Free Motion Quilting Class

On Friday I held our Free Motion Quilting Class at the Trappe Firehouse right beside Quilt Vine. I had to have the class there because there were too many students to hold the class in our classroom. Now that is a very good problem to have. There are several benefits to holding classes at the Firehouse. Of course we can have more students, each student has more room to work, and there is an elevator so the students to not have to go up the stairs like they do at Quilt Vine. As our classes continue to have more students, we will be holding more classes at the firehouse. 

This is the second Free Motion Quilting Class I have taught. In the first class I taught background fillers. In this class were designs that could be used for sashing and borders. 

About half of the class had never done any Free Motion Quilting before.

You could not tell which students had not done this before.

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They all looked pretty darn good to me. 

Everyone said they had a good day and they all learned something. 

Collage Quilt Workshop

We had a Collage Quilt Workshop in January at Bayside Quilters.

One of our members, Laura, taught the class. Laura has taken several collage workshops and has made several collage quilts. 

This Sunflower Quilt was Laura's first Collage Quilt. Laura started this quilt at a workshop she attended by Susan Carlson. 

Laura made this Crab Quilt for a Challenge at the Bayside Quilters Show in June. She won first place with this Quilt. Everyone fell in love with this quilt and wanted to learn the technique. I took over as Program Chair at Bayside in September and the first thing I did was ask Laura to teach this class. 

The workshop was a day and a half. This is a picture of all of the projects at the end of the workshop. What was accomplished at this workshop is absolutely amazing! Everyone in attendance was thrilled with Laura as a teacher. Believe me, this will not be her last time teaching. 

Below are photos of all of the projects. 

Tina's lemons.

Nita's frog.

Elaine's flower.

Fran's chair.

Donna's flower.

Margaret's dog.

Sandy's butterfly.

Suzie's rooster.

Sherry's dragonfly.

Shirley's crab.

Me and my daughter, Faith, with our shell. I was a little disappointed at first when I realized that this day and a half class was during winter break. I like to spend as much time as I can with my daughter when she is home. She is very artistic and it did not take much to convince her to go to the workshop with me. My shell is stunning so far, but I can not take credit for it. Faith really did most of the work.

Peggy's owl.

Kathy's bird with flowers.

Anne's flower.

Sharon's dog.

Susan's fruit.

This is Laura's beets that she is presently working on. 

I can't wait to show you the finished projects. 

We decided that everyone must be done by next January and we will have a special showing of them at Bayside Quilters.

Retreat Projects

 A lot was accomplished at retreat. 

For some reason I only have pictures of projects from 3 of us, but that is a lot of projects. 

I needed a Baby Girl Quilt for a shower gift. I searched Baby Girl Quilt on Pinterest and found the tutorial for this one here. I made this on the first day of retreat. 

Cheryl liked it so much that she made two like it while at retreat. The top one is Terra Australis fabric by Ella Blue and the bottom is Wee Wander by Michael Miller. Yes, I know that because all of her fabric was purchased at Quilt Vine. 

This is a block I made for a special person with a special birthday coming up. 

Lou finished off this top with all Nautical fabric from Quilt Vine.

Lou put the binding on this quilt. The fabric is Bumble by Tula Pink and Kona White.

Lou put the borders on this top at retreat. The solid is Kona and the prints are all Tula Pink. I think the center is an Eden Charm Pack and the border is from Eden. All of these fabrics came from Quilt Vine. 

Lou made these table runners from a Quilt Vine Aqua Charm Pack and Kona White.

Lou finished this top made of 30's reproduction fabric for Outreach. 

Lou put together these old log cabin blocks for Outreach.

Lou finished this rag quilt she started many years ago.

Lou put a little Tula Pink Elizabeth bling on a sweatshirt for Polly.

This is how a true professional takes a picture of a quilt. 

Cheryl made these Mommy and Daughter Aprons. They are so adorable. 

Cheryl made this quilt top from the book Transparency Quilts by Ringle and Kerr and all of the fabric came from Quilt Vine.

I made this improvisational pieced tree in a workshop at the Modern Quilters Eastern Shore.

I quilted it from the back to be used as a sample for a free motion quilting class. 

I needed to make a Double Wedding Ring Quilt because I got the die for the Accuquilt Studio.

I thought I would make a sample and then teach a class. I love how it turned out but feel like I need to make another before I am comfortable enough to teach it. 

I cut out and glued the petals on this quilt top in one evening. The petals were cut out using Sue Pelland's Leaves Galore Template. 

This paper piece pattern, Turning Over A New Leaf, is a free download from Deb Karasik.

I am planning on teaching some paper piecing so I have been honing my skills. I had the paper piecing for the leaves done before retreat. At retreat I set in the leaves, made and applied all of the borders, quilted it, and sewed on the binding. 

At the end of the week I ran out of things that I had taken with me to sew, so I pulled out this shell. My daughter and I started this shell in a workshop in January while she was on break from college. My daughter had done most of the work putting the fabric on the shell; I just applied the glue. Since she went back to school it is my job to complete the background. I have been putting off doing it because I am afraid I will mess it up. So, at retreat I reluctantly got it out. I must say I am happy with the way it is progressing. 

That sums up the Quilt Vine Quilters week on retreat. 

It is amazing what you can accomplish when you have an entire week.