Small Quilts with Gwen

Two weeks ago I had a workshop with Gwen Marston on Small Quilts.  I had so much fun!  I took 2 classes from her last year, and I was really looking forward to this year's class. A huge Thank You to Lee from Two Thimbles Quilt Shop in Bellingham for putting on this class.  She did a super job!

Gwen's subject was Small Quilts.  Gwen brought 20-30 small quilts from her collection of 450!  Some of them were traditional - Gwen often makes a small quilt to play with pattern or color or to replicate an antique quilt - and some were in the liberated style. All of them were beautiful and inspiring!  Gwen spread them all out on the floor and then talked about her inspiration and reasoning for each quilt.

I decided to work in the traditional format this time.  I've got so many repro fabrics and thought it was time to use some of them.  I don't know if I could make a big quilt with them anymore.  I find them kind of boring to work with, although I love the way they look all finished.  Small quilts won't make much of a dent in my stash, but I think they're more fun to work with.  There were a few people working "traditionally" and most worked in the liberated format.

Here is my layout.  I had to work with the indigos, of course!  Check out the cool cheddar fabric I found - it looks hand-dyed.  Um, wouldn't that be UN-traditional?  I couldn't resist it!  *grin*

Here's two of my classmates' traditional takes on the small quilt:

And here's some of the liberated small quilts:

love the dots on this one!

I love that the tissue box seems to go with what she's got going on here!

It was so much fun to meet some bloggers I've only "met" on-line and also to make new friends.

Em was so fast, she was quilting already!

Miki

Buffy

I didn't get my little quilt put together in class.  I have to admit, I was visiting too much!  So, when I got back to my hotel, I stayed up late and got it put together.

Here it is, all sewn together and bordered.  I love this border fabric!  Now to get it quilted and bound.

If you get the chance to take a class with Gwen Marston, I highly recommend it.  And I wouldn't dawdle too long, if I were you.  I don't think Gwen will be doing this indefinitely.  If you're in this area (Western Washington), Gwen will be doing some classes at Quiltworks Northwest in Bellevue next year.

For more photos and fun from Gwen's class, see Miki's blog here and here, Nifty's blog, Buffy's blog, and last but far from least,  Em's blog.

I'll be back soon - I've got more to show you!

Happy Scraps Revealed

I'm finally getting around to posting the photos of my finished quilt.  I really meant to do this sooner, but you know how life can get in the way.  I was so busy last week that I didn't know if I was coming or going!  

Happy Scraps
60.5" x 79.5"

So, finally, here is my crumb quilt "Happy Scraps" for it's official photo.

And here is the back of the quilt.  I think I over-estimated how much backing I needed because most of the third strip of the log cabin on each side has been trimmed off.  But better than too small!  I'm still not real enamored of this backing.  I love the panel I used in the middle but I wish I had used dark fabric all the way around it.  Oh well - Finished is better than Perfect!

Here is a block that shows off the quilting in the sashing that Shari, my long-arm quilter, did.  She used a multi-colored thread, which I love.

Of course Corvettes and rubber duckies go together!  *grin*

And here is the border quilting and the binding.  The border fabric has every color except blue.  There's a lot of the light blue/turquoise in the quilt, so that's the color I picked for the binding.  I usually prefer a dark binding on my quilts, but this just seemed right for this quilt.

So, now I'm picking out fabrics and packing my gear for my class with Gwen Marston on Small Quilts this Saturday.  I'm so excited about this class I can hardly stand it!  Nifty Quilts and Buffy of Rebels blog are going to be there too!  Whoo hoo!  I'll see you next week with a report on the class..

This, That and The Other

I had three quilt guild meetings last week!  We have both a day group and a night group in one guild, and I ended up going to both meetings.  The night group was Monday night, and that's when we received the pattern and instructions for the blocks we need to make for our raffle quilt for this year.  The pattern was this scrappy 8 inch star, and the directions were for earth tones.  If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know I almost never do earth tones!  I had to look for some examples in some quilt books to help me out a little.  You'll notice I actually do own plenty of the earth tones. 

We need to make at least 2 blocks each, so I wanted to get these done for the day meeting on Friday.  It took hours to cut all these pieces!  I was trying to not have both blocks exactly the same.  I used scraps, as much as I could.  I mean, that's why I have them, right? I'm happy with the blocks - I think they came out pretty good for someone that really doesn't do earth tones.

For Mother's Day, Dear D-I-L treated all three of us (her, me and her Mom) to pedicures.  That was a treat - my very first pedicure!  It won't be my last. LOL  My toes are the purple with the polka dots.  They make me smile every time I see them.

I finally got my liberated log cabins quilt top pin-basted and I've started the quilting.  I'm maybe 1/4 of the way done with the dense quilting.  But now I'm stalled because I've run out of thread.  Rats!  Off to the quilt store in the morning for more thread.

You can see better how far I got on the quilting in this picture.  Well, except for Hamlet sitting on the quilt!  When I stopped for dinner and lack of thread, I brought the quilt downstairs so everyone could admire what I have so far. Hamlet decided to jump the gun and do some premature quilt inspection!  I want to have this done by the weekend.  So, you know what I'll be doing this week!  Wish me luck.