Taking Classes at the Mancuso Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

Had the opportunity to attend 29th annual Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival at the Hampton Roads Convention Center.  Each year, quilters in the region look forward to the February quilt show as sort of a harbinger of spring. This year the weather cooperated and beautiful spring weather supported us as we moved from hotel to convention center with all of our belongings for class.(A few year back we were trudging through many inches of snow and icy slush!)

 

This year I registered for two classes. The first was Robbi Joy Eklow: Free Expression Fusing Buffet (Full Day Workshop on Thursday)  The class was advertised as both a project and a process class, as  learning a unique method of working with fusibles to create sophisticated art quilts.

 

The sample's of Robbi's quilts were amazing color studies, graphic and bold. The class was inspired!

The essence of the class was a technique of layering the shapes with high contrast between rounds.

 

 

 

I chose a design with wheels and petals and dug into my stash of dyed cottons. The lighting didn't really capture my colors which look kind of washed out here....the background is actually a raspberry, not so much rust.

 

 

The process kind of reminded me of paper dolls....a super sharp pair of scissors was essential.

 

The next day, I took another art quilt class given by Marjan Kluepfel: Shimmering Dragonflies and Sparkling Flowers (Full Day Workshop Friday.)

 

 

In this class we worked on fabric collage using "contemporary methods and innovative art techniques, such as fusing, free-motion machine embroidery, thread painting, and bobbin drawing. Then we will add sparkle with iridescent Angelina fibers, foiling and machine embroidery threads."

 

I chose to work on the wildflower pattern below. To me it read coneflowers or zinnias.

 

 

Here again a really sharp pair of scissors was the key to success! I ran into the vendor area to pick up a pair of Karen Kay Buckley scissors with a special micro-serrated blade pulls the fabric into the scissors rather than pushes it away which is great for cutting curves and points. You can find them on Amazon.                         

 

Another student worked the same pattern in a more muted pallet.

 

 

 So much beautiful work was going on in that room!

 

I brought home 2 unfinished objects, but got right to the wildflowers when I got home. I hope to have it done this week....maybe even later on Sunday!

Scrap Petal Garden Class

 

 

I had the opportunity to take a really fun class offered through my Guild last Saturday. Scrap Petal Garden was taught by Penny Domikis of Cabin in the Woods Quilters. 

 

The first step was to prepare the background. I decided to go with a blue-green sky leaf idea and used a bunch of fabrics from my stash to create the background. The pattern calls for a background of neutrals from cream to grey. But in the class, and encouraged by Penny was a "do what works for you" motto. In our class we had varied versions....greens, neutrals even a black Amish theme.

 

 

 

The machine applique was taught with two techniques, the standard fusibles or a new process that I hadn't encountered before, Terial Magic. According to the website, "Terial Magic is a unique liquid fabric stabilizer that binds the fibers of fabric together, magically transforming it into a stable and paper-like material that won’t fray when cut."

 

With the Terial liquid we treated our petal fabrics until they were stable. We were then able to glue baste them in place, in order to machine stitch them on permanently. I have to say it worked really well!

 

 

Building the flowers was a lot of fun! I used a hand dyed fabric that went from golden yellow, through orange to a hot pink. I stuck to the yellow and orangey sections as I was going for a Van Gogh blue and yellow inspiration.

 

 The glue basting was a good method that held the petals stable when zig zagging around.

 

Some of us in the class showed our works in progress at the February Night Chapter of the Tidewater Quilter's where Penny also gave a fabulous trunk show.

On RIngo Lake- 2017 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Clues 1 & 2

Like many quilter's across the country, I eagerly awaited Black Friday morning and the release of the first clue for "On Ringo Lake." For those not familiar with the mystery, go on over to the Quiltville website and check out the Mystery Quilt!

 

The recommended colors are neutrals, brown, corals and teals. I am going with that colorway with the exception that I am substituting a constant grey for the scrappy browns, and also using a constant neutral for the scrappy ones. While I like scrappy quilts, there is a limit to the scrappiness that I prefer. Having a constant or two in there, helps calm things down I think.

