Last Wednesday I had a day to myself: no children for a whole 12 hours. Just six days after Jessica was born, the lovely ladies at Simply Solids announced two workshops with Sarah Fielke: much as I would have loved to do both days, the reality was that with two small children, I could only push the generosity of my sleep-deprived husband so far! And the willingness of Linda - because let's be honest, it would be her looking after the girls, not Michael!
I did there-and-back in the day. It's a two-and-a-half hour journey by car (three and a bit if you get stuck on the M62), and those nearly-six hours spent in the car were totally worth it. The workshop took place in an old mill building by the canal. It will be absolutely lovely once fully renovated, but at the moment it looks like the Room of Requirement from Harry Potter! And the windows didn't open. My car read 28 degrees when I left mid-afternoon and I'm sure it was far hotter in the room.
But despite the long drive, and the sweltering heat, I had an absolute ball! Everyone was friendly and welcoming, Sarah was a great teacher and the technique we learned - improv lettering - was great fun.
Everyone started with an "a" and eventually built up to "e"s and "s"s. One person even braved "Q"! This was my effort - goodnight.
At the start of the day I had a plan: I love the phrase "Tell me a story, tuck me in tight, say a sweet prayer and kiss me goodnight". I thought this would look fantastic done in improv lettering on a lap/full size quilt. I still do. But I have reigned in ambition. The downside of this technique is the amount of wastage of background fabrics. I'm not saying I won't ever make this quilt, but perhaps not with my treasured low-volume fabrics. I think I would need to splurge on a bolt of Kona and accept the wastage. The reason I picked the work "goodnight" was that if I decided not to go for the whole quilt, this would make a good cushion by itself, or a mini quilt as part of a smaller saying. Having also made an "a" and an "e", I've decided to limit this to "goodnight sweetheart" as a mini quilt.
I think you'll see more progress on this project in the near future! And who knows - maybe that full size quilt will be made eventually. I'll add it to my bucket list! It felt so good to be something other than "Mum" for a day, but I made it back in time for bedtime cuddles!
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