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!

Too much time on my hands??

I have a few weeks between lectures and classes and just in time, Frances B. Calhoun from Lynchburg, Virginia sent me a photo of the fabulous tile quilt she made from our book, Tile Quilt Revival.   She named her quilt "Circles and Friends" and had this to say about it, "It was a joy to make and I’ll probably do more.   It is an opportunity to use lots of wonderful prints I have on hand.   The fabrics in this quilt are practically all decorator samples."

She used a black background fabric which give the appearance of stained glass.  Our method for making these quilts is  much less labor intensive than the traditional stained glass method of adding bias strips.  You create the lines by taking away something:  turning under the seam allowances and revealing the black background fabric. The black sashing and border make a great finish.  

Thanks for sending me the photo, Frances.  Great job!  I love it!

In the meantime,
I've been filling my time with various projects.  

For quite a while I've been working on some blocks from a pattern called "Dancing Umbrellas" from Laundry Basket Quilts (Edyta Sitar).  I've been using this as my carry around project that I take to my Saturday Sew Sisters quilting group of six friends.  I chose to make just nine blocks from batiks rather than the 25 featured in the pattern and also added a border.  I call my quilt "Dancing in the Rain".  Right now it is on exhibit at Prairie Queens Quilt Shop in San Jose with a few other offerings from the Applique Goddesses group.

And another project from  Edyta Sitar, from her book, Scrappy Fireworks Quilts is this sewing box.  I bought the book because I loved this project and I'm happy that I finally had some time to get it made.  I used "happy" Kaffe Fassett fabrics for my little house.  

 It''s about 10.5'' x 4.5'' and 8'' high.  Not sure what I'll use it for but I do smile when I look at it!


 And the last but not least too much time on my hand project was recovering my desk chair.  Thomas, my dear sweet cat (unless he's biting me!) clawed the seat of my chair near to the shredding point -- usually when I was sitting in the chair in order to get my attention.  I saw a picture in a book the name of which escapes me and I don't own, of how to recover your desk chair.  Off to Beverly's I go (where I found the flat folds on sale for half price) to get some fabric.  The chair was originally green and I could have gotten a good enough green plaid and not have to deal with covering the back rest.  But I was really tempted by a big brown paisley.  Anyone can have a green plaid chair, I thought, but not everyone can have a brown paisley desk chair! Covering the seat was easy since it only required a staple gun which I had in my toolbox.  The back did require a little sewing, both by machine and by hand.  And, I have enough paisley fabric left to recover the seat if dear Thomas shreds it again.  This project makes me smile too.

And here is a picture of my pal Thomas, who likes to help me sew.

 

Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild

I spent a lovely weekend in Lakeport, a town on Clear Lake in Lake County with the Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild.

Clear Lake is the largest lake in California and I, a native Californian, had never been there.  It is a beautiful area with farms, orchards, vineyards and the lake, of course.  Speaking of vineyards, I drove to Lakeport on State Highway 29 which took me through the beautiful Napa Valley.  And there seems to be vineyards everywhere now.  I'm beginning to think that the whole state of California is just one big vineyard!  And that's just fine with me.  I like my occasional glass of Chardonnay!

Another first was to discover that the first Quilt Trail in California is in Lake County.  I spotted big quilt blocks on barns and commercial buildings while driving around.  This is a movement that started in Wisconsin, I believe.  I had no idea that there was a Quilt Trail in California.  While visiting the local quilt shop, Kerrie's Quilting, I picked up a brochure.  Check it out on their website:  www.lakecountyquilttrail.com

At the lecture on Saturday morning, everyone learned about tile quilts and at the workshop on Sunday, eight Ladies of the Lake learned to make their own block.  Here are the nice results of that class. As usual, there is a wonderful variety of fabrics. On a few of the blocks you can see the beginning of turning under the seam allowance to reveal the background and create the "grout" lines.

It was lots of fun.  Thanks, Ladies of the Lake!  Great work!

Look what Barbara did!

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of reconnecting with a friend from Williamsburg, Virginia.  Barbara and I became friends there because we were both quilters and also both attended the historic Bruton Parish Church.  It turned out that we had both lived in the Bay Area of California for many years, knew some of the same people, but had never met here.  Barbara and her husband return to the Bay Area occasionally and I was happy to enjoy their company over a great lunch at Tacolicious in San Francisco. 

