We had a Storm at Sea workshop last week.  A busy day, but hopefully enjoyable.  Everyone managed to complete at least one block which was great.  It always amazes me how the same block can look so different with just a different placement of fabric.  Bernies Christmas block, which is the top left on the second picture was lovely - she had very cleverly fussy cut a little Christmas block to go in the centre. But they all looked amazing and due to foundation piecing we had lovely perfect points!

The next few photos are show and tell from Patchwork Club.  This is Bea's Virginia Star quilt, machine pieced and machine quilted - all on a Juki of course!  The next one down I think was Maria's, but it was a while ago and she is hiding behind her quilt - so if it isn't Maria, I apologise.  The bottom one is another one of Bea's - what a busy lady she is!



Our Chelmsford branch held a one day charity sale in aid of Downs Syndrome on Saturday 23rd November.  Donations were made by staff and customers who had attended classes and the items included quilts and knitted items.

Many thanks to all members of staff and customers who participated, and also to customers who purchased items.  The day raised £300, which is wonderful - many thanks to all.



Dress making for Beginners!

Here we have the youngest member of our dress making class.  This is young Miss Effie modelling a little number that her Mum Sara made for her:

How adorable is that?  Effie comes along to class and is as good as gold, Sara manages to get on with her work and if Effie decides she needs a bit of attention there are always plenty of volunteers on hand to help out. 

Here Come The Girls!

Check out these lovely ladies:

Liz, who comes over from Colchester to do our windows, made all of these wonderful knitted fairies.  They are just wonderful and she has made 21 of these already.  They come from the Knitted Fairies To Cherish and Charm by Fiona McDonald - a great book priced at just £9.99. 

Also featured in the middle picture is the new Wendy Air wool, priced at just £4.95 a ball.  It comes in a great range of colours; green, white, light pink, hot pink, navy blue, heather, stone and black.  There is a lovely crochet pattern for a scarf to match the wool - would make a lovely Christmas present.... just saying!

The red ones at the top are my favourites, I love their outfits.  No comments about their hair being like mine either please!!  The windows are looking wonderful at the moment, if you have five minutes to stop by to have a look, please do - loads of inspiration.



Dorset Button Workshop - Jill Carter Thursday 5th December

Jill is back with us in December and doing Dorset Buttons for Christmas this time - the photos really do not do these justice:

They are absolutely beautiful and are a great and unusual gift for Christmas. Everything is provided on the course. If you are interested, call 01722 554466 to book your place.

Jill Carter's Workshop - Spectacle Case

Jill Carter came to Salisbury in the first week of October and ran a machine embroidery course to make a Spectacle Case. Shimmering threads were put to good use, along with some pelmet Vilene and judging by the state of the floor afterwards, a good time was had by all. This piece however, was a stunning piece of work brought in by one of the ladies who attended the day. Lesley brought this along to show everyone and didn't mind me putting it on the blog. It is a wonderful piece of work.

Lesley, Rosie and Vivian all pictured with their work. Jill is back with us on Thursday 21st November to take a course on Christmas Dorset Buttons - pictures to follow. If you are interested in attending Jill's course, give us a call or pop into the shop.

You don't have to look far these days to see that Autumn is upon us. This is the car park outside the shop and the colours are just wonderful.
And talking of colours, this is the current display upstairs in the Wool department at the moment. Annette, Trina, Issy and Margaret have been so busy creating this wonderful scene. All of these items are sold to raise money for one of our local hospices - if you are interested in perhaps having one why not pop in and reserve one. Once the display comes down you will get a phone call letting you know. There are patterns available for all items, and of course the wool!

Handmade in Britain

Handmade in Britain is a programme which has been shown on BBC 4 recently.  This is a series of programmes which highlights Britain's relationship with fabric, featuring knitting, needlework and wallpaper.
The programme which is currently on iplayer covers knitting.  I watched it last night, and it is well worth a look.  I particularly liked the knitted swimsuit, which were all the rage apparently - I thought it stood up quite well to a soaking and didn't sag right down to her knees as you would have expected!

