Workshop with Ferret at High Trenhouse

My LQS (local Quilt Shop)

organised a visit from Ferret 

to come and teach us basic machine quilting.

I love my Nolting Longarm quilt machine,

but don't get as much out of it as I should

so I thought I'd go along and do the workshop

even though we were doing it on regular machine.

(Many principles can be applied from one to another

as I had already discovered in the few months I've had my Longarm.)

Here Ferret is trying to see what the .... 

I have done to my machine LOL:

The setting was High Trenhouse

which is in the middle of nowhere :)

As I feel I already live in the middle of nowhere,

I wasn't exactly getting away from it all,

but as you can see from the view from the workroom window,

it is pretty darn lovely up there

with Malham Tarn in the background...

I learned a lot about my little (and fairly basic) Janome.

The mornings excercises involved using decorative stitches.

My machine has about 4 or 5 usable decorative stitches

and so I was offered another machine 

which I declined as Longarms have no decorative stitches either 

and it's not something that I plan to use very much anyway.

However simply doing what I was told allowed me to learn

so much about needle size, thread weight etc etc.

Things I should know.... But it's a bit like driving a car,

after a very long time 

(and I have been machine sewing longer far than I have been driving!)

you pick up some bad habits!!!

Ferret is a mine of knowledge 

and seemed to enjoy bossing us into shape.

Finally, a teacher who is bossier than me LOL

My Machine:

(With the thread the wrong way up!!)

Just for a giggle,

I took some photos of the other machines being used on the day:

Some had over 200 decorative stitches!

 Amazingly I didn't have stitch envy ;)

And I definitely don't have computer machine envy!!!

At the end of the day, I just want to put my foot down and sew

(bit like driving LOL.)

 There was an amusing incident of people reserving tables

after other people had already plugged in their machines!

So in the end, myself and a sweet lady,

who had never machine quilted ever before,

moved to a table of our own.

She was a great table companion 

and we had an enjoyable day together.

After lunch, we moved on to free-machine quilting

and gradually worked up to some simple designs.

I always get my hearts wonky, but after listening to Ferret

explain her 'theory' on hearts, I hope I never forget!!! ;)

Anthea of Quilting Antics (My LQS)

provided threads for us to try.

In fact the whole day was just great

and I am very grateful that I have a LQS

The afternoon just flew by,

and before I knew it we were packing up :( 

 But not after some fun ways to free machine quilt

and fill small and large areas of quilts...

We then discussed a few UFO quilts

that people (especially me) had brought along

 And helpful suggestions were made....

I came home just wanting to sew sew sew...

Pity I have to cook, clean, wash... ;o) 

*****

On another note, my dear friend just became a Granny!

I thought this ribbon was a great way to 'wrap' a quilt.