During this visit Barbara showed me her fabulous tile quilt.   She had our book, Tile Quilt Revival, and used several of the patterns that are included to make this quilt as a gift for a friend.  Great job, Barbara!  You make me proud.  I hope your friend loves it. (Apologies for the poor picture quality.)

Pine Tree Quilt Guild

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful, historic Sierra Foothill town of Grass Valley.  I gave a lecture and taught a workshop on tile quilts for the Pine Tree Quilt Guild which is aptly named as the area is abundant with pine trees.

I learned that Lynda, the program chair has just won Best of Show at this year's California State Fair!  Congratulations, Lynda!  Besides a cash prize, she is awarded a California Bear as pictured on the state flag -- not a real bear but a small statue of sorts.  I didn't get to see the bear or the quilt so I can't show pictures but I do plan to get to the State Fair next month to check it out.

There were some lovely blocks made in the workshop, and as usual, a nice variety. The participants really enjoyed the class and really appreciated that it was a design class and not just an applique class.  Here are a few photos starting with Lynda's, who designed two blocks while in class, one of each of the patterns I offer. 

And here are the rest of the fine work from this guild.  One person left early and I'm sorry that I missed getting a photo of her block.You can see on several of the blocks that the maker has started the applique process of turning under the seam allowance to reveal the "grout".

Fabulous Finished Tile Quilt

I always tell my students to send me pictures but that doesn't happen very often.  And I understand that there are many reasons why that is so.  Therefore, I was really pleased this week when I received the photo of this quilt from Margaret Christensen.

Margaret took the workshop on a very hot day last June at Mt. Tam Quilt Guild in San Rafael.  Here's what Margaret said about her quilt. 

" My plan was to make four blocks, but it became too much fun to stop!  This is by far the brightest, loudest wall hanging I've ever done.  Tonight I plan to share it at our Guild show-n-tell. Didn't even take a year. = ; ^ ).  Thanks for a great class. Want to revisit your book for the other projects."

That last part makes me happy.  I'm so glad that Margaret loved making a tile quilt.  And when I look at her quilt, I can see that she used some of the patterns from the book, but she also redesigned some of the blocks and designed her own!  Just what I want students to do -- make these quilts your own!

Margaret wanted me to be sure to say that Valerie Graf of Black Point Quilts, Novato, machine quilted her quilt.

Great work, Margaret!  Thanks for sending the picture.  I hope it will inspire others.

Recent happenings

A week or so ago I wrote a post about my visit to the South Bay Quilt Guild with pictures and then I accidentally did some keystroke and the whole thing disappeared and I couldn't retrieve it!  I was so mad I haven't wanted to post but think I'm over it and will try again!  This time I have more to talk about.

So, it was a beautiful day by the blue Pacific last month when I had the pleasure of visiting the South Bay group.  We had a fun class and here are the results of the class. 

 

The next event just a few days after my trip to beautiful Redondo Beach was the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association quilt show on April 20-21. I was so proud and pleased to have been chosen one of the Featured Artists this year.  It was so fun to talk to everyone about our books and about needle turn applique!  Here are some pictures of my booth at the show. All the quilts are from our books, except for the two bird quilts at the end but I do have a pattern for the quilt which is called, Birds in a Cherry Tree.  The Happy Houses quilt was a favorite along with the two Tile Quilts on the right.

One exhibit at the show was quilts produced in workshop and I had the pleasure of seeing two results from my workshop on tile quilts.

 This "chicken" quilt is one Lotus pattern block with a border and more applique.  Nice job, Joy!

 

And this one is a compilation of blocks from several quilts in Tile Quilt Revival.  Not the best photo but a great quilt, Mary!

And, last but not least, I was back in SoCal a week ago at the Santa Monica Quilt Guild, back by the blue Pacific and had some great Mexican food also!  Here's a link to their website showing the class in progress.  http://www.santamonicaquiltguild.org/page69/page69.html

And here are some of the blocks a little further along. Mostly Starry Orange Peel blocks this time and all wonderful!  I never cease to be amazed at the variety of fabrics that all seem to work! 

 

This last block is actually finished!  She chose to fuse her block rather than do needle turn applique.