Making It Magical! Our End of School Year Gallery...

Well done to all of the talented sewing enthusiasts who created the most amazing projects last half term. I'd like to give a special shout out to all of the year 6 "Hope & Gloria" graduates who left our clubs to head on to new sewing pastures at secondary school. You will be missed and are wished all of the very best luck in your new schools - keep sewing.

This year all of our "graduates" were given a certificate in recognition of their amazing sewing skills that all of The Hope & Gloria Team hope will remind them of the fun and creative times spent in our sewing clubs.

One of our very talented year 6 club members, Jessica from St. Ann's Heath Junior School brought in the very first project that she made with Hope & Gloria when she was in year 3 - an owl. It was lovely to contrast her first and final sewing club projects and it's always lovely to see how far children progress with their sewing skills during their time in our clubs. A huge "Well Done!" to Jessica.

Here are some other lovely projects that were stitched with skill and love last half term by our sewing club members. As always their creativity is truly brilliant. Have a lovely summer everyone and we look forward to seeing you all again in September!

Beware of Dragons!

My plan had been to write this blog post yesterday to tie in with St George's Day (dragons and all that),  but the day was taken over by Birthday celebrations for my youngest son Theo. However, it still seems appropriate to share one of my latest designs the day after St George's Day as it's one of our school sewing projects  projects for next half term - a cute little dragon.

I have always been fond of dragons ever since I read a wonderful book called Green Smoke by Rosemary Manning when I was about 7. It's the story of a girl called Susan who meets a friendly dragon that lives in a cave in Cornwall. He tells her wonderful stories of King Arthur and takes her on fantastic adventures. Cornwall is one of my favourite places in the world and I've visited many times but never been lucky enough to find a friendly dragon.

Dragons have also formed part of my children's childhood. The "How to Train Your Dragon" series of books have been firm favourites in our home and I've had lots of fun reading them with the boys over the past few years.

I am always fascinated by the fact that so many different cultures around the world feature dragons in their folklore - I wonder why that is....?

Anyway, this little dragon that I've designed as part of our "Make It Magical" theme for next half term is pretty much how I imagine the dragon from "Green Smoke" would look. As always, the design is kept simple enough for beginners to find it easy to make but I am looking forward to seeing how some of our more experienced stitchers personalise and embellish him to add their own unique touches. Looking forward to sharing the results with you at the end of the school year.