Gillly Towell Workshop - by Deirdre

It was a slightly damp Saturday morning when eight Shirley Quilters gathered at the church hall for a workshop with Gilly Towell of Gilly Mac Designs. 

We were all armed with a range of green and blue fabrics, which would be turned into table runners and/or mats. After introductions Gilly showed us how to turn one to two inch fabric strips into log cabin blocks – without a ruler in sight. We soon got used to the freedom of not needing to measure everything at every step and the hall was soon quietly busy with the regular hum of our machines as the piles of blue and green blocks began to appear.

Gilly then showed us how to cut our blocks into neat squares and lay them out to get a seamless look and explained how this technique could be useful for lots of projects.

After a break for lunch and a chat we returned to making and cutting blocks. Gilly showed us how to combine the different coloured blocks with some curved piecing – another useful technique with lots of applications. The final step to complete our projects would be a curved edge to our table runners and mats – Gilly showed us how to create a regular curved edge for any project and the bias cut strips for binding - more techniques with lots of applications.

Our final treat was a demonstration of quilting with rulers and then we all had a go, a revelation with everyone really impressed with the ease and versatility – converts one and all.

So, after a day that had gone remarkably quickly we thanked Gilly and packed up the church with the usual speed to emerge into a lovely afternoon – much better weather than when we started having learned lots to finish our quilts and apply to other projects.