Extra Easy, Very Special Pencil Case

by | Sep 10, 2017 | Uncategorised

I have no idea how many of these beauties that I’ve made. Lots and lots. This Summer I taught a friend of my daughter’s  to make them, and she went on to sell them as part of a Young Enterprise competition at her school. She did really well. The essence of...

Highly Commended

by | Sep 3, 2017 | Uncategorised

I may have mentioned just a few times that all 3 of the girls’ group entries at the Festival of Quilts this year were awarded ‘Highly Commended’. Obviously, we were all thrilled – but what does it really mean? For the first time this year,...

Working from Base Camp

by | Aug 31, 2017 | Uncategorised

I am no stranger to working on my holidays. After years of corporate life, where everything was urgent, nothing could wait and my phone was constantly ringing (with bad news), not working would be shocking. However now working on this holiday, isn’t really work, it is...

Something Special

by | Jan 8, 2017 | Uncategorised

It’s really difficult to know how to help someone and show them just how much you care. I often spend hours wondering how do something nice, but not embarrassingly too much. It is the same problem with my older daughter. I can buy her endless gorgeous things...

GillyMac Dawn til Dusk Sewathon

by | Sep 26, 2016 | Uncategorised

If you didn’t already know (how could you not know !) , on 22nd September we held a Dawn til Dusk Sewathon in support of Macmillan Cancer Support. From 7am until 7pm there was a flow of adults and then after school children and teens arriving at the studio in...

A Little Bit of EPP & Relaxation

by | Aug 22, 2016 | Uncategorised

After a pretty hectic summer, I now have time to breath as do a little of what I fancy. In saying that, there are many things I need to do to prepare for Autumn classes, catch up on admin for Gillymac, construct and finish my block swap quilt, and of course I need to...

Tasha’s Reversible Tote Bag

by | Jul 12, 2016 | Uncategorised

As a teen project for the Summer holidays, Gill and I found a great pattern for a reversible tote bag. It looked great and simple to make … so my first project at GillyMac Designs was to make it up. Method I first had to cut out my pattern by Novita Estiti from...
The GillyMac Club is Launched !

The GillyMac Club is Launched !

by | May 11, 2016 | Uncategorised

Now that there quite a few people coming along to classes and so many brilliant things are being created, it has been on my mind to find a way to share more of what we do just between ourselves.  I already post some of the work in my gallery page on this website,  and...

Liberate Me …

by | Apr 11, 2016 | Uncategorised

Earlier on this year the GillyMac Thursday evening patchwork and quilting group started on a project of Liberated Quilting, inspired by book of that title by Gwen Marsden. Our quilts started along the same lines as Gwen’s, but soon, as with all our Thursday evening...
GillyMac’s Top 10 Patchwork & Quilting Apps

GillyMac’s Top 10 Patchwork & Quilting Apps

by | Feb 28, 2016 | Uncategorised

Recently I have been researching the world of applications for patchwork and quilting to see what’s out there. In teaching,  I already regularly use a few, but I was ask to write an article for an online publication so I thought I’d share my top tips....