Stacked Coins Class

Stacked Coins is the name of the quilt pattern we worked on in this one-day beginner's class. A day of rotary cutting, chain piecing, pressing and sewing rows to strips resulted in completed baby sized quilt tops. Everyone went home with instructions on finishing the quilts. A follow up email included links to videos and tutorials on finishing techniques, from basting to binding. I hope everyone remembers to add a label! Joyce sent me a great photo, titled: My First Quilt. She even pieced her binding out of leftover fabrics. Love it!

 

Tree Bits and Thread Paint

Teaching a new class in a couple of weeks! Titled "Tree Bits and Thread Paint" it will be at The Sewing Machine Exchange in Falmouth. I am encouraged by the interest in this class--we had to schedule a second session to accommodate participants! I know several people signed up with a friend, which is such a great way to go--the class is more fun when you have someone to share the experience.

The idea for this class grew out of a technique in my pattern, "Safe Harbor."

Safe Harbor © Pattern available at The Sewing Machine Exchange

When I taught the all-techniques class based on this pattern, several people wished we could have spent more time on the tree, so I designed this 5-hour session. I developed the tree bits and thread paint technique and have used it for several different applications including water and hair. We'll take a look at various applications during class.

Missed out on this round? Send Tyler a note and we will put you on the list to be emailed when we schedule the next one. Here's a sneak peak at the class project for "Tree Bits and Thread Paint".

Tree Two 2017 ©

Summer Projects

My students have been busy this summer, completing projects begun in class. I love hearing about your progress and seeing your work!

Lisa came to 'Picture This!' in April. Although it is a two-day class, we are always working up to the last minute and I don't get to see the finished product. Lisa has been working at it diligently though, and sent me the great shot below. Her favorite part of this piece is the tree and leaves. Mine too!

Pat was in 'Baker's Dozen' improvisational piecing in May. That class was fun and free-form, slicing and sewing with abandon. She kept going after class, making more and more blocks until she had enough for a huge quilt, over 100" in each direction! I told you these improv blocks were addicting! Isn't it a sunny, happy, summer quilt?

Keep the pictures coming! I am looking at schedules and hope to have a few fall classes to announce soon. Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of the summer and hope you all find time to sew!

Free Motion Success Story

Barbara attended the Free Motion Quilting class in June. Having learned a trick or two, she went home and finished her first free motion quilted quilt, with stippling throughout and hearts on each of the Squares. It's a Disney Princess Quilt! Click on the photo for a better view. I love seeing what my students are doing with their newfound skills. Thank you Barbara for sharing your work and allowing me to post it. 

Picture This!

So proud of the students in the Picture This! class last weekend. In spite of challenges with the fusible web on Friday, they persevered and produced the truly marvelous parade of chairs seen above! 

The second day we worked on creating a landscape for the chairs and boats to live in. Everyone learned several new techniques, including the most fun way to make trees from Tree Bits! I didn't get a chance to snap a photo of anyone's tree, so take my word for it, they look amazing.

It is really cool to see how the fabric choices affect the mood of the scene. Even before any stitching is done, the pieces begin taking on perspective and dimension. I sure hope some of the students will send along pictures of their finished pieces (or works in progress!) Here are some photos taken around mid-day.

Lisa's scene with curly grass and swirly water

Sandrea played pattern on pattern to great effect

Pat's luscious fabric choice for her ground really wowed us

Missed the fun? Linda and I will be teaching Baker's Dozen Improv on Saturday, May 14. Sign up with Tyler at the Sewing Machine Exchange. It will be a blast! 

Floral Nine Patch

Sometimes it's fun to do something quick and easy. I can enjoy the colors and patterns without over thinking it. Having just finished my piece for this year's challenge (which is not revealed until June) I wanted just such a breather. I had several florals kicking around--mostly sunflowers in various sizes. I did not want to buy fabric for this piece, so I found a design that accommodated the fabrics I had on hand (although I did have to mix in a few bits--but that always adds interest, no?) I might have improv pieced, but I've always liked this pattern, with its simplicity showcasing the fabrics, and it seemed serendipitous that what I had could be made to fit the pattern requirements.The large red print has chickens in it--a piece of red fabric with small black chickens was the perfect tie-in. It is coming together quickly, though I've not thought about how to quilt it. I'm sure inspiration will strike by the time I finish stitching the top--perhaps you have an idea? 

Baker's Dozen

Just finished quilting a small quilt top I made last summer. Time can get away from me! In a departure from my usually more scripted work, this top was pieced improvisationally from strips and squares. I don't have solids in my stash, but I had a bag of solid scraps (and added one fabric to make 13 colors, but used the back side to hide the print!) With a few parameters in place, the blocks came together quickly and went up on the design wall. Pieced sashing helped blur the block edges and brought the composition together.

I enjoyed the improv piecing so much I started on another one right away! I made the second one from shirting fabrics and quilted it in Friendship last summer, in an all-over clothes hanger pattern. A friend snapped it up, but here's a photo.

Recently I pulled out the solid pieced top and decided it was time to quilt it. In keeping with the improvisational spirit, I  chose to let the quilting develop organically as well. The first decision I made was to overlay the quilting, rather than follow any of the lines in the quilt, but I wanted something more than an all-over pattern. I grabbed a dinner plate and a salad plate and a piece of chalk and drew large, concentric circles. Stitched those. Filled the space between the circles with smaller circles and curlicues. Added straight lines, like ladders. Decision by decision, the quilting filled the top.

