Craft Workshop Archives

A tale of two rather gorgeous textile workshops

Crikey it’s blowing a gale and lashing rain outside, so it seems like a very good day to curl up and update the workshops on my website. Long overdue the little voice in my head is admonishing me and what can I say, for once it’s totally right. But I’m here now and have some really lovely workshops lined up over the next few months.

Firstly (and really excitingly) I’m going to be teaching in a wonderful new (to me) venue in April. I’m just thrilled to be teaching at the Wemyss School of Needlework in the tiny village of Coaltown-of-Wemyss in Fife. There are so many stories behind this wonderful school and I have a very personal connection to it as my ex mother in law Mary Birrell was ‘mistress’ at the school for 42 years. She followed in the footsteps of her great grandmother, Mary Webster, who was the very first mistress of the school when it opened in 1877. As a toddler, my daughter (and Michael, her teddy) used to spend many an afternoon there charming visitors, totally at home in the ‘skewing skool’ as she used to call it.

Imagine spending a day stitching surrounded by (Hi)Stories – not to mention beautiful threads & wools

Stories from the Scullery

Wemyss School of Needlework, Fife

Saturday 4th April

This is a gorgeous day of ‘slow stitching’, nostalgia and sharing stories. This workshop is perfect for lovers of ‘vintage’ especially those who have childhood memories of licking cake mixture out of the mixing bowl and the smell of home baking and for those who would rather be distracted from the task of Spring Cleaning and put their time to much better use – and sew about spring cleaning

We’ll spend six glorious hours designing and creating a gorgeous textile collage inspired by old recipes and pages from my precious domestic science jotter. I’ll be raiding my supplies from my studio, The Purple Thread Shed, and will provide a fabulous selection of vintage materials for you to use throughout the day. I LOVE using old & used materials so I’ll be looking out boxes of old embroidered table linens, vintage cotton fabrics, some old quilt fragments, woollen blanket and whatever else comes to hand during my rummaging.

We’ll print pages from my precious domestic science jotter onto calico

We’ll start the day by printing text from my jotter and recipes onto calico using an inkjet printer. If you’ve never done this before I warn you, it’s completely addictive. There are some wonderful pages to choose from, some real little gems that will bring inspiration and a real story to your piece. If you have some very special kitchen inspired handwriting such as granny’s favourite scone recipe you can, of course, bring it along to copy.

We’ll use this printed fabric as a starting point to piece together a scrappy collage of old and used fabrics. This is a lovely intuitive process and be warned – it will take much longer than you think! I’ll help you along the way and then you’ll be ready to start the lovely process of slow hand stitching.

I’ll help you create a beautifully scrappy ground ready for hand stitching

I’ll encourage you to let this become a relaxed and organic process. I’ll show you how to highlight chosen words and phrases from your text with stitch and we can add further text using a typewriter to print on tapes. I encourage people just to start stitching. Once you get started, ideas will grow from there – I promise! I’ll help you to create balance and flow in your design through your stitching and bring all of these scrappy little patches together as one gorgeous piece.

Details from two rather gorgeous finished collages

Don’t worry if you’re not an experienced stitcher – running stitch and cross stitch are all you need but you can, of course, be more adventurous and I’ll happily share some of my favourite stitches. Neat perfect stitching is not the order of the day, a love of things old, washed and worn and making lovely personal ‘marks’ with needle and thread most definitely is!

You’ll be inspired by fabrics that have been used, washed and worn

Warning! (Who knew there would be so much warning required) Don’t for one minute expect to finish this on the day – hand stitching is really slow! However you will leave with a gorgeous project and all the ideas that you need to continue working on it in your own time at home. I’ll give you ideas for how you can hang your finished piece as it is and show you how framing will change the look completely.

Everything you need for the day is provided (apart from lunch) but if you may wish to use some of your own special bits & pieces to make your collage even more of a personal story – I’ll give you ideas of what to bring on booking.

This workshop costs £70 for the day. Drop me a line to grab your space at our rather wonderful sewing table or find out more.

