Hand Stitching Weekend - by Grace
…weekend of hand stitch loveliness…
This was the title of an amazing weekend at Bredon near Tewkesbury, organised by Judi Mendelssohn of P&QTours. Seventeen delegates gathered from across the country with eager anticipation as the course was re-scheduled from September 2020.
A lovely farmhouse location with stitching groups of 5 or 6 in kitchens and drawing rooms offered a unique comfy feel and everyone was immediately friendly – and so pleased to make it at last to this amazing weekend.
We had four sessions with tutors at a lovely pace of about 3 hours so there was time to enjoy, hone skills or learn something new.
Learning big stitch Boro with Judi was so creative and reminded us all of the humble and needful beginnings of our craft. The library of books provided much inspiration as well as Judi’s own superb work … and some of us could not put it down.
Barbara Chainey was in her other office – in Spain! And we all relaxed when the Zoom worked and we had such a skilful session with her - I have hand pieced a lot but definitely honed my technique to be precise every time and quicker too – it was so brilliant. Her addiction to four patches and amazing variations was infectious.
Each tutor provided a pack to work and generously brought other threads and fabrics to use, and in addition we had a course goody bag – who could ask for more?
Vivien Finch was an amazing teacher and stitcher, enabling all of us to master the counter-intuitive foundation piecing and to admire her incredible quilts large and small, gracing her unique collection of dolls beds with tiny quilts and lace edged sheets – everyone needs one! She was so patient and kind and later told us the nail -biting story of the Quilters' Guild bidding at auction and getting the Red Manor quilt for its collection …final price undisclosed.
As an amazing surprise, Katharine Guerrier who lives locally visited us in the late afternoon with her jewel like and incredible collection of little quilts. Their colours blazing in the late afternoon sun and we were all bowled over with respect at such superb quilting skill. I spoke to a tutor who owns some of Katharine’s pieces and commented that it simply gave her joy to see each day. Now there is a legacy we all strive for.
The show and tell before dinner was awe inspiring in particular, Janet’s #52 tags by Anne Brooke [www.annebrooke.co.uk] , a creative weekly wonder of tags - week 38 achieved so far! Each one told a unique and personal story and explored so many techniques.
In the evening, we were thrilled to see and hear the lockdown lives and achievement of Vivienne French and Lynne Edwards MBE. When teaching lives just came to a halt, they showed such resilience. Lynne started a Vimeo series working with a techie friend and is now carrying on the excellent series as she takes up her teaching again – oh to live nearer my guru in Suffolk! [lynneedwardsquilts @ me.com]. The pieces both showed were wonderful – Lynne’s crab apple trees would make the most anxious of us feel sublime and calm. (Remove spaces from email address)
Our final session was blanket stitch applique with Lynne – but we got so much more – her love of imparting both knowledge and can do encouragement were amazing and as a left hander I can now do even blanket stitch….something I never thought I could master and have an array of techniques for applique work - really edifying…including tips on how to keep your bondaweb pristine!
Which brings me to the amazing food, spacious and comfy accommodation and such thoughtfulness from Judi throughout….look out for the next one and book early !