Now that it's done, I want to share the fun of making these quick, no stress pieces. My friend Linda and I will be teaching a beginner friendly class, Baker's Dozen Improvisational Piecing on May 14 at the new class space at The Sewing Machine Exchange in Falmouth, Come if you can!

Fall in Maine

I have been absent, not posting for a while. I wish I could say I was busy finishing quilts, but not so. Although I did deliver over 35 quilts to Kimball St Studios in Lewiston for Art Quilts Maine's second annual show! It is beautifully hung and it is not too late to view it. We have just decided to keep the quilts on display until October 29, so if you are in the area, stop by. Click the link for information on the gallery. Included in the show is this year's Travelling Challenge Quilt Show, the theme of which is fabric manipulation. The Travelling Challenge will be at Portland Public Library next, during December and January. Some truly creative pieces in that group!

We also traveled to Florida and Honu found a home, hanging on a wall at Jerry's Mom and PaPa Joe's home. It really is the perfect spot for this wall hanging, since we went with them to Hawaii, on the trip that inspired Honu.

I teach a full class tomorrow at Sew Portland on Free Motion Quilting. If you didn't get into this session, I'll be scheduling another one--maybe after the holidays. Meanwhile, work is progressing on the wedding quilt commission and a new round robin series.

I recently made up a new batch of Quiltini Pins and will be looking for opportunities to put them out for sale. Once I get started they are addicting to make--each a tiny, embellished quilt with glitz and glitter!

Voila!

Voila!

I am teaching a two-day class at Sew Portland (part 2 is this Saturday.) We are working on raw-edge fusible applique. I designed an easy baby size quilt to learn on.

Last Saturday we spent time choosing fabrics--each student had her own unique vision. Fabric shopping is so much fun! We could have spent the whole day playing with fabrics but eventually we got to work cutting and stitching the backgrounds and learning to use fusible web. The product we used in class is Steam-a-Seam II Lite. My personal favorite is an oldie but goodie, Wonder Under. I love that stuff. But Steam-a-Seam has the advantage of acting like a Post-It note until you are ready to hit it with the iron, so the applique pieces go on the design wall, get moved around until you love it, then set with the iron, no pinning involved! A huge advantage in a classroom situation or for working on the large-sized petals in this pattern.

With tops done, students headed home to spray-baste the quilts in preparation for this week's completion session. If all goes according to plan, they will secure the fused applique with a variety of stitches, add some quilting in the background (free motion here we come!) and finally, apply the binding entirely by machine.

I couldn't resist showing off Victoria's completed top--she chose prints for her flower petals and added a border to make the quilt a little bigger. Flower Power!

Victoria's top

Class with Marilyn Belford

Rectangle Abstracted

I am taking a class series called "Art for Quilters" with Marilyn Belford. You may recognize her portrait quilts or her mythology series. I have been a fan for a long time. When I heard from a friend that she was teaching an online class, I couldn't sign up fast enough. Lesson one started out with a still life and abstracting geometric forms. Lesson two is a discussion of composition. Returning to the basics of art is so valuable for a quilter--after all, we work with color, value and composition no matter what style of quilting we may be doing. Here are a couple of examples from the first lesson. I love being a student. Probably the most fun part of the class so far is the one-on-one interaction with someone I admire--the somewhat scary opportunity to share my experiments with Marilyn Belford and hear her feedback and critique!

Shapes and Arrows

Perseverance Pays Off

I just had to give a shout out to another student in the Stacked Coins class. Charlena has taken a few classes with Linda and me before, and is quite a good piecer. She has had some major frustration with free motion quilting in the past, though. Neither she nor I could get her machine to behave. Thread kept breaking, no matter what we tried in class. It would run fine on a sample piece, then we would move to the stacked coin quilt and stitch for a few seconds when Bam! the thread would break. Same thing last class she took. We tried changing needles, re-threading. No luck.

Well, she went home and here we are, a few weeks later--Voila! look at that lovely quilt, free motion quilted all over the background. Just in time for Valentine's Day, too, with her themed fabric choices. Charlena says she bought a new free motion foot and some Aurifil 100% cotton thread and it seemed to work. I say, whatever combination of things made the magic happen, yippee! Time to get out some of those other tops that have been waiting and get stitching.

Love it when perseverance finally wins out over frustration. Thanks for sharing the photo and your triumph, Chalena!

Stacked Coins

Cindy's Stacked Coins baby quilt

Beginning quilter classes are such fun to teach! Linda and I just finished teaching a two-day class using the Stacked Coins pattern, which we modified from a Moda pattern that is available several places online. It is a great beginner pattern, as it starts with a charm pack and has no matching seams, thus reducing concern about accurately cut patches. We finally have the lesson plan tweaked so the quilts were very nearly complete at the end of class. Most students just had to finish quilting and add binding, and many had the binding cut and ready to go.

One of our students, Cindy, sent these photos of her completed baby quilt! Quilted with straight-line stitching and beautifully bound with the same fabric as her backing. Well done! We love seeing our students' work. Send more pictures!

Next up is a Free Motion Quilting class, on Saturday, February 21, 10:00 to 3:00. Lots of hands on practice there, learning to 'draw' with the sewing machine needle. I encourage students to bring in unfinished quilt tops so we can brainstorm various ways to quilt and complete them. Want to join the fun? Sign up at Sew Portland--in person at 306 Warren Ave in Portland, or by phone at 797-6700.