Quilt Show Class

On Saturday, I took a class at a quilt show not too terribly far away. 

Bright and early, I got my stuff loaded into my car and drove to the home of my friend Panda, and she loaded her stuff into the car and we drove together to the show.  SHE talked me into going to this class.  It was not a class I would have considered otherwise...it was described with paper piecing, and fusible web, and nylon thread, and oh blech, that just did not sound like MY cup of tee...and good grief, what did I need another Christmas wall hanging for!  I had even thrown the brochure with the list of classes into the trash by the time she'd prodded  asked if I'd join her....it would be a lot more fun to take a class with a friend, she said.

And you know what?  IT WAS.  We had such a great time.  The class was small, only nine of us.  It was the instructors first time teaching this class...and she did a terrific job!  Very nice, personable and helpful young woman.  The teacher was Tina Curran (yes, I'm using a real name and she said it was ok).  Here she is holding her quilt that we were learning.  And you can see more of her work at her web site.

Tina Curran with "O Christmas Tree"

I only took a couple of photos at class so here are two of the ladies who were there.

This is "P", she flew in from a point north of us that would be about a 5 - 6 hour drive by car!  She was at the same table set-up as Panda and I.  She was very nice and we talked quite a bit.  I especially enjoyed when she told me how much space her stash occupied in a moving trailer/van when they moved north, ahem, makes mine look puny! 

This is "M".  She likewise was very nice, and I'm afraid I've already forgotten where she said she was from, but it seems it was closer than "P" though I could be wrong.  She was at the table behind us, so we didn't get to talk as much with her.

We had two ladies from a location about 6 hours drive east, another was from a couple hours to the east, and the others I don't know.  As this was my first class at a quilt show, I was a bit surprised that people came from so far away to attend the show and classes.  I guess to them, it's a three-day retreat.  So with that in mind, Panda and I just might take an occasional road trip if only to just get away from the sameness of our area and to see what lies beyond.  

The class was from 9 - 5, and it sure doesn't seem like we got much done, time passed very quickly, but then, paper piecing does take a bit longer, and it's a method I've only done once before many years ago and was not overly fond of it.  With that project, it came with pre-printed tissue paper sheets.  For this class, she printed her patterns on standard printer paper and newsprint.  We had the option of choosing either one.  After the tissue-paper project, I really felt I did not enjoy paper-piecing.  Using the stiffer paper, I found it to be much more enjoyable, although I'm still not crazy about how much time it takes - I'm a slow piecer anyway. 

These are three blocks I managed to get done during the class. 

This is the boy.  There will be six.

This is the star block, there will be four, one for each corner.

This is the girl block.  There will be six.

When you look at those faces, or their clothes, can you just imagine adding a little embellishment for eyes, nose, mouth and buttons, or belts, or a hair bow?  And I suppose, if you're really creative, you could come up with some toes or shoes and socks.  The boys and girls alternate with each other around the outsides of the quilt, three on each side, then in the center is a tree made from half-square triangles.  I was able to sew about half of them together before it was time to pack up.  The tree is made independently and then adhered to a center background square using the fusible.  It is then machine embroidered around the outer edges, and I'll have to go to the pattern to find out where and how that nylon thread is used - I missed it while she was explaining (I was busy sewing instead of paying attention!).  

I'll show some of the photos I took at the show of the quilts on display sometime during the week, probably spread over a few days.

Quilt #015 Paper Pieced Feathered Star

Having grown up on a ranch in the Northwest, I'm still drawn to things that bring to mind ranch life and earth-tone colors. This is a bit along those lines though probably more Indian in nature. (Native American if you prefer to be politically correct.)

Here is a close-up of the border geese. On the ranch flocks of geese were often seen, and heard, on their migratory trips both in the fall and again in the spring.


This close up is of the center medallion of the Feathered Star. Paper piecing makes things look nice, especially when they're small as this is (quilt measures approximately 34" square non-bound and non-quilted) .

I found that I'm not a huge fan of paper-piecing although I'm not opposed to doing more of it. It just isn't high on the list of future projects. For me it was tedious.

This is how the entire pieced top looks. I really like the feathers in the fabrics, but am not ecstatic about the solid rust color I found for the setting triangles. I felt the color was just a tad off and isn't bad but I couldn't find exactly what I had in my mind's eye; maybe once it's quilted I'll be more in love with it.

It does bounce nicely off some of the geese though. Still haven't decided how I want to quilt it and would need to practice whatever quilting design that might be. I've thought of feathers in the setting triangles. I love the center, especially the dark brown print (it's not solid but reads as though it were) which sets it off nicely, and the scrappy geese, I like the colors I found for them and think they all worked well.

The pattern on the light background fabric almost gives the impression that that area is already quilted. It isn't. This will most likely be one of the 12 to finish in 2012.

The pattern was a tiny little packet of paper and directions folded and stuffed in a little plastic bag, called Little Bits - Feathered Star by Cindi Edgerton.