Exeter Sewing Meet up

I've just the last few days in a beautiful cottage in Devon whilst hosting a sewing meet up in Exeter.  This is the second one we have held there and it was as successful as the first, there will definitely be more in the future.

We used the same hall as we did last time but decided to split people down into tables or around 8 people so they could speak to more people than when we had everyone sitting in a horseshoe shape.  It felt a little less like school too!   We had tables around the outside with supplies and sewing machines on.  Plus the lovely Rhiannon from The Sewing Boutique was selling fabric there.

Rhiannon from The Sewing Boutique

The very knowledgeable Kerry from Very Kerry Berry taught us all several different applique techniques so we could decorate bags for Making For Charity.  Not only did she take us through the techniques when we started but she then spent time on each table demonstrating them further and answering any queries.

Kerry demonstrating needle turn applique

We had a very brave male amongst the room full of women, Will Abakhan from Abakhan Fabrics. Abakhan Fabrics very kindly provided most the supplies for the applique.  Will has only sewn once before when I gave him a quick hand sewing lesson (blogged about here).  But he joined in and not only appliqued a bag for charity but Jenna from Sew Happy Geek who was one of my super useful helpers taught him how to make an appliqued wash bag too. 

One of my favourite bits of the day was when we told everyone that they could help themseves to the fabrics on the fabric table to take home once the bags were finished and there was a mad scrum!  As you can see from the pictures their hands were moving so fast they were just blurs!

The finished bags at the end of the day were stunning, it was brilliant to see how people who had the same tuition, same templates and same supplies to choose from ended up with such different designs.
 

All in all it was a brilliant day, even though we had around double the time compared to the last meet up it still went by way too fast! 

Thank you to everyone who attended and a big thank you to Kerry (and her husband), Jenna, Will, My mum, Savvi and my sister Ruth for all their help.