Laundry Tales

The Restoration Yard, Dalkeith Country Park

Saturday 23rd May

I’m in love with that gorgeous red stripe in the vintage mangle cloth

With the wonderful weather we have come to expect in May (we kind of expect wonderful weather every summer don’t we? God bless us) thoughts will have well and truly turned to all things laundry. And when I say laundry I do, of course, mean sewing about laundry.

The background to your collage will be a piece of old ‘mangle cloth’ – beautiful linen fabric with that gorgeous red (or blue) stripe. If red’s not your thing, you can use plain linen or bring along a piece of your own.

Once more we’ll be inspired by domestic science notes, this time flicking the pages to those on starching, washing & ironing. There are Rules for Ironing (who knew) everything from tablecloths, to blouses to frilled pillowcases and instructions for ‘pegging out’ – I hope you knew to ‘stand with your back to the wind’! We’ll start by printing some of this rather delicious handwriting onto calico and this will become the inspiration behind your piece.

We’ll use this printed fabric as a starting point to piece together a scrappy collage of old and used fabrics. You’ll be working with a fabulous selection of old table linens and other vintage materials from my studio. By using old and used materials we are bringing their stories to the piece too!

Creating a collage inspired by some of my very favourite things

You’ll create a gloriously scrappy collage from materials that are themselves used, washed & worn

Once you’ve created your ground you’ll start pulling it all together through the lovely process of slow hand-stitching. I’ll encourage you to let this become a relaxed and organic process using some old mending and needlework samples from my collection as inspiration. I’ll show you how to highlight chosen words and phrases from your text with stitch and how to add hand stitched ‘sketches’ to your work.

Hand made wooden clothes pegs ‘sketched’ with needle & thread

Don’t worry if you’re not an experienced stitcher – running stitch and cross stitch are all you need but you can, of course, be more adventurous. A love of all things vintage, of old, washed and worn is much more important.

You absolutely won’t finish this on the day but you’ll leave with a gorgeous project that you can stitch while you spend lazy summer days in the garden (oh there’s an idea for another workshop!)

The addition of hand stitching starts to pull your story together Details of finished collage

Absolutely everything you need will be provided (apart from lunch) but I will give you some ideas of bits & pieces you could bring to create a truly personal laundry tale.

This workshop costs £70 for the day. Drop me a line to grab your space at our rather wonderful sewing table or find out more. I’ll also be teaching this workshop at Needle & Thread workshops in Lincolnshire in October – find out more.

These are just two of the workshops I’ll be teaching this year. You can check out my full programme at The Purple Thread Shed Takes to the road

I hope to see you sometime soon!

Only Two Autumn Workshops? Gasp!

As you may already know I’ve decided to take a break from teaching my own programme of textile workshops for now. However the two that I taught earlier this year at The Restoration Yard, near Edinburgh were such a success, and such fun, that I’ve decided to return to this big, beautiful space this coming October and November to teach just two more!

Textile art by Ali Ferguson — Stories from the Sewing Box / Stories from the Scullery workshop

The first one will be one of my favourites (yes I probably do say this about most of them).

Stories from the Sewing Box / Stories from the Scullery

This is a gorgeous day of ‘slow stitching’, nostalgia and sharing stories. This workshop is perfect for lovers of ‘vintage’ especially those who have fond memories of sewing as a child, of playing with mum’s button box or being fascinated by nan’s sewing box or maybe childhood memories of licking cake mixture out of the mixing bowl and the smell of home baking.

We’ll spend six glorious hours designing and creating a gorgeous textile collage with a ‘sewing box’ or ‘scullery’ theme.

Materials provided by the Purple Thread Shed — I’ll provide a gorgeous selection of vintage haberdashery treasures!

I’ll be raiding my supplies from my studio, The Purple Thread Shed, and will provide a fabulous selection of vintage materials for you to use throughout the day. I LOVE using old & used materials so I’ll be looking out boxes of vintage embroidered table linens, 1940s floral fabrics, scraps of old lace, paper from 1950s magazines and vintage dressmaking patterns and anything else that comes to hand while I’m packing. Ooh maybe some old quilt fragments and definitely a great selection of vintage haberdashery. And for all you who love to rummage through a good old ‘button box’- there will be buttons…lots of buttons!!

