CraftyMonkies Avis 

When have I ever been disappointed by a Nicholas Ball zoom class????? Never! And a whole weekend of Nicholas... well!!!🥰 His patience, his humour, his guiding hand, his tips and suggestions all make for a fabulous time. Shoal fish making. Loads of ideas. Go forth and multiple those fish!!! He passed on tips for creating basic fish design, then tips for altering, limited by your own imagination in the end!! Thank you Nicholas and thank you Rachel for the organisation of the werkend.🥰🥰

A thoroughly enjoyable and fun online weekend retreat with Nicholas Ball. Well organised, great teaching, lovely participants and just the right amount of everything. Thanks Rachel & Nicholas.

Fantastic class with Nicolas Ball… relaxed format ensured we had lots of time to try new techniques with time to ask questions… very enjoyable. I’ll do it again for sure!

This class was very enjoyable. Nicholas Ball, the instructor, was very engaging and talked us through his steps of improvisational quilting - especially working joining smooth curves. I wish the class had been longer. Signed up for another class on a related subject before finishing this class.

The best thing about this course was the ease of connection via internet. Crafty Monkies was most helpful by providing easily followed directions. The friendship between the host, Rachel and the instructor, Nicholas Ball was obvious as their friendly banter was fun. Rachel communicated questions from attendees to Nicholas in a fun and clear manner and his answers were on point.
The course was an excellent value as I was able to review the videos for several weeks after the event which permited review and additional notes to be made by me. I've taken other online workshops but must say this was one of the best and certainly well worth the cost. I highly recommend courses offered by Crafty Monkies.

Rachel makes every participant feel welcomed into the workshop. Nicholas Ball is a fabulous teacher. The two combined provide a wonderful weekend of sewing fun! Worth every penny and every hour spent.

The course was a very comprehensive one. The improvised quilting method taught by Nicolas Ball was inspiring. Try a course; they have so many wonderful tutors.

Well organised and excellent content throughout.

The ENTIRE experience was welcoming, easy, mindblowing. . . Love the vibe of the workshops, Nick and Rachel's ease in working together and bringing us in.

Shoal Summer Camp 2026 was everything I expected it to be and more. The added two days to the workshop made it easier to process all the information/techniques shared, which were many and varied. I loved the longer format, and also especially loved having access to the 3 days of videos to review. I was able to replay whatever I missed or wanted to see repeated. Nick Ball is amazing, and I continue to be in awe of his artistic and teaching abilities. Thank you, Rachel, for CraftyMonkies. The value for the money is excellent! You are very much appreciated for all you do.

I had a great time in the courses I’ve taken so far. And the fact that I could re watch sections as I tried out different techniques, was not only helpful but stress free. The classes were very well organized which many of my in person classes are not. Getting to hear the artist’s thought process as she made decisions in real time made it especially effective. I wish all the workshops I take would be in this format. Great value and good quality.

Great content. Excellent teachers. Very easy platform to navigate.

The Zoom class I attended was excellent; really inspiring. Our tutor, Cas, made it feel so personal that it felt more like a real life course. Rachel’s splendid organisation was the icing on the cake.

I recently took a workshop with Cas Holmes, hosted by CraftyMonkies. Cas is a fantastic artist who guided and inspired us on a mixed-media adventure using paper and fabric. She introduced us to new tools and methods to experiment with, encouraging us to explore and develop our own ideas. Having the workshop in two parts gave us plenty of time to think, experiment on our own, and then continue developing our pieces in Workshop 2, which I really appreciated.
This is the second time I've taken a workshop with CraftyMonkies. Rachel is a fantastic and wise host (do check out her Friday newsletter!), always helpful, friendly, and encouraging. I highly recommend CraftyMonkies, they offer a wonderful variety of workshops run by amazing artists.

I just love CraftyMonkies! I am part way through a year long course and am really enjoying it so far. I’ve also attended quite a number of zoom classes and they have all been amazing. Rachel is a wonderful host and puts her heart and soul into everything and the tutors are just fantastic!

Very friendly, helpful & informative courses, which are well explained, and you can ask questions throughput.
The retreats, which I have been to quite a few now, are always great & I love making new friends.

Great job! Excellent classes

It was my first time but it was great. Learned a lot. And it was a good teacher . So fun

Rachel is great. Workshops very varied and always good.

I had three online classes with Crafty monkeys and I was very happy with the content and the way it was presented and highly recommend the platform. Thank you very much.