Val Burgess Collage

Series 2 in the Holiday Workshop. 

Attending the Christmas Workshop was a bit of a whim for me. I had designated 2011 to going on a People To People trip to Brazil as an Ambassador for Speech Language Pathology. This was one of those events on my Bucket List. I wanted to do something humanitarian in my field. Needless to say it was a very expensive trip. Budget wise there were no more trips planned for 2011. However, upon my return from Brazil in August, I was seeing posts on my Facebook that the group with whom I had attended Ann’a Collage workshop in 2010 had not yet gone. Additionally, this year they were going to what looked like a luxurious chateau. My loving husband, alway the pragmatist, gave me the rationale that put the plan to attend in action. A frequent flyer airline ticket  sealed the plan. 

Well, little did I know that when I arrived, the curriculum involved sewing workshops. 

2010 saw me purchase a basic Singer sewing machine with birthday money given to me by my mother-in-law ( who is an excellent quilter).  Seeing strait line stitching and non-concentric circles s on gift tags and vintage book pages in issues of Somerset Magazine, I thought, “ I think I can do that”. This was the extent of my sewing upon entering this worksop.

Under Roz’s (our instructor) tutelage, I endeavored to muster up the courage to actually produce a sewn product. I labored all of at least one day to produce a number of these delightful lavender sachets. I also made a Christmas stocking ( not fit for showing ).

I must say, like any class, there were others with significantly more sewing experience. Their creations were truly inspiring, some of which are featured above!

                        Here is one of my lavender sachets made with vintage French linen fabric and lace.

Using this motivation, I came home with an interest in incorporating more sewing in my creations. This week I created a sewn paper bag photo album.  

                     You can find this Valentine’s offering in my Etsy shop:valburgesscollage.etsy.com

One thing that happens when you buy yards of material, you can make multiple items.

I had the idea to offer a kit so that others who like to craft and sew can make their own. This needless to say, involved preparation of a PDF for instructions for completing the book kit.  The kit includes the majority of materials to reproduce the je t’aime photo album.

If you want to use your own materials, I’m offering the PDF instructions and materials list separately.

These two items are also available at: valburgesscollage.etsy.com