Rice Sack Bag Revisited workshop & travels

The end of last week got rather busy.  On Thursday, I was in Bristol with Emmerson Green Quilters for a Rice Sack Bag Revisited workshop.  This bag is based on the original Rice Sack Bag featured in '21 Terrific Patchwork Bags', but with little variations in the size and a different strap.  Everyone made their feature panel, which can be as simple or as complex as you like, in advance of the workshop, hence the wide variety of bag variations. This was followed by 'My Japanese Quilt Inspirations' talk in the evening, at their regular meeting place in Emerson's Green. The group's contact details are here (scroll down the link) if you are interested in coming to one of their future workshops - one of the quilters on Thursday was a non member - but I'm told there is a waiting list for joining the group, so they are obviously very popular! I found them a fun and friendly group, and I already know quite a few of them from shows like Quilts UK at Malvern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ended up with the workshop and talk on the same day because I needed to be back in Scotland for a Quilters' Guild area day on Saturday and, when I took the booking, I had seriously underestimated the time it would take for me to drive back up here ;-o !  I thought I'd be able to manage to arrive around midnight if I set off at 4p.m. from Bristol, but after the drive back from Textile Extravaganza in Llantrissant in the summer, I knew it would take longer than that.  So I spent Friday daytime driving, setting out from Bristol at 9.30 a.m. and arriving back up here at 6.30p.m., with 2 stops, one for lunch & one for fuel.  Everything for Saturday's talk & workshop was prepared, apart from marking the workshop panels on Friday night, so it didn't take long to switch things around and repack the car.  These quick changearounds are some of the 'backstage' things that go on for quilt tutors :-)

We were back on the road at 7.45a.m. on Saturday, but the drive down to Bonnyrigg, just outside of Edinburgh, took less time than anticiapted and we arrived at 9a.m.  Saturday was a sashiko day, so the talk in the morning was 'Sashiko and Japanese Country Textiles' and the afternoon's mini workshop was 'Asanoha' (hemp leaf), so everyone stitched a single repeat of this fascinating pattern.  Knowing there would be around 40 in the workshop, pre-marking the pattern grids took a little time off the workshop, a good point because we had a very good show and tell to fit in as well.  Glyn took his 'Mission Impossible' quilt and it was his second time speaking about it - he got thrown in the deep end for his first show and tell, in front of several hundred quilters at Region 13's Regional Day in October.  There were some lovely pieces in the show and tell, including some Jacquie Harvey designs and a stunning wallhanging of a bird of prey (I missed the full details about that because I was packing up at the time).  I think some people got photos, so maybe someone could send me pics?  We were too busy and I only remembered I had the camera with us when we were packing up!  I'll be back on the outskirts of Edinburgh on Friday, for another sashiko class, so looking forward to that too.