I had an interesting day on Thursday as I attended a sewing class in Chester at Liberty Bell – this is a fabulous shop set in the Rows in Chester and full to the brim with colour coordinated fabric bales, fat quarters, ribbons and buttons and other little lovelies!  Sue, the owner also sells her designs in kit format so you can take home a ready made pack and create a replica of some of the gifts she sells, such as cushions, dolls, mini quilts and pin cushions.

My day course was to make the Acorn Cottage Cushion! After cutting out all the pieces we had the option to machine sew or hand sew. The one on display was hand sewn with blanket stitch and looked so good that I opted for the same. Hence I haven’t finished it yet but as soon as the hand sewing is complete and the little extra stars and moon embellisments are in place I just see up the sides of the leaf fabric and its a cushion cover with an envelope style back.

Blanket stitch !

Hand sewing is really a good stress buster and a very different experience from the drrrrrrrrrrrrr speeding along with my electric Janome! Both are useful and fabulous but only hand sewing can be done feet up on the sofa watching The Walking Dead!

If you live near enough, or visit Chester take a look at Liberty Bell on Bridge Street Rows – you will definitely find some Xmas presents and very likely add to your own stash!

Over to Handmade Monday now!