Christmas weekend; the big day came and went – hopefully your day was as lovely as mine; all that preparation and its over in a flash; time now to recover, and we have lots of great videos for you to sit and enjoy.

Haptic Art are a group of textile artists who met at East Berkshire College, Windsor while studying for the HE Diploma of Stitched Textiles 2004-2007 with Jan Beaney, Jean Littlejohn and Louise Baldwin. Five of these artists put on this small mixed media textile exhibition at Sunbury on Thames which showcases their range of interests and might give you some bright ideas.

There is an interview with Maggie Davies,quilt tutor and author, talking about her hand felting – which she makes into a bag, –  appliqué work and hot ribbon art. Jennie has recorded a little bit of nonsense she called Fancy Fandango – and while I’m sure it will raise a smile, it is more of a full workshop on twiddling and fiddling with fabric,  than a simple patchwork technique. Bernina have supplied us with a bit of film about their latest 830 machine – something to dream about – Santa certainly can’t have got my letter because there wasn’t one left under the tree for me!
And all this is completely free to view – well it is Christmas!

In the subscriber section you will find Gail Lawther introducing us to her Island of the Long cloud – a lovely interview in which she talks about the textile  projects that were inspired by her visits to New Zealand; the techniques and projects are featured in her book, which is available to purchase on the site.

The Shipping Forecast is something that will be very familiar to anyone who listens to Radio 4 (and I know many quilters who do); distributed for mariners, the words are strangely hypnotic and Delia Salter found herself compelled to interpret these message in fabric and stitch – all 31 pieces. An inspiring series of panels and I just love this video.

Dawn Cameron-Dick introduces us to her really fast Drunkards Path patchwork  as well as giving truely in-depth instructions on how to set your machine up to do Invisible Machine Applique. If you’ve never done this, it’s certainly worth a try and you can, of course, run the video as often as you like to check you’re doing things right! it’s just like having a private lesson with Dawn.

If you didn’t find time to work on last month’s sewing workshops (Mandy’s small projects and Angela’s Multiplat) don’t worry, you can still find them under the Video clips. To join in the workshops you do, of course, need to be a subscribed member and details can be found under the Members tab

Hopefully you will find some gentle time to enjoy watching the videos and workshops; those of you whose membership is coming up for renewal, the site will prompt you for payment; 50 lucky people will receive a great bundle of fabric donated by the UK distributors of Robert Kaufman fabrics – Anbo Textiles, through Creative Quilting – that’s worth over £5 and the renewal offer of 4 months for the price of 3 is running for another month to allow those who were given Gift Vouchers to get great value for their present!

I do find that early January is a great time for me to catch up on sewing, either finishing the Christmas patchwork projects (they will then be ready for next year!) or completing some UFO’s. Still, I am rather taken with the idea of using my stash in a fabric scrap quilt following Dawn’s great instructions for the Drunkards Path patchwork; now that I have sorted my sewing room, that would be a good New Year’s resolution – use more fabric! (Oh and I did find a couple of hours to complete the little Christmas wallhanging that Creative Quilting is offering! – see fabric gifts.)

We would both like to wish you all a very Happy New Year with both time to join us and to sew.

Valerie and Jennie