HENS TEETH NEEDLECASE WORKSHOP 1

Late last year I went to Viv's Needlecase workshop at Weston Hall.

As you may recall, I am a massive fan of Hens Teeth - glorious gentle stitching - and had already been on
a couple of the Haberdashery Brooch classes given by Viv.  On the second brooch class I made brooches out of haberdashery cards, buttons etc like this one:

So when it came to making needlecases - rather than lots of sewing - i am not a great sewist and cheat whenever I can, I decided to to use some bits and pieces of paper stuff I had.  When I was in France a couple of years ago I bought an old Lotto set, including lovely old cards - very damp and not a little smelly but rather fabulous once dried out and put in a container with a scented sachet and left for a while.

I love the needlecases Viv makes with old battered quilts - the loveliest colours and beautiful washed and worn - so, I decided to stick a piece of quilt onto the Lotto card, fixed in a bit of ribbon to tie it as I went and here is the result:

Next in line was a lovely little booklet with a pretty picture on the cover that I bought last year, I pulled out the innards of the booklet, stitched a piece of quilt to it using blanket stitch - get me - included the ties as I went - you can see the inside above and here is the cover:

The tie on this one is a piece of bias binding dipped in tea which came unfurled, but I think it makes a nifty little wrap around tie!  Just had time to make a third! Made from two out of a set of mats also bought last

year in France, both the centre circles inside have a quilted circle attached and the mats are stitched together at one side and tied with a ribbon at the other.

Taken together, a fine days workshop was had by all and lots produced in a short time!

 To see what I made at the second needlecase workshop - a magical chatelaine that I think is one of the finest things Ive every made! - please check out tinkeringbythesea.blogspot

Many thanks to Viv for the use of some of her lovely photographs.

Love to All
xx
Di