Embroidery retreat weekend

In early February, I spent an enjoyable weekend at a machine embroidery retreat in a Holiday Inn near Rotherham. It started lunchtime Friday and was due to go on to 4.30 pm Sunday. It was run by a group of 3 ladies, who have set up UK Machine Embroidery Group, two of whom I'd met before at a much smaller event. There were 50+ ladies plus the organisers and tutors. Fab. Full board. Loads of machine embroidery advice.

First issue was packing the car. What a lot of stuff!!  My youngest daughter had a baby in January and had it not been for this event, I would have travelled to her at the end of her husband's 4 week paternity leave - so I decided to go from the retreat south to her instead of north to home. This meant I had a lot of extra stuff in the car. Originally I had planned to car share - just as well that plan had changed!! I had been worried about travelling by car as the weather could have been snowy, icy but it was okay at that point (not so later in the weekend with the full scale Storm Ciara which caused massive flooding in the area)

The ladies were all pleasant and we had lovely chats. Those who knew more helped those who knew less. People were coming from quite far afield - Northern Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man as well as a pretty robust local contingent. The retreat sold out within 2 hours of being mentioned.

Brother, Woodseats Sewing Machines and Rags to Stitches were there the whole weekend. I had contacted Jayne at Rags to Stitches in advance about fabric choices for the main project for the weekend and she laid out some suggestions which I picked up that afternoon. I changed my mind about fabric choices for my personal project, a play cube, and bought some additional fat quarters for that. Tim of Woodseats also brought the items I had requested the day before. He, his daughter and his new son in law (they were just married the week before) all spent the bulk of the weekend there. It's very much a family business. Tim was there to sort machine issues, upgrade software if necessary etc and so much more. He offers a fabulous service and he gained a few new fans. He also loaned machines to those who needed them.

As people were arriving at different times, the first afternoon was free to do our own projects, ask advice etc - and get machines and laptops PAT tested if necessary. What with chatting, I didn't quite get my project completed but managed it later in the weekend. I considered several ideas for my personal project but needed to keep it doable in an afternoon. I decided on a 5" play cube. So I needed to make 6 panels,  stitch them together except for the last one,  insert cube and hand stitch last block closed. Using the new coordinating fat quarters I bought, together with three additional tone on tone fabric I'd brought, I managed to stitch 4 blocks of the 6 blocks  on Friday and 2 on Saturday. I will be posting about this separately.

Tricia Hudson offered classes at various levels for PED, the Brother software. I discovered I had entered at too basic a level and could do more than I thought. Nevertheless, there are always things you pick up. We made a key ring with our name on it. There was a more advanced class but no spaces on it.

One of the Brother tutors offered classes on the Scan n Cut machine and that was very helpful as I haven't used one although I have one. As it is older, I thought it might need updated but apparently not as that machine is still current (update - I did manage to update the software to the latest version when I returned home). We were able to complete a little project of a raw edge appliqué elephant. Cute. I haven't made it up yet.  Tricia then did an extra class looking at the linkage between the PED software, the Scan n Cut machine and the embroidery machine - this was invaluable. I feel more confident to use this.

Melanie, the main Brother rep, was stitching and demonstrating as well as addressing questions. I think she was responsible for a run on the faux leather Jayne was selling! She was stitching some of the inbuilt large quilting designs onto various fabrics including the most gorgeous mustard-yellow faux leather.  Mustard or yellow is not usually appealing to me but this was lovely.

We were given a USB stick with various projects to tackle as we pleased and fit in around the organised events. ITH purse, free standing lace and a few others as well as the materials to make these. The only materials we needed to provide were for our own projects and for the edge to edge quilting project planned for Sunday. I didn't get that finished as two of my groups were fitted in on the Sunday. Never mind, I can complete it at home. I did the Sweet Pea design using the supplied felt and lining material. I didn't have soluble stabilizer with me and ended up using what I had but this wasn’t soluble.  It didn't work.  It was an easy design which I did because I had some time to spare but it would be better in different colours of felt or even the vinyl I bought.  The red bled too much into the white even dry. So I didn't add the popper. I don’t like it well enough to redo with nicer materials even though it is a very quick project. The appliqued hearts are raw edge and that doesn’t really appeal to me.

There was a gorgeous free standing lace butterfly which I decided to make.  It took over an hour of stitching (one colour only) but it was certainly worth it. While that was stitching,  I went to my car and got my sewing machine to stitch together the cube blocks. Some people have machines that are combined embroidery and sewing but mine isn't. I was glad I put my machine in - I had thought one was going to be available but that wasn't the case. I was hurrying a bit and forgot to add ribbons or teethers etc but no matter. I hand stitched the last block closed on Sunday evening while sitting chatting. When the butterfly came off the machine, all the jump stitches needed trimmed as the machine had this feature turned off for this design and then the stabilizer dissolved away. It’s nice - but I’m not sure what I’ll do with it! 

We all started the edge to edge table mats from Amelie Scott on Sunday but this was a much shortened day for me as I had two workshops. I felt I started off on the wrong foot as I wasn't there at the start for the explanation as I was at a workshop. Others gave me the necessary advice.  We had to stitch 4 sprays of blossom onto fabric that we had marked out (marking out was trickier than it sounds!). Two designs right side up and 2 designs the other way. I followed one of the other participant’s method and floated the fabric,  using a basting box to secure.  I didn't have the right colours of thread but was able to borrow. Then I thought I'd need to finish the four as I might not have the right colours at home (different brand). Festina lente! The first two designs went fine. The 3rd design was fine too until I realised I hadn't turned it around by 180 degrees. I decided to continue anyway (the alternative was just too time consuming and who said they had to be that way anyway) and do the same with the 4th too. I was really hurrying by now and made a mistake in the colours with the 4th (that is it's not the colours I wanted - clearly they could be anything you wanted) and I don't think the placement is as good. With numbers 3 and 4, I had problems stitching the basting box and was getting a bit agitated as people were starting to pack up and leave (this about 3pm) although I had thought we had until 4.30; the weather was atrocious and I can only assume that some people wanted to leave early. I finished stitching the 4 designs but couldn't go any further. Hopefully I'll be able to follow the printed instructions we were given. I bought new fabric at the retreat for this but wish I had used what I already had. Some commented that the method was very fabric hungry.  Since then, I’ve completed the edge to edge quilting and have 4 separate mats . I’ve cut the fabric for binding them but won’t do that until later this week. I need to remove the markings, which could be a bit tricky.

I've met several new friends.

Storm Ciara created havoc that weekend and a fairly large group of us spent an extra night at the hotel. The next day I was able to drive to London to visit my new granddaughter and deliver the pieces I had made for her and the extra bits and pieces requested (that’s why my car was so full - not just embroidery and sewing machines but also baby gifts, 2 heaters, a toaster…). I’ll say more about the visit later.

I’m delighted that the retreat is being repeated in September - bigger and hopefully better too. I’ve signed up. I’ve decided not to sign up to the quilting block of the month even though I do love the quilt design - I’m just not a quilter and it’s a huge undertaking and expensive when the cost of the patterns and the fabric is taken into account. I might change my mind later.  I enjoyed making the play mat but have not enjoyed making the table mats.