Houston Classes Continued...

Keep your fingers crossed that Blogger will be a little friendlier...

My second class was Saturday morning and called "Fantasy Flowers." Again we spent a lot of time on the prep work and not the stitching. For me that was fine because I have a "little" experience on the topic but there were some newbies that had no idea what they were doing. I think another hour of class might have helped - the newbies to learn the stitching and the rest of us to get more done on the project. Also, where as I baste in a manner so that I don't have to take the basting stitches out later, she uses freezer paper patterns and must remove the basting to take out the patterns. I think I'll stick to my way but I'm glad to have had the chance to try hers. The real premise of the class was using pieced fabric to create alternative designs within the paper pieced project. The teacher sews strips together and places a certain section of the template along those seams to get the spiralling designs. She gave us plenty of extra strips to go home and play with. AND as teacher's pet for this class, I got to take all the leftovers home. Wootwoot!

Teacher on the far right. Yes, those are my diamond hexies on the display wall along with the teacher samples.

Our class project - we were supposed to learn all three flower designs and the prairie points.

As far as I've gotten on my class project. It needs a good pressing and then to remove the basting stitches and the freezer paper. Luckily the class kit included the supplies to make the rest of the flowers as well as the background and other fancies.

 

Another possibility - leave out one of the "bishop" or jewel shapes for a different flower

Fussy cutting fabric for the center or adding embroidery add plenty more details.

Houston Classes

Wow - 10 comments yesterday - for this little blog that is definitly a lot of visitors. I hope some of you will come back again! I realized I never finished this post. I hope you don't mind hearing more about Houston - I am sure you have been inundated all over blog land with pictures and stories. I do have more quilt pictures if anyone is interested - lemme know...




I was able to take 2 classes at Houston - one on converting a photo to a quilt using fabric and threadpainting and the other on English paper piecing (Teacher was British and she said they call it English Patchwork). Sorry, can't remember the teacher names at this point as all my papers are at home - let me know if you want me to look anything up.

My Friday class was an all day affair titled "Start with a Photo." The teacher provided us all with the same photo of a red barn and the three pages we could tape together to create the pattern. She also told us how to create a pattern for when we get home and begin work on our own designs. The pattern was then traced onto clear vinyl to create a placement guide for the fabric pieces and some of the quilting. We used a light box to transfer the pattern pieces to the fabric and then fused them to the background with Steam a Seam 2 Lite. Mine isn't sticking so well at the moment but I think it's from being rolled up in my suitcase. I can certainly re-iron it but them I'm worried my chalk lines will disappear for the quilting. I'll have to iron a test area first. We spent most of our day prepping the pieces so we didn't get to spend a lot of time on the thread painting but I took a number of pictures of her sample quilt as well as the others on display. She said that her pieces take 20-40 hours of FMQ at the minimum. One of her quilts even took 48 spools of thread. Yowzer! Luckliy she now has a deal with one of the thread companies and trades product for patterns. Lucky her. Superior Threads - If you are listening - I can barter just as well!!



Teacher on the left with a portion of her samples.



This was the teacher's class sample



NO Laughing allowed - this is my class project and it clearly needs LOTS more quilting. At least 19 more hours of quilting according to the teacher.

 



Alright - I've had enough of Blogger's shenanigans...I'll try to put the second class info in another post...