Workshop materials from The Purple Thread Shed — Buttons…all old & used, bringing their own stories!

I’ll also prepare some printed fabrics to bring along. These will be printed from text and images from old sewing magazines, books and jotters and some of my precious vintage recipe books. There isn’t time on the day to print your own fabrics, but I’ll talk you through how it’s done and provide a great selection ready for you to use.

Laying out your patches of fabrics & papers

I’ll work with everyone throughout the day. I tend to demonstrate a few techniques and then work with people individually because you’ll all be doing something different and completely personal. While I provide all the materials that you’ll need, people very often bring along their own bits & pieces to work with. What could be more personal than using your own fabric treasures collected throughout the years from your own family stash? I’ll give suggestions for what to bring when you book your place but do know that you can turn up completely empty handed – perfect for those of you who don’t have a minute to swing a cat (there’s something not quite right about that) or for those who don’t have a stash of their own!

Ali Ferguson work in progress — Creating a collage with vintage papers & fabrics

So – using an old woollen blanket as a ground, I’ll show you how to piece together a gorgeously scrappy background from our vintage fabrics and papers. This is a lovely intuitive process and be warned – it will take much longer than you think! You’ll add more pattern using old haberdashery (don’t you just love that word?) and then you’ll be ready to start the lovely process of slow hand stitching.

Simple straight stitching is all that you need – or be more adventurous – up to you!

Don’t worry if you’re not an experienced stitcher – running stitch and cross-stitch are all you need. A love of textiles and scrappy vintage style is far more important! I encourage people just to start stitching. Once you get started, ideas will grow from there – I promise!

I’ll help you to create balance and flow in your design through your stitching and bring all of these scrappy little patches together as one gorgeous piece. If you feel more adventurous, I’ll demonstrate some of my favourite stitches and will bring along a lovely selection of vintage ‘stitch’ books from my growing collection! Neat perfect stitching is not the order of the day, making lovely personal ‘marks’ with needle and thread most definitely is!

Ali Ferguson Textile Collage — ‘Dear Nora”‘ – stitching complete!

Warning! The picture above is to tempt & inspire you BUT don’t expect to finish your hanging on the day. Hand stitching is slow, as is the design process. I’ll give you all the guidance you need to finish your gorgeous project at your own pace at home.

Stories from the Sewing Box / Stories from the Scullery workshop

Saturday 6th October 2018

The Restoration Yard, Dalkeith Country Park – near Edinburgh

The workshop runs from 10.00am – 4.00pm

The cost of the day is £65 inclusive of refreshments & materials

You’ll find out all the details here and I’d love to have you join us!!

I will be teaching one more workshop in the Edinburgh area before the end of the year

Patchwood Christmas Trees on Saturday 17th November at the Restoration Yard.

You can find out the details here and do book soon as there are only a few places left.

Find out where else I will be teaching and I’d love to hear from you if you would like me to teach in your own gorgeous craft venue or to your textile group.

PS – Can anyone accurately count the number of times the word ‘vintage’ is used in this blog? Clue – it’s an awful lot and I even took loads out!!

A Round White Collar – inspired by my personal memories of a home where we ‘made it ourselves’.

A Glorious Week Teaching At Crafty Retreats, France Part two

Outings and end results!

Patchwood Samplers Workshop with Ali Ferguson — Vide Greniers & a small bit significant haul of treasures

Following on from part one of this blog about my recent week teaching with Phil & Fran at Crafty Retreats in beautiful, rural France.

Although much of our week was spent in the studio we were also given the opportunity to do some exploring out and about. We discussed the options during our first evening and decided that we would have two half day outings. So on the Sunday we set off in search of tatty treasures at a couple of ‘Vide Greniers’. The first was pretty much a car boot sale with more people behind each stall than there were visitors – clearly a bit of a family day out. ‘Treasures’ were short on the ground though I did get an absolutely beautiful monogrammed linen sheet for 10 euro and Paul and I also found a great set of brass & copper cooking utensils for 5 euros. They’re not particularly old but beautiful crafted (Paul knows a good rivet when he sees one) and as we’re doing up our kitchen and kitchen related ‘stuff’ was on our wish list we were happy. We were even happier at the next stop when we found a set of small copper pans for 20 euros – these ones are old and will clean up a treat! There weren’t particularly rich pickings here either – just a few bits and bobs. I found some lovely old envelopes and Phil found a 1990s 1 year old child mannequin without a head or arms and priced at all of 4 euros it had to come home with us – worth it just to make the ‘it’s armless’ joke if for no other reason!!

