Louisa Lawson Workshop - by Barbara
In July 2019 – back before Covid, Louisa Lawson spoke to our group and following her talk agreed to return to hold a workshop for members. This finally happened on Saturday 12th March 2022.
A small group of Shirley Quilters gathered to learn the techniques that have enabled Louisa to produce the fabulous quilts that she brought to show us in 2019 and brought again to inspire us on Saturday.
I am not the biggest fan of doing appliqué and have never been pleased with my results but Louisa’s comments that she “cannot draw at all” and “has no spatial awareness” resonated with me and so I decided to give it a try – things could only get better!
We started the day with a demonstration of Louisa’s technique. We were then provided with a sheet of templates, a length of Floriani Stitch and Wash, which I would describe as a heavyweight iron-on interfacing, and we had brought along our own fabrics, sewing kits, fabric glue and cuticle sticks. The last item was very important and Louisa had her own professional (and very expensive) version of these in stainless steel. We all then set to; tracing, cutting and gluing our pieces. Starting with 3 or 4 simple leaves, graduating to a 2-part leaf and then moving on to flowers, butterflies and circles of our choice. At times the hall was completely silent with the level of concentration from everyone. Louisa has very high standards and we worked hard to ensure there were no “pokies” (points) where there should be gentle curves. Towards the end of the session Louisa demonstrated her prowess by producing a perfect ¼” circle. I don’t think anyone else had aimed quite that high!
At the end of the day everyone had completed a selection of items and we came together to lay them all out on a neutral background. As always when working with fabric we were delighted to see the different effects achieved by using various combinations of material and colours. Jenny’s batik flowers were particularly lovely.
We thanked Louisa for an interesting day and we had all enjoyed the opportunity to, at last, spend a day together with quilting friends and away from screens. As for me, am I a convert to appliqué? Let’s say I probably won’t be tackling a full-size quilt like Louisa’s; but I do feel that I have added to my skills and will feel more confident in the future if a small amount of applique is needed in a project!
Thanks to everyone involved in organising this event and particularly Claire who was in charge of refreshments, tables, extension leads and all the things that make days like this work.