Friday, April 15, 2011

Blooming 9-Patch Class


In March at this post you saw me choosing my fabric for a Blooming 9-Patch. Yesterday I attended the class.  Alice did a great job teaching the class. She had quite a few samples done up for us. I don't know why I did not take any pictures of them.


These are the blocks for Alice's working sample to demonstrate how to lay out the top.


Here is Alice's sample laid out for all to see. Alice had a print out for us to follow when laying it out. I think that if I label the diagram I can pick the blocks up in order and sew them together, allowing me to skip the step of laying it out. I will try that when I get to that point and let you know how it goes.


This is the center of Lucille's quilt.

This is the center of Chris' quilt. Chris is having a real problem with this because she hates orange. After the initial class meeting several of the ladies went to a quilt shop to choose fabric. (I did not go along since I was using stuff from my stash and I did not want to be tempted. You know how difficult it has been for me to not buy fabric this year.) Anyway the teacher and some of the other ladies really encouraged Chris to get out of her box. By the way she reacted, and the look on her face, I believe this is way far out of her box!

 

I was telling Chris how I used to hate orange and somewhere along my quilting journey my tastes have changed. My favorite fabrics used to be darker more conservative prints like Thimbleberries and Civil War Prints. Now I am never drawn to those types of fabrics. I prefer bright, lively fabrics and large scale prints. Colette brought to my attention that the turning point for me may have been when I had surgery, and I think she might be partially right. In April 2004 I had a total hip replacement. I was determined after that I was going to start doing things I enjoyed in life. In May 2004 my longarm was delivered. 

In July my Mom, Youngest Sister, Daughter and myself flew across the country to Seattle to visit another sister. She had lived there since 1992 and I had never been to visit her. While we were there we rented a van and drove to the Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, Oregon. We also visited many quilt shops. It was on that trip  I discovered fabric by designers like Jane Sassaman, Kaffe Fassett, and Valori Wells, to name a few. That was definitely a turning point in my fabric preference. Upon my return to Maryland I was extremely disappointed to not be able to locally find fabric that I had fallen in love with. I even talked to 2 of the local shop owners and they said they would not carry that style of fabric because it would not sell here. About 5 years later some of the ladies in my guild began to like Kaffe Fassett fabric. Can you believe we are that much behind here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland? I am all for supporting your local shops but if they will not carry what you want I am thankful for on-line shopping. Boy, I really got off on a tangent there. 

Well, now maybe you know me a little better and why I am drawn to the fabrics that I love.

Here is a picture taken in July 2004 in Sisters Oregon.
In back: sister #3, my mom, myself, sister #2
In front: my daughter and my niece

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