Crafty Church Extra

Lynne's sock monkeys, aren't they great

Teacher Training

I may have mentioned that I am doing a sort of teacher training course, nothing as grand as training to be a real teacher: but this will qualify me to do the Adult Education classes that I have been doing for a few years.

We all have to do a 'micro teach' - teach a twenty minute lesson on anything so the tutor and the other students can feedback on our teaching skills.

Rather bravely it turned out, I decided to teach them all how to make a fabric flower brooch, and get them all to make one.  What I forgot to factor in is that my usual students are there because they want to make something from fabric.  Last night's motley crew included a dancer, a guy who runs a Drink Driving awareness course, a business tutor, a student adviser and a chef, and none of them had any interest in sewing at all.  They were all very supportive of me, but *everything* took much longer than usual.

Luckily, when the tutor called 'time' after my 20 minutes, they all begged to be able to carry on as they were enjoying it, so I must have done something right!

We did get 9 fabric flowers made, out of a class of 10, so that wasn't bad at all, and I managed to get pics of some of them

My feedback?  They all said my timing was out - and it was!

Crafty church

During April's Crafty Church at St Michael's (2-4pm, third Saturday of the month, all welcome, see tab above), we had lots of Show and Tell- mostly from Janet aka the Bionic Lady!

She's hiding behind this quilt that she made for her son

And she made these

And this

for a friend's Great Grandchild


Alex is starting to quilt this lovely applique basket, so was drawing on the quilting lines

While her mum, Ann, was knitting a Christmas teddy

And Lynne was making a sock monkey

Lesley and Jane were working too, but no photographic evidence!

Chertsey Museum

During April's class we made water lilies,

Jacqui led the class, and no, I cant remember all the materials we used (although the toys included a steamer, great fun) but I do have a project sheet if anyone is interested

Flowers were created

Then dampened and petals encouraged to lift.  The leaf was stitched then steamed to become more realistic

and wire was available for the stamen - isn't it realistic!

The ladies also shared a bit of show and tell, and showed their completed projects from last month's lesson

Hilarious Hats 2

And the creations from the afternoon session . . .

Hilarious Hats (1) at Chertsey Museum

Great classes with great kids at Chertsey museum today: Hilarious Hats and Fascinating Fascinators which roughly translates as a baseball hat and a hairband with a Fling Some Bling approach - with pipecleaners, beads, buttons, pompoms, wiggly eyes . . . The list goes on

Finishing at the Farm

Hopefully not for 'forever' finished, but the Spring course at Broom Farm has now finished, and we wont know until the middle of April whether it will run again.

In the meantime, here is what the girls were working on:

A is making an Easter T-shirt for her daughter

L is making Easter chicks as a gift for a neighbour

Y is making a skirt - not 'dressmaking' as such, we are making it up as we go, but it seems to be going well so far

G is making a skirt for her daughter

And this is a pic of a fab moment:  A and I had worked out how to do machine button holes a few weeks ago, so when G wanted to know, I got A to explain it to her!  I was there, and was able to make a few suggestions, but in teaching it to G, A has not only shared her knowledge, but has cemented it for herself too

Proud Tutor moment :-)

Fantastic stuff at the Farm

Just look at this great collection of stuff leaving Broom Farm this week . . .

A is on a mission at the moment! Play princess cape for her daughter finished, this reversible skirt finished, now onto an appliqué cushion - thing she's well on her way to an addiction!

L is finishing skirt #2, and learning different ways to complete each stage

K has been working on this long term project in between other projects. This week she mentioned how much she likes whole cloth projects - exactly what this is, K!!!

G has made this great slouch bag, and has mastered her sewing machine, used the birthing method to made a bag with no raw edges, and learnt how to square off the bottom of a bag

A is making a cushion for her son, and has mastered her sewing machine, patchwork, appliqué, and machine embroidery!