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. 

Hope Blooms

Hope Blooms 2015 Rana O'Connor

A small tribute to a long time colleague in the world of foster/adoptive care. We worked together for many years on a collaborative team designed to raise awareness of the need for foster/adoptive parents and to support families who work with Maine's treatment foster care agencies and the Office of Child and Family Services.

Jo recently retired. I hoped to recover a banner we once created for a fundraiser with the statement, "Hope Blooms in Foster Care." The banner was long gone, though, so I set about to make Jo her very own memento.

Pulling scraps of fabric for the petals, I found a green swirled fabric in my stash for the flower center and applique letters. The girl with balloons came from fabric we used in a more recent banner. The muslin background seemed plain, but a set of alphabet stamps came to the rescue, and I stamped h-o-p-e randomly across the field. Thread paint for the petals and quilting in the flower center and background complete this roughly 15" square wall hanging.

After years of tireless advocacy on the part of Maine's children and foster/adoptive families, I wish Jo many years of happiness ahead. Cheers!

Makers at the Public Library

Suzie McCormack and I had the pleasure of being "makers" at the Portland Public Library last Saturday. Our workshop, titled "Fused Fabric Collage" was under the Youth cluster. We set up shop in a sunny spot near the children's section of the library. Two ironing boards, a table with samples and a handout describing the process, and a big table with a pile of fabric scraps and scissors.

Participants chose a small fabric base then found a chair and a pair of scissors and went to work snipping up fabric scraps, peeling off paper to reveal the fusible webbing, and arranging their compositions. When a piece felt complete, it made the perilous trip to an ironing board where a little magic and heat fused all the scraps in place, making their artwork permanent.

We had about 30 people come through. It was great fun seeing the parents' involvement--we offered them the opportunity to make their own piece, and many who originally thought they would just help their children soon realized they really wanted a chance to make one too!

We had letters, hearts, houses and a pirate ship, and plenty of abstract images too. The time flew by. Before we knew it we were stuffing the now much smaller pile of scraps into bags and talking about coming back next year.

We had time to walk around and check out other workshops. What an exciting array! Hands on exhibits ranged from robots and electronics to soap making and a band playing homemade instruments. Suzie and I sat in on a story project being developed which will place bricks on India St (the oldest street in Portland) that each tell a story about people and history in Portland. It's called Portland Brick. Very cool.