The remains of Singer sewing machines in so many buildings in Oradour-sur-Glane

We split into two groups for our outing with half setting off to explore the ‘butchers quarter‘ in Limoges and the other half of us opting to visit Oradour-sur-Glane. It’s a very sobering and poignant experience and I can’t even begin to tell the story here. It’s hugely thought provoking and should be experienced if you are ever visiting the region. I was truly fascinated by the number of houses with old Singer sewing machines amongst their ruins. I had been told to look out for this but really wasn’t quite prepared for the impact. I’ll maybe say more in a future blog, maybe not – maybe just something to ponder on myself!

As the week and our Patchwood Samplers progressed Phil had the wonderful idea of creating a ‘Group Sampler’ to display on their stand at the Festival Of Quilts. Everyone was tasked with creating a personal patch and Oscar the pooch agreed (?) to represent the animal team (2 dogs, 2 cats and 1 tortoise) by having his paw printed. He looks most engaged in the whole process!

Time did fly and all too soon we found ourselves on Day 8 with everyone preparing to leave on afternoon flights. There was some last minute finishing off in the studio in the morning (everyone did finish their pieces and some people even left with more than one), some frantic trying to fit into suitcases (although we had taken this into consideration in all our planning & designing throughout the week) and then we came together for an emotional ‘Show and Tell’. Even I, who had continually been working with everyone throughout the week, didn’t quite appreciate the extent of personal stories in each and every finished sampler. For me it is a huge mark of success when people get emotional talking about their piece of work and I think a few ‘family heirlooms’ were established.

The samplers below:

Celebrating a love of typography and all things sewing related. I’m particularly loving the cardboard child with the scissors in hand. I can just hear my ex mother in law saying – ‘that bairn’ll take its eye out!’

The samplers below:

Irish roots, a love of sewing and childhood memories and ‘sides to middle’ – see part one for the story behind this phrase.

A collection of family antique ‘treasures’ with a bunch of tiny wax flowers from a wedding cake. Can you spot the brooch by Hens Teeth?

The samplers below:

So many family treasures – an old christening bracelet and a grandson’s hospital tag, dancing awards and a pair of pliers from dad’s tool shed.

Three samplers celebrating a love of sewing . Loving the perfectly worked cross stitch pieces ‘for mother with much love’

The samplers below:

Stories of bicycles and breathalysers (see previous blog post), a lifelong passion for dressmaking a love of blue, labels and all things Liberty.

Sewing box treasures – an unexpected gift of a pair of old scissors and mother in law’s thimble -probably the biggest thimble I’ve ever seen!

The samplers below:

Celebrating family roots, a love of all things fibre and some naturally ‘mushroom’ dyed yarn.

Oh where to start celebrating the life of a much loved mum with memories from entertaining 70s style. Loving the fragment of ‘fur’ coat and the scrap of lurex fabric from the ‘party apron’!

The week ended all too soon. Despite teaching in the studio from nine in the morning until seven in the evening (and more) I left with as much energy as I had when I arrived and that has just got to be the sign of a fabulous week. A week of being so generously looked after by Fran & Phil and making such lovely new friends in the most very gorgeous of settings. I even got a ‘night night’ kiss from Tutu the dog every night (because I asked him nicely not because he was dishing them out I hasten to add). Actually if it wasn’t because I was coming home to Annie the Purple Thread Shed pooch and a little grandbaby, I don’t think I would’ve wanted to leave at all.

‘The Last Supper’ A glorious week of delicious food, stories & friendship.

What next? We’re returning in 2020 for another week of Patchwood Samplers and maybe some Patchwood Tenements thrown in for good measure. And maybe even another week of something quite different – more news of that later. But in the meantime bookings for the Samplers has already started and as there’s only eight places I’d get signing up quick.

Paul & I quite literally can’t wait to return.

