Patchwork and crazy patchwork day- Sat August 27th

On Saturday I started to make an example of work for our forthcoming Patchwork day on Sat August 27th. All day, Im really looking forward to it, especially as it's machine patchwork so should grow quite quickly.




It was very difficult to whittle my colours down in order to get them to match. As good friends know, I do like to wear all my favourite colours at once, but if a new person comes to a class I think they like to see something a bit more organised and a bit less chaotic that they could be making.



This is going to be the front of a cushion. ive wanted to offer a patchwork class for a long time but have never felt accomplished enough but i think that it's all about bringing people together, sharing skills and having fun. So I just thought hell, why not????

Textile Calico Workbook-workshop

This was the first time Amelia and I had run a workshop of just techniques, although I had used a lot of these when teaching A level textiles. Each week we demonstrated a different technique, we could've easily ran a 6 week workshop on Bondaweb alone. We all had a great time and there was such an outpouring of creativity and enthusiasm. My favourite bit of the evening was laying everyones work out on the table at the end of the session. This gave us a chance to compare notes and discuss our work. Judging from the enthusiastic response we will definetly be running this workshop again. Here are just a few of the samples below;

Make It workshops at the Umbrella Fair.

The Make It crew had a most excellent day on Sat at the Umbrella Fair on Northampton's Racecourse. We took our crafty tree, which we hung with craft packs to take home. The badge maker was a big success as usual, we also stencilled small and large calico bags decorated with glitter, pom-poms and jewels.
This is our 2nd year at the Umbrella Fair. It's so enjoyable because of it's community mindedness, there's no corporate feel about it, everything sold is reasonably priced . I love the veggie food, It's a real treat to have so much choice, usually it's pork rolls and snout burgers at outrageous prices.

Marathon sock monkey workshop.

Friday July 30th saw the kick off of our new workshop programme. We had an amazing time making sock monkeys and were so pleased with the amount of people who signed up for the workshop (we had entire families!)the standard of work was incredible. Its criminal that such scant attention is paid to textiles and sewing in schools as these children concentrated for over 3 hours doing a combination of machine and hand sewing.



Our youngest sewer was just 5 and he also happened to finish first, although he did have a very small pair of socks.



At first AP and I thought that we may have done a wrong thing and taken on too much. We thought that having parents along would mean that they would help with the more tricky activity of sewing on machines. Not so, as some of the parents turned into Nigel Mansell and over enthusiastically proceeded to snarl up the machines with great gobs of thread.




No-one lost their temper or their fingers and everyone went home really happy with a completed project. Which is so satisfying.




The children were so excited as a photographer for the local paper came up. The Chronicle and Echo are planning a feature for next week, so hopefully they will use the photo of the whole group with their monkeys.



When I got home I felt like I'd been caught in a bombing raid, I was a bit stunned by the massive amount of activity and instruction. Luckily AP was there throughout with her wonderful calm outlook and unflapperble-ness.

There are times when I know I couldn't wish for a better job. Yesterday was one of those days.

Sew Hip Re-Fashion feature.

Do you like the strategically placed magazine rack ? crafty touch that.

My re-fashion feature in Sew Hip has been running for about 6 Issues now. I'm really happy with the way it's going and was originally worried that I'd run out of ideas but that hasn't happened at all, in fact I see potential ideas everywhere. As I'm now working a couple of months ahead I've just completed a project for late Autumn, which is a bit weird as It's so lovely and sunny outside and I'm cutting up jumpers!
This month the magazine are also running a feature on the studio which I absolutely can't wait to see. I've been super organised and got all my flyers ready and thanks to my wonderful friend Sam all the dates and info on the workshops are up on the website www.abijackson.com

Please take a look and see if there's anything that tickles your fancy.

Beautiful clutch from vintage scarf...workshop.

We are taking bookings for all day workshops on May 29th and also July 17th to make this stunning clutchbag. These all day workshops are great fun, bring a packed lunch to eat in Nan's lounge and we'll keep you topped up with tea and biccies throughout the day.

The clutch has a layer of wadding between it to make it substantial and the edges are beaded. We will show you how to make these couture silk roses to stitch on the front. You could also make the roses detachable to pin on other garments.

This clutch would make a gorgeous and totally unique present. We will have a selection of scarves on the day for you to choose from, or you can bring your own. Cost of the workshop from 10-4pm is £35. Bargain!!!

Some work and Northampton events.

Some time back I make some pieces for the opening night of our Make It event, amongst which was this lady with a lobster on her head. I had some 1950's napkins which had pictures of food on them. I had in mind the Elsa Schiapperelli dress and her Surrealialist hats when I came up with this. I did a few textile pieces for the Sunday Art market which has started again on Northampton Market Square.This is a very affordable way to buy and sell art. A stall costs just a tenner, so if you just want to test the waters you're not going to be massively out of pocket. The next dates are May 2nd, 13th June, 4th July, August 1st. To book you need to go to the Sunday arts market website.








I spent a wonderful weekend with Angie Hughes last year at Compton Verney. This close up detail of a textile piece I produced took around ten hours and is built up of many layers of pattern paper, interfacing, woven silks and cottons. Each individual layer is built up using a variety of processes including print, embossing, hand and machine embroidery. The original is hanging on the wall in the studio.

Dad's and Lad's workshop.

