Jersey Eisteddfod 2026

The Creative Arts Festival of the Jersey Eisteddfod opens tomorrow afternoon. It has been a week of hard work taking in over 600 entries just for our section, adjudicating the items, writing certificates and displaying the items. 

I was sent home by my team on Friday morning once we had completed the photographing of the trophy winning items. We had displayed all of the junior and adult entries, so my team completed the job by displaying the trophy winners entries in what I call "The Winners Circle".

All I've done today is to add coloured stars to three entries which are eligible for a visitor's choice award and added laminated copies of the judge's summary of her experience around the display. All ready for tomorrow and I am scheduled to steward on Friday morning so I will take some cross stitch with me to work on, just in case it's quiet.

 We are just about ready for the Eisteddfod which opens on Thursday afternoon. Time now to work on a customer quilt and my March UFO. Number 3 was selected for March which is Autumn by Barbara Ana. I am putting all four seasons on one piece of linen. Spring is almost finished, summer had a small start and nothing had been worked on for autumn and winter. I worked along the bottom of summer to find the start of autumn.

Progress is slow as I have been suffering with the nauseous side effects of a medication. I have reduced the dose, so I'm hoping I will feel better this week. I set myself small tasks on the project to finish it in twenty days, but realistically, I just need to work on it steadily.

Croak Couture cushion

 

I was so pleased to get this cushion ready for submitting to our local Eisteddfod on Friday. We have worked for free for three days so far and have another three days to go, however we are making good progress.

I used the same background for this cushion as I used for the dalmatian cushion along with machine quilting lines 1" apart. The back is closed with star shaped snaps in a similar purple to the frog's mushroom cap. I  am looking forward to getting back to some crafting on Saturday.

Paris, je t'aime section 1

Whilst waiting for my black and white striped fabric to be delivered, I worked on section 1 of this project. I should definitely be able to finish this section in March as it's mainly just applique on some pieces to be done and then put the section together.

It's coming together nicely and I'm pleased with my progress. I am busy with eisteddfod adjudication this week, so very little stitching will be done. I'm looking forward to Saturday when we will have finished adjudication and displaying the work.

SQ Croak Couture

The second project I have to finish for the local Eisteddfod was Croaky Couture also by Sew Quirky.  Layering up the applique wasn't difficult, just time consuming. Again, I lost a piece of the applique - this time a nostril.

Between fielding calls about the eisteddfod, I have finished the applique and the jacket which was tricky. I now have until Sunday to quilt the background aqua speckled yarn dyed linen and make it into a cushion. Perhaps I might even remember to add a label to this piece.

Lola cushion

 

It was time to stitch up some of the Sew Quirky projects from the mystery box. I have included two Sew Quirky projects in the 2026 UFO challenge for our group. Even though number 12 has not yet been pulled, I chose the project t enter in our local Eisteddfod, and hand in day is this coming Saturday!!

I increased the design by 100%. The preparation takes some time as the pieces are small and fiddly. Though my biggest challenge has been losing one of the lenses of the sunglasses. I was determined not to prep the pieces again, so I kept looking for the piece as I worked on the other parts of the applique. Eight hours later, I discovered the pieces stuck to the underside of my slippers. That did make us laugh and it was a relief not to have to cut out the pieces again.

I used Glide threads for the applique and also added hot fix rhinestones to the centres of the flowers for some extra sparkle. The striped border picks up the black and white of the Dalmatian.

I closed the back of the cushion with snaps but totally forgot to add a label. I now need to work on Croak Couture, also by Sew Quirky, to enter it into the Eisteddfod.

Sew Quirky mystery box

 

The most recent Sew Quirky mystery box was called "Razzle Dazzle". You can order previous boxes here or pre order the next box due in April.

The box always contains a new fun pattern and a kit to make the project. This quarter's pattern is called Croak Couture and features a frog in a dazzling fringed jacket.

The specialty fabric this time was metallic vegan leather. the green shades are definitely more Lizzie than me. There are pattern weight, labels and a secret project which was a mini purse / pouch.

The sweet treat was yogurt frogs (long gone). Continuing the orange and pink theme was some strapping for bags, I'm told we have some of this already and a big embroidered patch.  Finally matching zips and bow zipper pulls.