Storm at Sea Workshop with Judi Kirk - by Chrssie

The day started with setting up in the rear hall at the church, not our usual location - there was a leaky radiator in the main hall and without heating it would’ve be a very chilly day. It proved to be a very cosy area in the rear hall with great natural light and the added bonus of being right next door to the kitchen.

We had our fabric pieces cut out and ready to go - Judi provided us with the paper patterns for the 3 blocks needed to produce the full Storm at Sea block. She started by demonstrating her unique method of foundation paper piecing where there is no stitching through the paper but you still achieve the same perfect points on the piecing. The bonuses of this method are fantastic - you can use the same paper pattern over and over again, it's much easier to see that your fabric will cover the seam allowances adequately and best of all there is no fiddly tearing away of the paper after the block is finished. We all set to work with Judi to encourage and give advice as we produced the first blocks.

After a break for lunch Judi showed us how to join the blocks using a thread to align the points on the block so that they match perfectly. Her level of perfectionism with this was admirable and something that we would all aspire to, although I’m not sure that I would ever get there! Judi had great examples of the finished quilts to show us so that we could get ideas and advice on quilting the finished product.  With steady stitching we all managed to complete a full block so that they could be laid out for a final show and tell - it was fascinating to see the variation in fabrics chosen and the different effects achieved.

Many thanks to everyone involved in setting up the workshop and huge thanks to Judi for such an inspiring workshop, it was a great day all round.