class preparation – suzani cushion

Over the last few days I have been working on some class preparation for my suzani cushion class to be run at the Berrima Patchwork Quilting in the Highlands Retreat later this year.

It has been quite enjoyable to do a little stitching and playing with colours. I had completed one of the colour ways some time ago (shown right), but the other one still needed its stitching added and the thread colours worked out. While the stitching isn’t yet finished, I’ve now worked out the thread colours.

The Reader used my sewing machine semi-independently the other day to make a skirt based on a pattern that she drafted in our pattern drafting course. It’s not quite finished yet, but it is looking great. I put the zip in for her, as we were using an invisible zip. I recently bought a foot for doing invisible zips, and as I had never used it before, I didn’t really feel that I could teach her how to use it without having used it myself. That would have been the blind leading the blind!

The Reader has been doing some sewing at school, and as it happens her school has Bernina machines, as do I. I bought mine when I was 15, and deliberately bought a Bernina as it was the same as I had at school too. The Reader says that the machines they are using at school are older than mine, so while we’ve gone to different high schools, I suspect that the ones she’s using are probably the same vintage as the ones I used when I was her age, at school! Using one at school means that she has more confidence in using mine at home. It makes me very happy!