Well, it’s been quite a while since I wrote a blog and things have certainly been busy at Strictly Quilting HQ. Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been working with the Gwent Green Grid on the Bio Tapestry project. A huge endeavour which is designed to feature the indigenous species of Gwent’s flora and fauna. A wonderful project which has been brought many local community groups together to create animals and plants to feature on the large batiked panels. There are 20 in total, each 3 1/2m long, totalling 70 metres and I’ve been asked to quilt all of them! That’s a LOT of quilting…
I must say, watching the groups develop their skills and investigate which creatures to feature has been wonderful. From young children to 90 year olds, we have had over 2000 people participate from a wide selection of people within Gwent. Above are a few of my favourite bits from the panels so far and I’m hoping to have most of them completed by Christmas.
This has meant that I haven’t been doing so many workshops other than my usual weekly classes on Monday, Weds and Fri mornings. These are great fun but I have been trying to gather some ideas and new projects for day workshops. I’m planning on releasing the 2026 workshop list after the Bio Tapestry is completed in February, so keep your eyes open for this. I did manage to squeeze in a day workshop at Midsomer Quilting and should hopefully be doing more throughout next year.
We also have our New Year Retreat on the horizon which will come around very quickly. 16th to 18th January 2026 we are off to Hillscourt again. This time we are looking at Dresden Plates, both the traditional versions and a modern Dresden Village clock appliqué version. There is still time to book on if you fancy a weekend of relaxing sewing to recover after Christmas.
If you are interested in joining us you can find the details here. Just drop me an email. For now, I’ll sign off and hope to see you all soon!
Strictly Quilting 