On April 3rd we ran a Dads and Lads sewing workshop. When I first wrote the programme for the studio my friend Jess suggested a workshop that fathers and sons could do together to get them to spend some precious time with each other. I don't have any issues with getting children on a sewing machine (supervised of course!) In fact, to a lot of little boys I've met, sewing machines are a piece of very exciting machinery.





Everyone made a sock monkey. In some ways this was the ideal project because it had the right combination of hand and machine stitching. There were enough component parts to the project like sewing on eyes from buttons, stuffing body parts, stitching the mouth, to stop boredom setting in.






It was a lovely morning in the studio, whilst Bill Pollard ran the Dads and Lads I was in the knitting lounge doing a little hand sewing corsage project, which was lovely and relaxing, drinking tea and eating biccies. A couple of other folks dropped in to see the space and sign up for Fathers Day workshops. All of the children who came along said that they would be happy to join other workshops and we are planning a great present for dads for Fathers Day. Watch this space....

Design and Make a Party Dress-Workshop.

When the weather was still chilly Miss AP and myself began our 6 week party dress workshop on a Tues eve. This has been really challenging; to trace your own bodice block, to make a toille from scratch and make up a dress in 6 weeks is a tall order. All credit to our students, they've done marvellously.







We had no idea about what designs people would choose and lucky for us no-one wanted to make an Oscar gown. It was good sitting round a table and talking about the designs each person had chosen, they were all very different, just like the individuals in the room. We had a classic tailored dress,maxi dress, body-con stretch number and boned bodice to name a few. This workshop has been so succesful we have decided to run it again and it starts on Tues from 7-9 on April 27th for 6 weeks at a cost of £45. You will need sewing experience as the course is action packed.

First Knit Meet.....thanks for your support.

On Saturday afternoon we held the first knit meet here at The Stitch and Make Studio. After Liz had rung everyone we had an impressive 15 people turn up. I was chuffed to bits. The atmosphere was wonderful as experienced knitters swapped techniques and helped the beginners, folks swapped tips and patterns. Other than make some cakes and put the urn on I just left them to it.



Anne Long is a lovely lady and she knits for her son James Long who is a menswear designer who is in his fifth season at London fashion week. He is currently in New York, having been sent by the Fashion Council alongside a group of very talented designers. Anne knits James's pieces and has recruited some of the ladies to help her. She is in the fledgling stages of having her own small studio on the floor below where she will be selling wool and knitting. I'm sure that this will be so popular if the feedback and enthusiasm on saturday is anything to go by.



My original idea for the studio was to provide a space which would be used to promote all aspects of "craft, creating, making and design" In the eight weeks since the studio has been opened it has been used for two fashion photoshoots, the stitch and bitch group, sewing workshops and a new knitting group. Next month I am having Dads and Lads starting and visits from Catmose College for workshops. If you would like to use the space or would like to get a group together for a visit and I can teach you something please get in touch. I'd love to help.


Customising Charity shop finds and next Knit Meet April 17th......These are both on the same day!!!! Thankfully I have a new sofa and plenty of space. The workshop runs all day from 10 till 4 and following a post on facebook we have only a few spaces left. Please get in touch if you would like to come along, this is a great day where you will learn loads of techniques and meet lots of interesting and enthusiastic people. Also the knit meet will be from 2-4 in the lounge area. The knit meet is free but there's a charge for tea and coffee, the workshop is £35. Can't wait
.

Workshop - Customising Charity Shop Finds...come and join in.

In October I was lucky enough to have this T-shirt featured in Sew Hip. Apologies for the picture quality, I am fairly new to this. You could use the techniques I used on any type of clothing and they particularly look good as book covers. So I put together a workshop demonstrating loads of textile techniques as samples which could then be applied to anything you could imagine. Basically, if it doesn't move, cover it in fabric!

On Sat 24th April the wonderful Miss AP and myself are running our "Customising Charity Shop Finds" workshop from 10 till 4pm at a cost of £35. This is a great day of frenzied activity, plus you get the chance to rummage through my old fabrics, some of which are very precious. We will demo lots of different techniques which you can then try yourselves. In the afternoon we will show how you can use these techniques in your work and apply them. We have plenty of sewing machines (including the new Elna's) equipment and there's plenty of space to spread out. Unfortunately we don't feed you at lunchtime but there will be plenty of TEA and BICCIES for artistic sustenance, and you can take a well earned break in the nans knitting lounge.

If this kind of thing floats your boat (and I'm sure it will)
get in touch and I'll put your name and details on the list.

Hand Made Beads...so tasty they will blow your eye-balls from their sockets.

For your delight.......some pics of a papier mache bead making workshop which I do. Out of all the workshops I teach, this one's my favourite....so far. I do a little demo using a little triangle of paper and build it up from there. The best bit is getting the soldering iron out and burning the s**t out of it at the end. What a stink!!! The personality of the individual really comes out in these beads and I've had one women make a solitary bead in two and a half hours although it was truly exquisite. Teenagers, on the other hand can make loads to go on bracelets in about an hour. I am planning to teach this workshop at the studio in the Spring/summer and will be

posting sessions on my website shortly.

"Will we ever be accepted by society?"...lets hope not.

A group of us Artist/Makers who met at the Fishmarket in Northampton set up a not for profit community group in Summer. So we went took to the road like a latter-day troupe of merry tinkers and vagabonds to spread good cheer with our badge making and bunting. Here are some pics of us at the Umbrella Fair, which was on the Racecourse in August this year.