Wednesday, April 23, 2014

THIS AND THAT

 Ahhh tulip time!
Yes... 
with some good ole Pacific Northwest rain... 
BUT
 that meant it wasn't crowded!



Last Saturday,
I taught a Roman Stripe class.
Interestingly, one student 
was given this pinkish spool of thread 
and told to get a paint sample card
and work with those colors
as a challenge. She chose this pattern to do it!






Another student worked 
in these bold purple and yellows!
It's a simple block 
that is fun to work with 
and come up with different designs.





My oldest son has been busy 
glassblowing floats and hearts
in order to fund his trip to Indonesia this summer with his anthropology class.
Do you need some pretty and colorful glass?
I know where you can get one!



I have been busy working on some "fat quarter" bags.
I used the great pattern from here -
http://www.favequilts.com/Bags-Purses-Totes/Fat-Quarter-Drawstring-Bag-from-Martingale
LOVE them!



I also continue to chug along...
dancing with a few diamonds every day!


I have also been making these cute pouches.
The outside fabric 
is from Freddy Moran's line called "Pure Color".
Freddy!!!
Did someone say Freddy?!
Stay tuned!


Linking up again!
So many nice people and
So many creative processes going on!

 http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced


Thursday, April 3, 2014

CLASS WITH GWEN MARSTON

My friend Dorothy and I were adventuring again!
This time the ferry took us to
a cute quilt shop in Port Gamble, WA
called the Quilted Strait.


A hop skip and jump away from the shop
was the most fabulous place for a sewing class!
(space and wall to wall windows to the water!)


We spent the day with a nice group of 
creative ladies
and...
drum roll please...
Gwen Marston!


She is wonderfully gentle and elegant,
instilling confidence
that everything is
not only possible
but also wonderful!


Above she is demonstrating the basket block.
Below she is working magic while pressing!


She spent the day connecting with every student.

Here she is with Sharon
from the fun blog Indigo Threads



Here's Dorothy with her first fruit basket!


Here's a peek at what was on the design walls.




The next two gals turned their baskets into pails 
and even added a shovel.



One lady pieced this top years ago
and wasn't sure how to finish it
so she brought it to hear Gwen's ideas.


What a great way to show off the fabric.
There was some African, Australian, and even a Kaffe!
I loved the way she played with the snake.





All vintage!


Very pieceful...



                                       Here's my baskets.
                                    All with eggs in them...

(are you ready for this?)
                       "Don't put all your eggs in one basket!"
                                           hahahahaha



Gwen did the usual confidence building talk...
relax, play, try something new,
don't worry, puckers are OK - look, even I have puckers in my quilt!
But my take-away from this class
came when she talked about 
how every one says that 
you must think about value and have contrast.
She went on to say
that a quilt where everything is planned to have high contrast
can also become less than...
 the quilt you walk by at a quilt show - the one that does not not beckon you to look longer.
She said that having some blocks with low contrast
to the point where the block might even be a visual hole
can be a successful element.
Hmmmm....!!!

Here's a link to some photos of her latest museum exhibit.
http://lomeranger.zenfolio.com/gwenmarston

Enjoy!