Pajaro Valley Quilt Association

I've just completed my last teaching assignment for 2013!  On Saturday I went "over the hill" (Santa Cruz Mountains) to Aptos and found  21 students anxious to learn about Tile Quilts.  This is the largest class I've taught and we had a great time.  At the end of the day everyone said they had lots of fun and they really enjoyed the tile quilt method.  I have to say that it was a gorgeous day close to the ocean and I'm almost surprised that they chose to be inside at a class and not outside somewhere but I suppose living there they are used to it.  The results of the workshop are shown below.

But first, I gave my lecture at the meeting on Monday evening and I was happy to see several familiar faces there from the retreat we used to attend together at Point Bonita.  Some of the workshop attendees brought their blocks to the meeting to show everyone. Fabulous!

And now the workshop blocks.  As usual a great variety of fabrics making each block unique.  The Starry Orange Peel block seemed to be the favorite of the day.

As you can see, the blocks are in various states of progress and many people got to the point of  starting to make the grout lines by turning under and appliqueing the seam allowances.

Here are the Lotus blocks, including one (at the beginning) that is from the Lotus quilt but a different block from the usual pattern I hand out in class. This pattern is in our Tile Quilt Revival book.

Thanks to you all for such a great time!

Catching Up, Again!

I have lots of fun blocks to show from two workshops.

First is the Glendale Quilt Guild.  It was fun to be in Glendale.  I was born in Glendale and it was the first quilt guild I joined when I started quilting way back in 1988.  It was the first show I entered.  Fun memories.

Here are the blocks from Glendale.  I have to say that I had a bunch of rebels -- about half the class wanted to use their own methods of applique but 3 or 4 students did use the needle-turn method.  Here are their blocks.  The first two are Starry Orange Peel, the next is a different Lotus block from the book and the next two are the usual Lotus block.  All nicely done.

 This next block was being machine appliqued.

The next two blocks were prepared with starch and ready to be appliqued by machine or hand, followed by another different Lotus block from the book.
 

This week I was in Arroyo Grande at the Central Coast Quilt Guild.  I love the central coast area and it was great to spend some time there.  On the morning of the workshop, it was very cool, foggy and overcast.  We didn't see the sun until mid-afternoon. A good day to sit and stitch!

Two students chose the Lotus block but very different fabrics!

And the rest of the class chose Starry Orange Peel, again with very different fabric selections.

And one last Starry Orange Peel, my one rebel in this class!  She isn't able to do hand applique so she prepared her block with the starch method and will finish with machine applique.

Thanks everyone for your great work and for the fun time!

Catching Up

First of all, while I was away on the east coast I've received photos of finished projects from my classes.

Maureen Nass from the Mt. Tam Quilt Guild finished her version of Lotus.

Very nice!  Thanks, Maureen for sending along the picture.  I'm so glad you enjoyed the process of making a tile quilt.  She said it was fun and she enjoyed using up some of her scraps.

Jane Toro from East Bay Heritage Quilters sent along a photo of her finished tile blocks using the Starry Orange Peel patterns which she put to use as a Huppah Canopy for her son's wedding.  Notice the sun shining through.  Now that the wedding is over, she will put the blocks together as a quilt.  Thanks, Jane!  I'm so pleased that you used the tile quilt style in such an innovative way.

And congratulations to the Bride and Groom and the parents standing under the Huppah!

While I was in Virginia, the timing was perfect for me to attend the opening of the exhibit of American Quilt Study Group's 2010 Study of 19th Century Star Quilts at the Virginia Quilt Museum.  The Museum is located in Harrisonburg, in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley.  The AQSG Studies are close to my heart as I was the coordinator for many years and the idea was born in my living room!  In order to participate, a quilt in the chosen topic is studied by making an interpretation of the original.  The interpretations are restricted to 200'' in overall size so the original quilt is either scaled down or only a portion is included.  These 25 quilts, chosen from the entire results of the Study, have been on tour since 2010.  I loved seeing my quilt again!

The quilt I chose to study was a Mennonite quilt.  I loved the Lone Star center and the applique motifs were very unusual to me.  I scaled mine down and did not include the outer border with beautiful feather quilting as it would have ended up too narrow to be effective.

The original quilt is in the collection of the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, PA. Unfortunately, the maker is unknown but it is known to have come from a Mennonite Family in Souderton, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Here is my interpretation on exhibit at the Virginia Quilt Museum

with my good friend, Barbara Gaffield, from Williamsburg.

The quilts from the exhibit are published in a book, Stars, A Study of 19th Century Star Quilts, published by Kansas City Star Books.

And last but not least.  When I was at the American Quilt Study Group Annual Seminar in Charleston, SC, Virginia Vis shared a picture of a new tile quilt she saw at the Arlington (VA) County Fair 2012.  The quilt maker called it "Ticker Tape".  Not made in the style that Carol and I used for our book, but more in the method of the original quilts though not as random. It's fun to see. 

That's it until I go to the Glendale Quilt Guild next week!

Pinnacles Quilt Guild Workshop

When I visited Pinnacles Quilt Guild in June the scheduled workshop was postponed since it was the same day as the start of the local Shop Hop and who wouldn't rather go shopping at multiple shops and reap all the rewards!  I'm wondering now why I didn't go on the Shop Hop too!

Last Saturday, ten of us gathered at Bev's fabulous studio in the hills of Hollister.  Several of us didn't want to leave at the end and threatened to hide in the shower but Bev warned us that there was no room in the shower, she had fabric stored there!

This was a really great group of quilters.  Some had lots of experience with quilting in general and with applique while others were fairly recent beginners.  That said, they all did a great job of working with the tile quilt method and produced some fabulous blocks.

Bev had taken my workshop previously at the King City guild in January and as a result of the class, she had finished four blocks.  She had the finished blocks on her design wall and I was delighted to see them.  Each block is Block A from my "Lotus" quilt which is on the cover of Tile Quilt Revival but Bev has oriented each block differently to add interest.  Here's a photo.

 

 Bev designed another block in class which will become a pillow in her living room.

The Lotus block seemed to be the most popular of the day.  Here are more and as usual a nice variety of fabrics from Asian to a cat.

Two students chose the Orange Peel block.  Polka Dots reign in the first one.

And when I took a photo of this block and showed it to the maker, she decided that the yellow was too bright and chose another fabric.  She had already started appliqueing the orange peel shape to the right. Taking a photo of the work, sometimes let's us see things that we didn't see before.  The second photo is her second fabric choice which does work better.

Thanks for a great day!  I forgot to say that the potluck lunch was super!