Patchwood Samplers at Crafty Retreats — We’re expecting that ‘SPACES’ sign to turn round to ‘FULL’ pretty quickly!

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A Glorious Week Of Teaching At Crafty Retreats, France Part one

Turn left at the hole in the tree!

A couple of years back I received a most exciting email from Philippa & Fran of Crafty Retreats inviting me to join them in France in 2018 for a week’s teaching. Of course I absolutely jumped at the opportunity and planning began. Now, sadly, it’s all over except to reflect on a glorious week, lovely new friends and the satisfaction of seeing some beautifully thoughtful Patchwood Samplers coming to life over the time we spent together.

I got really excited when I started thinking about the actual programme for the week as I realised that we’d have time to make one of my full size Patchwood Samplers. My problem was the amount of equipment and materials involved and the thought of packing everything onto Ryanair seemed a bit impossible. Husband Paul quickly came to the rescue and suggested we both go, pack everything into the back of my mini clubman and have ourselves a road trip. So with the help of Tom Tom and several stop-overs en route we drove from Edinburgh to the Limousin region of France until, finally, we ‘turned left at the hole in the tree’ and arrived in the tiny hamlet of Mallety.

Any ‘nerves’ left as we went through the gate and a smile hit my face that I don’t think left me for the entire week. Gorgeous welcomes from Phil & Fran , as well as the lovely Lee & Jackie, a couple of ‘early arrival’ participants, and introductions to ‘Tutu and Oscar’ the pooches followed by a perfect cuppa outside in the courtyard. We were then shown to our ‘home’ for the week and the all important studio. I have to tell you that this place is stunning – I really am still grinning!

Crafty retreats studio in france — The second farmhouse, Paul & my ‘home’ for the week and the gorgeous studio!

So time to get to work (still grinning). We got the car unpacked and everything into the studio. Phil, Jackie & Lee set to work hanging Patchwood Samplers onto every available wall space as I unpacked the boxes of vintage materials that I had brought from The Purple Thread Shed. I made up everyone’s ‘party bag’ and we were ready to go. Paul deserves a seat by the way having not only done all the driving but also having cut about 300 patches of wood before we left home!!

Studio at crafty retreats — A beautifully tidy and prepped studio, exciting ‘party bags’ and a smug looking husband

I always love unpacking the materials at the start of a course. I’d brought along everything needed to make ‘sewing box’ inspired samplers – vintage buttons & haberdashery, old floral French fabrics, handmade lace scraps that I’d found in the Textile Tent at Newark, old paper patterns and lots of other lovely treasures! Materials are really important – for me they have to be old and used, tatty and torn before they are of any interest, each tiny scrap embedded with its own hidden story.

materials from Ali ferguson's studio — Gorgeous vintage materials from my studio in Scotland

The rest of the day passed in a blur of sunshine, food and cups of tea until it was time for Phil to do the airport run and pick up the new arrivals for the week. Paul and I explored our farmhouse – yes it was actually big enough to ‘explore’, unpacked our bags and generally wandered about feeling pretty smug.

I was heard muttering ‘this place is completely stunning’ – a lot!!

Did I tell you that there is a hot tub outside next to the studio?? There is actually even a hot tub outside next to the studio!

Suddenly everyone was here and we were all meeting for the first time, glass of fizz in hand munching on delicious canapés made by Fran. Our furthest traveller was Trine who had come all the way from Newfoundland and not for the first time either, such is the lure of this place! Everyone was shown to their rooms and before we knew it, we were all sitting round the beautiful farmhouse table having our first meal together. Gorgeous food, wine and chat with the loveliest group of women that I could imagine. Mostly people travelled alone, two friends travelled together and one brought her camper van, her husband and her dog setting up camp outside our farmhouse! With only eight participants everyone gets to know each other pretty quickly and something I really did love about the week was sitting round the table at mealtimes, sharing stories.

Making patchwood samplers with Ali ferguson — Prepping our wooden ‘patches’ and starting to play with layout

On the first full day we woke up to gorgeous sunshine (as we did every day) and everyone made their way to the studio for an impressively early start. I explained about my Patchwood Samplers and the story behind them and also pointed out that it was not only a week of making but also a week of listening and telling stories, of reminiscing and thinking. I gave everyone a simple handmade ‘sketchbook’ to capture some of the thoughts and information that we would be gathering over the week ahead.

