A Quilters Gathering II - The Quilts and a Rant

On Sunday we went back to A Quilters Gathering to take another "class" (more on that later) and see the quilts on display.  I'm always inspired by the quilts I see in these shows.  After viewing some of the quilts though, I felt more motivated to enter some of my quilts in upcoming shows.  I'm thinking of entering my fire and ice quilt in a few shows once I get it back from the quilter.

Without further adieu, the quilts:

No my rant.  KK, Lynn, and myself signed up for a half day class on Sunday to make a poppy wall hanging. Prior to the class we were sent the supply list by the organizers of the show and we all went out and bought everything necessary.  In total, I probably spent over $100 in supplies for this class.  When we showed up, the teacher, Lenore Crawford, was wondering why everyone in the class had all of these supplies when this was just a lecture.  WHAT?!?  Um, we had all of our supplies because we were told that this was a class and we were sent a supply list to have for the class.  She then went on to blame the show for not communicating with us properly.  Then, she questioned everyone in the class as to whether or not we really expected to work on a project in a half day class and that it wasn't possible.  I then said that in our half day class yesterday we were able to finish our project from start to finish.  With a snarky remark, she then responded that people in her full day class hadn't even finished their quilt and she questioned whether or not we would be able to create a decent quilt in just 3 hours.  Needless to say, everyone was very put off with her attitude towards everyone and the clear lack of communication between everyone, between Lenore and the festival organizers, and the organizers to the participants.  On top of that, Lenore seemed very off her game throughout the lecture since this was her 4th or 5th day teaching in a row.  I can understand if you're tired, but don't commit to teach a class if you aren't able to handle it.  Basically, I was very disappointed with this "class."  I spent all of that money to register for the class and buy all of the "required" supplies only to listen to the teacher's history and how she does her technique without even getting to try our hand at it and ask questions in person. 

A Quilters Gathering - A Weekend of Fun

Last weekend was the A Quilters Gathering quilt festival up in Nashua, NH.  This was my first time attending this festival and I was impressed.  I took two classes with KK and Lynn, each half day classes on Saturday and Sunday morning.  We shopped a bit and saw all of the beautiful quilts.

Our first class on Saturday was with Kathy Kansier, Christmas in Hawaii.  KK ended up having to miss this class, but Lynn and I were still able to make it and had a great time. 

The class started with learning a bit about Hawaiian style quilts.  Kathy showed one of her quilts that she just finished and needs to have sent to the quilter.

 

Then, probably the most interesting and useful skill that we learned was how to design our own Hawaiian style block.  I really enjoyed learning how to design my own because it allows us the ability to do more of these blocks moving forward without being constrained to a particular pattern.  As you can see in the quilt above, Kathy made the blocks above for a particular person and each one tells a story such as the waving hands and the houses. 

We folded our freezer paper and designed our block using a pencil.  I decided to go with a flower and some leaves.  The pattern that I designed is above.  I then ironed the paper to the back of the wonder under on a piece of batik and then traced it.

Here's Lynn ironing on her adorable house and sailboat pattern onto her wonder under.  After ironing and tracing, we cut out our pattern and ironed it onto our white or black Kona backing and begin to sew around the pattern.

Here I am beginning to sew around my flower.  As you can see, I decided not to cut out the center of the flower.  I wanted to limit the complexity for this first piece and avoid any inner pieces. 

Here's my finished piece all sewn down. Isn't it cute?  I love that i was able to finish this in a three hour class. 

And here's what Lynn's block looks like.  She hasn't finished sewing around all of the pattern yet, but isn't it fun and cute?  She's making a sampler quilt with all types of house blocks.


More on the rest of the weekend in another post...

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Five

After a slight mishap with the mail I finally received the fifth block in the mail and was able to make it last weekend.

While I like this block, I think it doesn't quite fit in with the others.  I forgot to take a picture of all of them but will next time.  At this point, I think it's my least favorite.  I'm trying to think of a way to spice it up.  Hmm...

Fiesta! Revisited

I began to re-visit the Fiesta! quilt that I started a while back.  There are six different types of blocks in this quilt.  I finished making all eight of the "block 3's."

And here are all 8 of the "block 3's."

They won't be laid out in the circular design shown above but I thought it was a cute way to show all of them.  I began cutting the fabric for some of the other blocks and hope to continue progressing on this quilt.

Pattern: Fiesta! by Possibilities

Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's time for another blogger quilt festival courtesy of Amy. This time around I thought I'd showcase my newly finished Wonderland quilt.  I just finished putting the binding on last week so this is the first time I've show this quilt finished.

This quilt started as a get together with my aunt and friend Lynn.

As I continued making this quilt and just wasn't in love with it.  I continued to put it aside because I just couldn't get motivated. Finally, I finished all of the rectangles and arranged them on my design wall.

It spent about 3 weeks on my design wall where I moved things around to get an arrangement that I was happy with and I pieced it together.

At this point I still didn't love the quilt until it is that I quilted it using some straight line quilting.  It's the quilting that really turned things around for me on how i felt about this quilt.  After quilting it I loved it.

I then found some of the red dot fabric online to bind the quilt.

And now I have a finished quilt.  After making this quilt I really learned to not judge a quilt until after it's quilted.  It really changed things for me.