Now is the time to take an online class with me because I’ve got six great classes coming up in January and February, AND because I have decided I won’t be teaching online again for at least six months and possibly not until early 2022! So sign up NOW so you don’t miss the chance!
This is a sampling of the fun bags I teach in the Easy-Peasy Inside-Out Class…. if you think you’d like me to teach this for your guild–including LIVE ONLINE workshops, leave me a comment!
T207 – Hawaiian Applique By Machine on Thursday January 21 2021 from 8 am to 4:30 pm PACIFIC (California) time, so 11 am to 7:30 pm East coast time in the US.
F137 – Easy Peasy Inside Out Bag on Friday, January 22nd 2021 from 1:30-4:30 PM PACIFIC (California) time, so 4:30-7:30 East coast time in the US.
S204 – Collage The Garden: From Photo To Flower on Saturday, January 23rd, 2021, from 8 am to 4:30 pm PACIFIC (California) time, so 11 am to 7:30 pm East coast time in the US. Although the class image is a flower, my technique works on ANY imagery you choose from people to pets to buildings to landscapes.
I so hope you’ll join me! Once February is over, I am taking time for creating art, taking care of family and taking care of home. I’ll still be teaching in person later in the year (we all hope) as well as in 2022. After that, who knows? I may well teach live and online in about year, but until then… this is your only chance! See you in class!
Most of you know me as an art quilter, but did you know I also love Hawaiian Appliqué, especially by machine? Well I’m teaching that very class in Houston on Saturday, and I’d love you to join me. Best of all, you can translate what you learn in the class into traditional, modern and art quilts. A screen shot of the full class description is below. Click HERE to see the class listing and follow the links to sign up!
Just one of nine blocks in my Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul quilt. You get the entire pattern in class and learn my own techniques–that I’ve not seen anyone else teach–to make a beautiful piece. This is actually a 26″ square pillow sham! This is the full quilt, about 72″ square. The blocks can range from 18-20 inches, and you get a 2-for-1 pair with my fusible technique. It’s so much fun to see the wonderful variations students make.We start with a couple little fun practice blocks (6″ finished), then move to the big ones!Hawaiian Cats anyone?Here’s the class listing from the International Quilt Festival class catalog! Sign up here.
WOOT! The International Quilt Festival Houston catalog is starting to ship and online registration–yes, ONLINE, with instant knowing if you got into the class, goes live in July (I’ll post when it does). If you’d like to take a workshop with me, now’s your chance because I’m teaching a ton of my favorite workshops. For more detail on any of these classes, please visit the Classes/workshops page of my website and scroll down to the individual class–you’ll find a supply list PDF and sometimes links to blogposts about previous workshops sharing student work. Here’s the list including class numbers:
To look at MY classes, head to the link for all classes and search by day or by name. The classes are listed in numerical order: #100 series are on Monday, #200 on Tuesday and so on, with the exception that Friday is #500, Friday EVENING is #600, and then Saturday is #700. That way you can find what classes are available on the day(s) you are at Festival.
Collage the Garden workshop: Inspired by a wild tiger lily on the roadside in Maine–learn to create a fused collage by creating your own pattern (several ways to the same goal), then create a top to finish at home
I’m thrilled that Quilts Inc. booked both days of my Quilting the Garden workshops! On Tuesday, learn my Collage the Garden process for creating fused quilts. You’ll learn how to create a working plan/pattern from photos and fuse an 11×14 collaged quilt of a flower, but the process can be applied to anything including people, animals, landscapes, you name it.
Thread Coloring the Garden is on Wednesday: enjoy an easy prep with this kitted class where you learn how to add depth, dimension and detail to your art quilts.
On Wednesday, Thread Coloring the Garden is all about the machine quilting and learning how I select and use thread to color and bring the quilt top to live To eliminate the stress of worrying about messing up that gorgeous top you’ve worked so hard to create, we work with a photo of a day lily printed on cloth (class has a kit [fee] with flower, thread, etc.) so that you gain confidence learning the quilting before you tackle your own masterpiece.
