Oriental Leaf Circle Sewing Machine Retreat

Skill level: you will need to have some experience of hand and machine work and rotary cutting.

Techniques covered: easy and user-friendly design skills, fusible web appliqué, bias stem appliqué, quilting, free motion quilting and binding.

What to bring...

• 50cm x 56cm fat quarter of background fabric (when choosing this fabric, think about the colours of the leaves that we will be appliquéing on top; Pat used cream)

• A fat quarter of fabric for the stems and circles (we will be cutting this on the bias so we need the length. Pat used a batik fabric with muted colours)

• A small selection of fabrics for autumn leaf appliqué (15cm squares would be suitable)

• 80cm x 80cm (30” x 30”) fabric for the outer border (Pat used a teal batik)

• Approx. 20cm x 112cm fabric for binding

• 80cm (30”) square of warm and natural wadding

• 80cm (30”) square of backing fabric

• 50cm freezer paper

• 50cm Bondaweb

• Hand sewing kit – needles, pins, scissors for fabric and paper etc.

• Rotary cutter, mat and ruler

• Machine threads to tone with all the above (Pat uses variegated threads, but plain can work well)

• A 12” diameter cardboard circle

• Marking tools e.g. a mechanical pencil/chalk pencil/chaco liner/water-soluble marker

• A black felt pen

• A selection of leaves (collect a few leaves and put them between newspaper and under a rug to press them flat before the class as we will use these as template)

• A few sheets of A4 paper to make up to a 20” square or a 20” square piece of paper