Explanations over, work started in earnest as people started sanding their 24 ‘patches’ of wood. I showed how to start playing around with layouts for their Patchwood Samplers and then all the patches had to be painted and finished. This was a lovely social way to get the week started and this activity took up a good chunk of the day.

We planned an afternoon visit to ‘Marie-Helene’ the local Brocante and spent a lovely hour or so rummaging there for little bits & pieces that we could include in our samplers.

Yes I do realise that I have the best job ever!!

Visit to local brocante — A visit to the local Brocante

Back to the studio and to the really exciting bit of starting to design our ‘patches’. I love when everyone starts to produce their own little collections of ‘treasures’ that they have brought along with them. I always, always get ‘the envy’ at some of the beautiful bits and pieces. Boxes, tins and bags started to emerge with everything from real collectable pieces to the plastic top of a beer keg – memories of entertaining 70s (I think) style!

Lots of playing around. Lots of arranging and rearranging and rearranging all over again. Great progress made on the first day and by the time dinner was ready around 7.00pm, I think it’s safe to say that everyone was addicted! Another gorgeous dinner by Fran accompanied by lovely conversations left me feeling that Day 1 had been a good day.

Turns out that it wasn’t to end there though as just about everyone piled back into the studio after dinner. Entirely voluntary I hasten to add – there were no thumb screws used or even any threats (my favoured method of coercion). I left them to it and wandered off back to our farmhouse to fall straight into bed.

This pretty much formed our pattern for the week! Up early – delicious food – studio time – coffee & cake – studio time – delicious food – studio time – coffee & cake – studio time – delicious three course dinner & wine – back to studio for most but home to bed for me!!

making patchwood samplers — The long process of planning and layout

The second day started with a catch up and then a lesson in planning and marking our patches for stitching and a lesson in using the drills including a health & safety warning about using drills after dinner and accompanying wine! I have to say that A LOT of drill bits were harmed in the making of these pieces, so much so that we enrolled Paul as official ‘drill tec’ and it’s fair to say that it was a role that kept him on his toes throughout the week.

I think people are amazed at how long these Patchwood Samplers actually take to make – so many hours of work go into them. I think they’re also amazed at just how addictive it all becomes. And all the more enjoyable for being able to wander in and out to work in the glorious sunshine.

Whenever things start to seem difficult my advice is always ‘put it down, step away and then come back with fresh eyes’.

The hamlet of Mallety, france — Exploring the gorgeous hamlet of Mallety

A little wander round the hamlet of Mallety is just the remedy and Paul and I snuck off for a wee explore with Oscar the pooch as a willing companion.

The upshot of people choosing to spend so much of their time in the studio meant that some really intricate pieces started to emerge in the first few days and develop throughout the week. There is ‘thoughtfulness’ behind each and every patch and once confidence starts to grow, so does ambition. There is no ‘one size fits all’ for these – we’re continually problem solving and working out how best to go about things. I have no idea how best to attach a ‘plastic beer keg top thingy’ but if you give me a minute I’ll come up with ideas!

The lovely thing is that everyone soon starts to come up with their own ideas – most work, others not so much but the trick is to work out which it’s going to be before holes are drilled!

A bit of instruction on the writing of ‘ransom notes’ ( I let slip my ‘day job’ with that one) and Paul’s mum’s old typewriter allowed us to add text onto the patches. ‘No soggy bottoms’ accompanied a rather lovely pastry tin found at the brocante and those of us of a certain age may know the phrase ‘sides to middle’ – Lee tells the story:

‘Bed sheets tend to wear thin in the middle of the bed – sometimes an unwary foot can go right through! Instead of buying new ones, women would cut them down the middle then re-sew them back together with the worn parts at the sides and the less worn parts in the middle – hence, “sides to middle”. I can remember my mum doing this by hand – with a French seam! All this after a full day at work and with three kids to take care of!’

