would run into trouble on the sleeve head. So finally I have settled on lining. My worry with lining is the give a lining needs. We can put a box pleat in the back but the rest will have to remain much the same. This is because the hem, sleeve ends and neckline will be bound. I will try lining and if it just does not work then I will take it out and suck up the oversewn seams. For now I am loving making blocks of various sizes. I am using the Liberty Botanical Jewel fabric collection. Here’s how far I have got.

The half square triangle blocks are left over triangles from the other blocks that I have stitched together, trimmed and will use in small areas that need covering. I may have a rejig and put a cream line between the R and Y. I am planning on putting a sewing machine block on the back with possibly the star block pictured. It’s great fun just making it up as you go along.

I have been particularly bad at taking pictures of students work this week so I have just this one. It’s the final pouch made from a charm pack. An error in cutting ment we didn’t have quite enough charm square fabric to make the square so we made it up with some head scratching on the maths (it really should not have been that tricky) and put a blue stripe top and bottom. I think it came out rather well.

We put out a new date this week for the Teloujay Bag Making day. It’s Thursday 18/5/23 if you are interested. Lots more information in the link. At the time of writing there are two spaces left.

Finally new in this week and not even on the website yet are these three Lewis and Irene fabrics featuring ditsy sunflowers. They are so pretty and I think are going to be very useful as blenders/background fabrics.

If you have time it’s lovely to get comments.

Happy Sewing, I am off to make some more blocks

Mary