At the Machine Quilting Forum I’ll talk about using metallic, holographic, heavy and other so-called (not-so) fussy threads. If you’d like to take the full workshop, you CAN–on Friday (keep reading!)
Thursday is a busy day. In the Morning I’ll be presenting at the Machine Quilting Forum, where I’ll share some of my current work and share some tricks for working with what some folks think are fussy fiddly threads but really aren’t so fussy or fiddly!. In the afternoon, it’s a TOTALLY FUN half day class making my patented Easy-Peasy Inside-Out Bag–they’re like potato chips, you can’t stop with just one!
Easy-Peasy Inside-Out Bag workshop with Sarah Ann Smith: Once you learn the basic process, these are easy to adapt into card carryers and book or sketchbook covers! Friday it is the full workshop for Tame Fussy Fiddly Threads. You’ll need black fabric and batting, the paint, supplies and decorative threads are supplied.
Friday Evening I’ll be part of the Date Night Sampler, where I’ll show using paint on cloth to work smarter, not harder! And if you’d like an immersive paint on cloth workshop with me, stay tuned–good news for a 3-day class in August 2020…will be able to share in September.
Saturday you can learn my approach to Hawaiian style Applique by Machine: we use my freezer paper technique for creating TWO fused blocks to appliqué by machine. You will try a small block to get the hang of it, then start on your 18″ block.
Hawaiian Style Applique by Machine is on for my final teaching day. Though I am known for my art quilting, I love ALL types of quilting, and my love for Hawaiian style quilts launched my career in quilting, and I love it to this day. Come for a day of fun and learning!
I hope to see you in Houston, especially in my classes! I might even still be coherent (?) by Saturday evening, though I think a Margarita may be on the menu once the teaching is complete!
I think that the Coastal Quilters challenge has gotten a bit big for it’s wallspace…literally. My closet/design wall is 20 feet long. It was not long enough–there is another 6 foot panel! SHEESH! BUT, the Coastal Quilters TOTALLY ROCK!
Today began with finishing up chores:
1. So yesterday I packed up my quilts and teaching supplies and whatnot for teaching at Maine Quilts this coming week (speaking of which, there are still some spots in my classes: Birch Pond Seasons, Decorative Stitch Applique and Intro to Machine Quilting–go to MaineQuilts.org for more info!). Sent pdf’s to Staples for the handouts, which I’ll pick up Monday.
2. Started prepping The Coastal Quilters (my local chapter of the Pine Tree Quilt Guild) Chapter Challenge yesterday.
Today I prepared the signage and finished pinning all 23 or 24 quilts,
got the signage pin,
lint-rollered the black drapes/panels for the bazillionth time (we have every color of cat and pug hair there is and it ALL floats–closed doors are not a barrier that work),
folded and padded and packed them up.
This takes HOURS. HOURS. Every year I swear I will NOT do it again. And every year I do. Thank heavens next year’s challenge the quilts are all to be 16″ square, cuz I’m not doing this with multiple sizes. Ever. Again. Never. (Don’t quote me on that in a couple years. Sigh.)
3. Prepared my quilts (entry and teacher quilt) for delivery on Wednesday.
4. Found the quilt I entered in Houston and that got accepted. (More in a future post. Yes, I’m evil. You have to wait.) Need to pack it up Monday and ship.
5. Made more chocolate chip cookies for the child. OK, so we could both eat batter, plus bake some cookies. Slurp.
6. Watched a video or two for my new online sketching class.
7. Didn’t start the lesson for my photo class. At least I have an idea or two. Of course I’m leaving it to the last day, as usual. Sigh. But I love the class. Anyway….I digress (what else is new?).
So I decided to reward myself by working on a small Hawaiian Block/quiltlet that will finish 26 1/2 square. Yep, the size of a Euro Square pillow sham. Number 1 of the pair was done in time to teach Hawaiian Applique in Florida this past March.
Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul, (my pattern) Taro block–first of two matching pillow shams.
I was marking it to square up after quilting when Paul called me up to dinner. These two will replace hand appliqued, hand quilted Hawiian style pillow shams (pattern by Elizabeth Root) that were the first hand applique I ever did. I made them during the FIRST Gulf War. They are now largely “formerly quilted” as most of the threads have broken and worked out, but the applique is still intact. A few tears from critter claws, threadbare or tufting on the piping due to wear. Those things, I realized tonight, are 25 YEARS OLD–yes, quarter century old pillow shams. Yes indeedee, I think it is time to REPLACE THEM. Still like them, but they look like they have (and they have) literally been around the world. I’ll share more when done!
What fun we had, even if it was a small class! More attention for everyone that way. So the past few times I’ve taught this workshop, I decided I really needed to come up with a couple simpler “test drive” blocks in the 6 inch size that aren’t so fiddly. I had Taro and Turtle blocks. Everyone loves the turtle, but it really is pretty challenging. So I thought I needed more options that were easier than the turtle. I tried a whole bunch of ideas, but not much fits into a block as small as 6 inches (most students like to try one small before committing to one of the larger class patterns from my Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul pattern, here) and still makes an interesting design while also being simple. I thought about what is Hawaiian and would also be Florida? I ended up with two new blocks:
This is the cutout version of Flip Flops–I actually managed to keep one of the new blocks fairly simple.
And the stitched version. I left one flipflop unstitched to show what a difference the thread makes!
The second block is adorable, not as fiddly as the turtle, but not exactly easy-peasy:
The cut-out version of cats. I liked the whimsy of black cats on bird fabric. But…those busy little birds kinda moosh into the cats.
Red thread to the rescue! I learned when making Under the Bali Sea that thread can save a project–before I added the aqua stitching on the nautilus shells the quilt was SAD. Here, the red totally pops. And we LOVE the kitty-circle! Maybe I should name this the Zeus block in honor of our cat who departed this earth a few days after I got home.
The students in both workshops (how lucky that I had the same workshop in both venues, which were–I did not realize this for a goodly while–HOURS apart) did such a great job with the blocks. I’m honestly not sure which of these photos were taken which day:
Swirly turtles in progress–those little feet and tail are pretty fiddly!
And another set of turtles with dusty pink thread on a pale pink background.
Flip flops in progress–she’s doing my colors!
This student got a lot done. She did the taro block, cutting the leaves in the + position instead of the X orientation, but used them as “X” on the second block. AND she got her cats cut out, too!
This student brought a gorgeous Jane Sassaman print fabric for her blocks and a black-on-grey background, but learned that in these blocks what is a great combination for piecing may present some challenges in Hawaiian applique. The black background merges with the background. As with the cats, thread to the rescue! She luckily had the perfect green.
Done! And a great job using the bold straight stitch to accent the outside edge.
Doesn’t this flipflop block shout “Florida!”?!!!
Two more cat blocks…gosh I hope these ladies sent me pictures! The guild president was in the class and was already thinking up a mini-quilts display with the blocks. I TOTALLY WANT PHOTOS Debby if you do this!
GOOD student–testing thread colors on scraps! Practicing mitering and points!
And this student followed the instructions to bring a wide range of threads–it really helped her pick just the right color!
Despite being fiddly, the cat block was a hit.
Happy Birthday Marie C.! Hope you enjoyed the giftie tucked into your bag. I sure enjoyed driving from Orlando up to Lakeland and having dinner with you, and having you in my class. Keep in touch!
So as you might gather, it was a FUN class! The trip home was relatively uneventful compared to the trip down, although my suitcase got soaked in Boston where it was raining not snowing, and a few things inside were soaked. Luckily, the quilts in the suitcase were inside a ginormous Ziploc Bag (I swear you could fit the contents of a stuffed laundry basket in one they are so big) and protected! I’ve already ordered a hard-sided suitcase since the zipper pull also got trashed. Mo bettah!
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