I’ve swapped from one project to another this week, some days several times, and some of the changing project has been at the different classes I go to.

It started off with a sweetie-wrapper workshop at Scunthorpe Embroidery and Textile Association (seata). I have had them saved for years and have rarely used them, so now I only save the really unusual colours or patterns that I come across. They are stored in a tin, and you can only buy them in plastic tubs nowadays. We were given a handout with five or six techniques, three bags of goodies to supplement the requirements list, a run-through of the various methods and shown samples.

Where to begin? Most folk were starting with the first technique of sticking the wrappers to felt before hand stitching them, something I already have as a work in progress (WIP), so didn’t really want to start another one. I should have taken it with me and continued with it.

But a new project is always tempting. One of the ideas was to trap the sweetie-wrappers on some wadding under net to make a square bowl. The outside fabric had an all-over design of what made me think of smiling lips, just showing pearly teeth.

A sewing machine had been set up ready, so I thought I would make use of it. Confetti. Snippets of coloured silver paper, cellophane, a little of the fabric out of one of the goodie bags, all in shades of red and pink to complement the piece of fabric.

Julie, the workshop leader, suggested I use felt rather than the wadding, as you could see quite a lot of it. I managed to find two shades of pink big enough to cover the fabric, and rearranged the snippets.

I trapped them with a piece of red net.

Then I machine stitched using a preset pattern with a gold coloured shiny thread.

I’m not convinced about the bowl, so this is where it is for the moment.

I then had a go at making some cords, something I have tried not very successfully in the past. But Julie gave me a quick demo, and said to knot the threads together at one end AND to knot the machine threads to them too, twisting them together slightly before stitching. This meant that you didn’t need quite so many hands! You can just hold them altogether at the back and zigzag over them all without it getting taffled (a little bit of tension, using one hand at the back and one at the front). The first one worked beautifully with some shiny purple thread, then the bobbin ran out! I put in another already wound, and the top thread snapped half-way down. The third length broke twice, and the fourth and final length broke every couple of inches. Frustrating, but I wanted to use the same shiny thread on them all, not to have to use something different when I got home. I was sure I’d re-threaded it correctly, so why it suddenly wouldn’t stitch I don’t know.

However, it’s certainly a technique to try again, lots of possibilities with different threads.

At “In the Stitch Zone” with Alex a couple of weeks ago we started a woven piece with sari strips, lovely bright colours, and I love the frayed edges. I left gaps between the weft strips because I like the bright yellow background (thanks, Janet), but kept the warps close together. It was all pinned down and then tacked. I then realised that something didn’t look right: instead of having squares of colour like everyone else, I have some long rectangles! I checked my unders and overs. Fine. Alex checked too, yes, it’s right.

But leaving the gaps between the wefts had given me a different pattern. I decided to go with it and stitch them as they are.

Here’s how it’s got so far, with some kantha-style running stitches and some fly stitches down the centre.