The gorgeous coloured stitching in the above picture is a pattern in bell ringing – seriously! The white plastic tube thingy and little bicycle charm is a reminder of a story that unfolded on the first day involving a husband (who is an expert cyclist), a bike ride on the scale of no normal person, a sat nav with no signal, phones with no signal and a random ‘don’t worry about me but if you could work out where I am that would be splendid ’email. This led to discovering he is over 60k away absolutely in the middle of no-where and trying to get directions to him (with barely any phone signal remember), darkness falling and finally a rescue mission. The white plastic thingy – a breathalyser from Paul & my ‘RAC driving in France kit’ was to check that Phil could drive after having wine with dinner. Luckily she could and the rescue was made and husband was grateful having already cycled around 80k and was at the point of looking for a barn without a dog in it that he could bed down for the night!

I told you there were stories a plenty and you couldn’t make them up!

Part Two of this blog with tales of our excursions and our final finished Patchwood Samplers to follow.

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New Year, new plans , new textile workshops!

FEBRUARY UPDATE: Yikes how embarrassing – several of these listings have changed since I wrote this blog post!!

Do check out my workshop page for an updated programme.

Oh yay to be sat at my desk today after three weeks of working on the building site that is currently our home. It feels great to have bare feet rather than wearing steel toe caps and its bliss not being covered from head to toe in a fine layer of plaster dust! I usually rather grudge ‘desk’ days compared to ‘studio’ days but today I’m feeling pretty content – making plans for the next few months and setting my priorities for the year.

So to start by wishing you all a very happy and successful 2018. I’m excited by my year ahead. Last year didn’t quite go according to plan so that’s made me more determined than ever to make more time for my own textile work as well as developing my textile workshops. I’ll look forward to sharing my news of ‘goings on & happenings’ here on my blog – I’m determined to make time to update it and get myself just a wee bit more online savvy!

I do already have some fabulous workshops lined up this year. I’ll be visiting Sally at Needle & Thread not just once but twice as we have just added a sneaky wee date in June in addition to my two day visit in September. In June we’ll be making Patchwood Tenements and in September we’ll be making Patchwood Samplers: Personal Collections and Scrappy Story Collages. Bookings are already underway and as always places are limited. If you’ve not visited Needle & Thread before it is a gorgeous venue in Lincolnshire where Sally runs a fantastic programme of workshops.

Patchwood Samplers: Personal Collections workshop

I’m hugely excited to be teaching on my first ever retreat in June this year in rural France with Crafty Retreats. I’m sure I’ll be banging on about this much more in the months to come but if you could fancy spending a week in the sunshine in the most gorgeous studio situated in the Limousin area amid the forests and low mountains of the Monts D’Ambazac then do check it out quickly as I think there are only a couple of places left! We’ll be making Patchwood Samplers – my original full size ones with twenty one wooden ‘patches’ all embellished with your own little treasures. It’s going to be the most gorgeous week of creativity, friendship, delicious food and local excursions and I for one have to keep pinching myself to make sure that it is for real!

Textile art by Al Ferguson — Patchwood Sampler workshop at Crafty Retreats

My own workshop programme is currently listed on my website and I’ve made BIG changes to the way that I am doing things. I’ll be hosting workshops in two very lovely local (near Edinburgh) venues over the next few months. My venues have been carefully chosen as places that have the same quirky vibe as my own studio The Purple Thread Shed. I’ll be starting the year at the Wellbeing Lab within The Restoration Yard at Dalkeith Country Park with my first workshop ‘Patchwood Samplers: Personal Collections’ on Saturday 10th February and then in April we’ll be making ‘Patchwood Tenements’.

Ali Ferguson textile workshops — Vintage Haberdashery Lampshades workshop

I do know that people love visiting my own studio so I will open the doors to The Purple Thread Shed for a few workshops in May & June. There are only four places on each so early booking is essential starting with ‘Handmade Journals’ & ‘Patchwood Samplers: Natural Collections’ in May and followed by ‘Rusted Samplers in June’. Hopefully I’ll be able to restore my garden to it’s summer glory by then – it’s currently looking very sorry for itself as it’s been been ravaged by the house renovations.

So that’s a wee round-up of what’s going on – I’ll be posting more details & pics of individual workshops as we go along.

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