Wall hanging photos & quilting holiday review - long!

I have put some photos of a wall hangings in my flickr album. The
smaller square one was completed on my recent trip to Spain, the long
one was completed back home.

Back in the spring I was supposed to be going on a short quilting break
taught by Dawn Cameron Dick, but unfortunately due to the course being
cut short by an extra holiday there were not enough of us to make it
viable and it was cancelled. :-( So I trawled the web and found this
site: http://www.quiltingholidays.co.uk/ and decided I could just about
afford it by September. I phoned Dee, asked what was available and
plumped for a course with Yvonne Brown involving Cutting & Burning in
mid September. I sent off my deposit cheque and kept my fingers crossed
that this would actually happen. As my father's health deteriorated I
was on tenterhooks, but my mum told me to "Go!" so go I duly did.

The day before I flew out I went out and bought my supplies - polyester
sheers & metallics together with kunin felt, dug out my heat gun,
borrowed a spare soldering iron from work and then squeezed in some
clothing around the quilting supplies in my suitcase.

Early on Sunday morning I flew down to Gatwick and then checked in for
my flight to Valencia feeling a little nervous - remember at this point
I had never been to even a half day quilting workshop & I don't belong
to a local guild or group! At the gate I spotted two ladies who looked
likely prospects and waved my copy of The Quilter at them, they smiled
and we introduced ourselves and then sat together on the short (2 hour)
flight to Valencia.

After touching down and getting our baggage we identified the others in
our group, 8 learners & 1 tutor and then waited for our lift. It was
rather warmer in Valencia (30+C, 86+F) than in England so we were glad
when Sally & June arrived to pack us and our cases into their people
movers and we set off for La Drova. We drove through orange groves and
up & up a long windy road and arrived at the villa where we were pleased
to find cool rooms, cold drinks and a pool. Later that evening we had
our first meal of Billy's wonderful cooking and I resolved that I had to
swim each day.

Each day we woke to a continental breakfast at 8.30 and started our
"lessons" before the day got too hot. Lunch was a sumptuous buffet of
cold meats, salads, vegetables & fruit. Dinner each evening was 3
courses of superb food, lots of fresh vegetables & more fruit and wine
if desired. Most evening we followed dinner by a few games of Rummikub
sat by the pool - sheer bliss.

Monday we started with some Kunin felt that Yvonne had already coloured
with transfer paints and made our first tiles for the square wall
hanging, cutting the designs out with hot soldering irons and then
distressing them with a heat gun, before mounting them on the main fabric.

Tuesday we worked with Kunin felt again, but this time also with other
textural fabrics - scrim, lace, net, string, tyvek etc etc and made a
fabric sculpture panel. This we painted all over with white emulsion
(latex) and then added further depth and colour with acrylic paints to
give the impression of weathered stonework.

Wednesday we tried out the transfer paints for ourselves using them to
colour pieces of synthetic fabric & felt and then extended the technique
of cutting with a soldering iron to layered sheers.

Thursday morning was spent at the local market where people bought
shoes, trousers, tops, paella pans, cans of olives & churros.

Thursday afternoon and all of Friday were spent working on projects we
chose using our new cutting & burning skills and completing some of the
projects from earlier in the week.

On Saturday we had a prompt start and caught the train into Valencia
where we drank coffee, took a cultural bus tour (to stop flooding they
moved the entire river from the middle of the city and now have a long
ribbon like park cutting through the buildings!), ate lunch while
watching two society weddings at the Cathedral, took a tour around the
cathedral and finally caught the train back to the local station.

That evening we received our course certificates and had one last meal
to enjoy Billy's cooking before tidying up all our fabrics and projects,
squeezing them into our cases ready for heading back to the airport in
the morning.

The week passed all too quickly and I have made new friends and cannot
recommend Sally, Billy & their dedicated team warmly enough. For a
whole week I didn't have to think about food, shopping, cleaning,
laundry or any of the mundane things in life. I was able to sew, eat,
swim and sit in the sun to my heart's delight and it was absolute bliss.
The food was superb (have you got that message yet?), the weather hot,
but not too hot (it is a dry heat up in the mountains) the company
excellent. If you ran out of fabric or needed something a bit different
Sally has a quilt shop in her garage with threads, book fabrics and more!

Our tutor, Yvonne Brown, was enthusiastic, positive and always
encouraging and helpful as she led us through new and unusual fabric,
colouring, handling (& destroying) techniques leaving each of us with a
great sense of achievement and a stack of projects to bring home.

I am no longer a workshop newbie and would recommend Sally's courses to
anyone. The group was welcoming to those of us who hadn't been to La
Drova before and we are all planning when we can next go back to enjoy
the Spanish quilting experience.

NAYY

Lizzy

On 10/10/11 15:43, Lizzy Taylor wrote:
I have put some photos of a wall hangings in my flickr album. The
smaller square one was completed on my recent trip to Spain, the long
one was completed back home.

Well, duh! I forgot the link to my album.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13454123@N04/

Lizzy