 

 

 

Clue 1 sewed up pretty quickly. Fifty nine patch blocks were done before the first weekend closed. So, feeling quite accomplished, I decided to make a second quilt in a Christmas colorway. In this one I went with the total scrappiness....hoping it will all work out!

Started working on Clue 2 yesterday at an open sew of our Guild meeting. While there are many methods for making flying geese, I prefer the "No Waste" method that uses a large square and 4 smaller squares. If you google, no waste flying geese you will find a "gaggle" of tutorials and videos that describe this method. Here is one at Patch Pieces. There are also charts that prefigure the sizes if you are math averse. For this project I used a 4 1/4 inch large square and 2 3/8 inch smaller squares.

 

That was it for the weekend, will have to tuck in some other sewing time to finish before Friday!

English Paper Piecing - Tidewater Quilter's Guild Fall Festival

This past Saturday I attended our local quilt guild's annual Fall Festival. This year the activity was English Paper Piecing with three levels offered from beginner to advanced. I attended the intermediate group working on the "Lucy Boston Block."

 

The original Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses quilt is about queen size (88 x 99 inches /224 x 252cm), made up of 56 blocks (7 x 8) and is found in the book by Linda Franz

 

 

 



The pattern is really fun, because each block made from 24, 1 inch 90 degree hexagons, looks different due to changing placement of light/dark color values. If you are patient with fussy cutting of fabric motifs, you can create some truly stunning blocks, and really no two have to be the same. Starting in the center you stitch together 4 Honeycombs into a cross (hence the name of the block), then you add another 4 Honeycombs (covered in a different fabric), nestling them into the axles of the cross.

These mirrors were useful for previewing how the fabrics would look in the hexie shape next to each other. Check out this link to Pinterest for a zillion looks for this blocks and lots of tips and tricks.

 

Lot's of different fabrics from very traditional to contemporary....

This is as far as I got, but I am liking the look so far!

 

This seems like a fun activity to take while traveling or watching tv for those that like to keep themselves busy!

Wonder Cut Ruler Class

 

Acknowledging that I have plenty of UFO's, I still succumbed to peer pressure and signed up for a class on the Wonder Cut Ruler at our local quilt shop. The ruler is billed as, "The Fastest and Easiest Way to Make Half-Square Triangles!!! " on the website.

 

Armed with my new ruler and a nifty pile of batiks, I set about cutting the strips for the quilt.

 

 

It's a two part class, with today mainly the cutting and beginning sewing. Of course there was plenty of chatter about the big east coast snow storm, that pretty much gave us just nuisance snow.

Here is my partial pile of strips....I went with yummy batiks because, you can't go wrong with yummy batiks!

 

Lot's of color schemes in the room. This will be a quilt to feature the color play rather than prints on fabrics.

 

The technique has you using the ruler to cut strips that then, after sewing on both sides, turn into half square triangles. It's pretty mindless sewing.

Here is my first stack- I have 8 versions of hst's to make. Since the weather is crappy, I may make a dent in this through the weekend. More to come!

Quilting in the Family

We had a fun meeting of the  Tidewater Quilter's Guild last evening, with lots of planning for the year to come including our Spring Fling and Biannual quilt show. We enjoyed our program which had members sharing quilting in their family.

 

This quilt was finished by a guild member from blocks that had been given to her by her mom. Circa 1930 fabrics.

This blue and white Irish chain was made on  a treadle circa 1930.

 

This quilt was pieced using fabrics that were scrap leftovers from a nearby pajama factory!

 

This quilt was pieced by Lakota Indians, a plains tribe whose tradition is to commemorate the death of a tribe member or friend with a star quilt.

This quilt was pieced from the member's grandmother's dresses.

This quilt was pieced using a coaster as a template for the applique and a treadle machine for the assembly.

 

This quilt was made around 1900 from "high end" dress good scraps as well as hat fabrics. It's tied, not quilted.

 

This quilt was made in 1860! Appliqued by the member's great grandmother.

 

This yo-yo quilt is 100 years old!! The fabrics are amazing!!!

 

It was so much fun to see everyone's treasures!!