Anyway the ladies upstairs have been busy with their displays again and I think you will find it's time for tea!

Future Classes coming up with Pamela from Chelmsford - just to tempt you a little.  These projects use a variety of different feet for the Juki machines. 

Franklins offer a large range of machine classes to further your knowledge of your machine. On these classes we provide a selection of fabric and threads needed for each class.

                                               

Juki Exceed I                                                                   Thursday 7th November

This one day class will cover the basic operation as well as the many functions that this machine has to offer from the box feed to effortless free machine embroidery. The sensor buttonhole attachment enables you to sew a buttonhole on a single layer of fine fabric and the many and unique decorative stitches this range of machines has to offer are quite outstanding. Many more techniques will be shown from a blind hem to easy gathering techniques.

Price: £32.00

Juki Exceed II – Patchwork & Applique Techniques       Friday 22^nd November

The settings on these machines will allow you to achieve perfect results within your Patchwork, Quilting and Applique. The class will include echo quilting, Foundation pieced crazy patchwork, and achieving perfect embroidery techniques.

Price £32.00

HZL G110 & G210 - Patchwork & Quilting               Thursday 28^th November

On this class learn how to use your Juki HZL-G Series to create perfect patchwork & quilting techniques. Even with the pre-set settings the Juki has for quilting and patchwork learn how to change them to meet your requirements.

Price £32.00

Overlock I                                                                     Saturday 9^th November   

Learn how to understand your overlocker – this versatile machine can do much more than finish seams. After learning the basic of tensions and differential feed you will be discovering different stitches and techniques, including – inside corners, outside corners, working with lycra, satin, jersey and lace, flatlock stitch and a rolled hem for pin tucks, edging fine fabrics, placing a “V” neck within a neckband and more. With fabric samples to take home showing the results you achieved during this enlightening day you will have the confidence to use your overlocker to its full potential. Why not come to this class if you are thinking of buying an overlocker.

Price £38.00 – Franklins customers or £69.00 not purchased from Franklins.

So if you have purchased a machine, are about to purchase a machine, or would be just interested in finding out more, than just pop in.

Patchwork and Quilting Club

Patchwork and Quilting Club got off to a flying start this September. Everyone was pleased to get back after the summer break and all seem geared up for work. We started on that dreaded word - Christmas! We made Christmas ornaments, but not until we had some show and tell, along with coffee and cake of course!

These two are Lorinda's. The first one was from a kit, but the second was designed (along with Bee) on a Jelly Roll workshop day before the summer. We have another Pre-Cut Day coming up on the 4th October for anyone who is interested. Just turn up with your Jelly Roll, Charm Pack or Layer Cake and there will be lots of inspiration for you to choose from. If you don't have any pre-cuts then just turn up with your latest project and enjoy a day sewing.

This is Maria's contribution to show and tell, and it is a stunner. Maria produces the most amazing quilts, and who know where she finds the time to do them!

And finally this one was Bee's, designed and made over the summer. So there you have it, what a talented bunch. There are lots of clubs and classes for Patchwork and Quilting - if interested then just call in to see us and we can see where we can start you off.

New Class Programme Available

Well, here we go again. Our run up to Christmas has begun! New Class Programme available - call in and pick up a copy, or give us a call and we can email a copy out to you. We have all the usual clubs and hopefully some day workshops that will inspire you to have a go. We look forward to seeing all of our regulars, but also welcoming some new additions as well.

Alexandra Waylett - Coming to Salisbury!!

Check out Alexandra's work - She can do THE most amazing things with textiles and threads.  Using machine embroidery, she manages to create these wonderful pieces.  If you would like more information on Alexandra's work or would be interested in attending a workshop with her here in Salisbury, please give us a call.

Thank You!

Well, as we draw our current class run to a close for the summer, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers who have attended classes or workshops with us since we opened in September.

