Category Archives: Patchwork Corner

Cut work day at patchwork corner

Had a great day with the ladies at Patchwork Corner. We used the inspira cut work needles in our sewing machines to make negative and positive squares to assemble as small simple bags r to make wall hangings. These little needles are just like having a tiny knife in the machine and replace the normal sewing machine needles to cut through the fabric and remove the shape from within it, making both the negative and positive shapes fully usable.
They are quite expensive and were designed for the embroidery machines with stitch out designs . I use only one of the four needles in a completely free manner to cut out my own hand drawn designs so you do need to work out wether they art going to be cost effective at £48 per set.
The company really needs to look at selling them two ways. Four needles for the embroidery design machines and a single needle for the normal domestic machine. As I have started to teach the technique it would be so good to be able to offer one needle for sale.

Esssence of Black Work by Machine

Yesterday I spent a very enjoyable day at Patchwork Corner Hemel Hempstead teaching a lovely group of eager ladies how to achieve this lovely dramatic collaged panel of black and white flowers.

The technique appears to be very simple but it needs to be executed with a fair amount of control to get the neat and clean effect that suggests black work. All of the ladies worked very hard and many realised it wasn’t as easy as it first appeared to be but they all went home with loads of ideas and eager to get to grips with it. I like working at patchwork corner as it has very good amenities and is very well stocked both with fabrics and inspirational ideas and up to date projects.

An essence of black work worked on pelmet vilene bonded with white cotton and stitched with satin stitch in black rayon thread. Flowers cut out once stitched and beaded and sequined to help give the depth and tones that appear in hand stitched black work. The panel is made up of three blocks which have been collaged together on to white mounting board with narrow black ribbons forming a grid behind them bringing the whole piece together as one
Close up showing the added detail of free motion stitching to infill and give texture to inner shapes
Close up showing the beads and sequins worked on to the cut out flowers