We hope that you have been inspired to create and we look forward to welcoming you all back in September with a new run leading up to Christmas.

Pauline's Work Box

Pauline Spence was in the studio yesterday teaching a class on her wonderful work box:

There is a lot of work involved with this box, so this class is run over two seperate days with the summer inbetween.  A good day was had by all I think, the weather helped by being slightly cooler for the day.

Here are two of the attendees hard at work, and one of them is a rarity round here.  Can you guess which one? 

Patchwork Working Groups

Two Fridays in the month are dedicated to Working Groups.  These groups come together with their own projects and work away on what ever they want - OK, there might be a bit of tea and cake thrown in as well......... you can't do patchwork without cake in my view.  They are great sessions as you get to work on what you want, it's an uninterupted period of sewing and there is always loads of inspiration flying around too. 

Maureen managed to finished piecing her Fat Quarter Stash quilt:

We have design walls in the classroom, and whenever we need to, we put things up to audition fabrics for borders; we then usually have a group decision on what works best.  Its always handy to get someone elses opinion or view, it's also handy to be able to step back from the project to get another perspective.

Bee attended our Jelly Roll Day and did her own version of a Friendship Braid quilt:

Wednesday night Patchwork and Quilting Club had to decamp out into the alleyway for their final session before the summer break.  Easily done though.

Sarah's Bag

Sarah came into Tuesday Dress Making this week modelling a new bag.  This sparked a case of serious wantsies amongst some of us - err, mainly me I have to say!  It was a lovely style and the fabric....well it was perfect for that project.

Well, imagine our delight when two days later this arrived from head office:

Makower fabric, 100% cotton £10.95 per metre (less 10% if you buy in sale time) - perfect for sewing bags and purses.  I think some of that will be coming home with me - well, it would be rude not to really!!

SALE TIME

SALE

It's sale time here at Franklins

10% off Craft Cottons
25% off Selected Dress Making Fabrics
10% off Wool

Great deals available on sewing machines - been waiting to buy a new machine?  Now could be the right time - come in and see what's available.

SALE    SALE   SALE   SALE   SALE   SALE   SALE   SALE

Dressmaking Tuesday - again!

Here's Bee modelling her lovely jacket that she made in Anns afternoon dress making class. I think you will find those last minute shoulder adjustments are all important, that's Dianne making those for her - not sure that is quite what Bee had in mind really.

Dress Making Tuesday

Tuesdays is Dress Making Day in the studio.  Three sessions throughout the day, morning, afternoon and evening - Ann's shattered at the end of the day!!!  This is Janet modelling her top that she made and the photo doesn't really do it justice, the colours are wonderful.  I wasn't allowed to put her head on which is why she is headless!  That seems to the rule at the moment - photos allowed but heads have to be cut off.  Give them all a few weeks and they won't care as much -hopefully anyway. 

Managed to catch some of them beavering away without them realising - I'll probably be in trouble now!

Patchwork and Quilting Club

Patchwork Club took place on Saturday this week.  This a photo of Lorinda's English Paper Piecing project that has been on going - but that's the great thing about English Paper Piecing, you can pick it up and put it down when you feel like it.  This is going to be a runner for the bottom of the bed. 

I did take a number of other photos of what we did on the day, but unfortunately my wonderful phone has managed to delete them already.  It's a huge shame as we made little tote bags and we had some lovely versions.

Unfortunately, or fortunately for us, all the Saturday Patchwork Clubs are full, but if you are interested in seeing what other clubs are available, please call in to see us.

Welcome to Franklins Fancies.  This is the new blogsite for our sewing studio which is situated in our Salisbury Branch.  We are hoping to give you some indication of what we get up to in our various classes and workshops.  There will be news on what is coming up in future classes and also some photos of what has been achieved by some of our customers which will hopefully give some inspiration. 

Fancy taking a class??  We have a lovely spacious classroom and all the equipment you could possibly need.  Pop in and see us to pick up a brochure, or give us a call and we can email a copy over to you.