Liberated Medallions with Gwen

At long last, here is my post on my 3 day class with Gwen.  I had so much fun!  I can't believe it's taken me so long to get this post done, but here it is.

Warning: this post is photo-heavy!

The class was offered by the wonderful quilt shop "Quilted Strait" over in Port Gamble.  They have a wonderful facility, and are very attentive to the students' needs and make every attempt to keep us happily sewing.  If you ever get the chance to take a class there, I urge you to do it!

I'm not going to spend a lot of time "talking" about the class, I'll just show you my photos.  Right to the good stuff, OK?

I love the texture Gwen's hand-quilting adds to this piece.

These are some of Gwen's quilts that she brought to show.  Somehow I didn't get photos of her medallion quilts - doh!  

Another one with Gwen's beautiful hand-quilting.

One of my favorite parts of Gwen's classes is when the students have Show & Tell:

A whole cloth medallion (limited piecing),
made as a test before the class.

A "Ferris Wheel" quilt.
Pattern by Karen Griska of the Selvage Blog.

This is the back for the previous quilt top.

the back of the previous quilt

The next few photos are of Nifty Quilts' quilts.  You can see more at her blog.

The is the back of the previous quilt.

The back of the previous quilt.

Not really Show & Tell, I just loved this bag!

And now, here are my photos of the students' work, taken on the last day of the class.  Unfortunately, by the time I was taking photos, some of the students had already left and I didn't get photos of their work.  Trust me, it was awesome!

this one was being done by two sisters

Nifty actually got her top finished!

And here is the quilt that I was working on:

This is what I brought to get started with.  This has been languishing in the quilt studio for a few years, because I was undecided as to how I wanted to proceed with it. 

This is where I was at the end of the class.  Sadly, I haven't done any more yet.  Well, I took away the pink/yellow fabric because it seemed too overwhelming when I got it home.  It's up on the design wall, and I'm thinking.....

Today is brought to you by the color . . .

Orange
15 by 23 inches

I have finished the top for my challenge quilt.  This year the challenge was to pick a color (we drew crayons from a paper bag) and then make a quilt using that color as the dominant color and using the color opposite on the color wheel as a secondary color.  I drew orange.  At first I was a little disappointed, as I've never liked orange much (aside from Autumn and Halloween).  But lately I'm liking the new oranges more.  And I thought it's not much of a challenge if you go with safe colors.  So, even though I had the option to re-draw a crayon, I decided to go for the orange challenge.  I also had  to use some of the opposite color on the color wheel, which in this case is pure blue.  We could use black or white too.

This design came to me one morning as I was waking up.  I had the idea of a paint chip card.  I used Lazy Gal Tonya's Unruly Letters.  I don't know if this is "challenging" enough or not, but I'm happy with it.  Simple is good.  *grin*

I have waaayyyy over-bought fabric for this!  Each one of those rectangles represent at least 1/2 yard of fabric I purchased for this. Plus I bought about 1 1/2 yards of the solid orange.  Not to mention 1 yard of the blue.  Yikes.  I think I see another orange quilt in my future.  hee hee!  I'm considering a zigzag or chevron quilt.  It's kind of calling to me.

So, I have one month to finish the quilting and binding on this one.  Think I'll make it?  It's never a sure bet.

Yes, I'm all packed up!  Tomorrow starts my 3 day class with Gwen Marston at Quiltworks NW in Bellevue.  Whoo hoo!!   I'm taking the Small Studies class, and it's all about design.  It sounds a little scary but I know it will be loads of fun too.  And my friend Candy is stepping out of her comfort zone and will be taking the class as well.  This is gonna be so much fun!  I'll be exhausted by the end of the weekend, but it is soooo worth it!  I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

The Lazy Blogger Strikes Again . . .

There is a little bit of all kinds of things in this blog post. I have no rhyme or reason to this today.  This is to disguise the fact that little actual sewing/quilting has occurred in this vicinity lately.  In my defense, I was dutifully visiting as many blogs as possible for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  We won't talk about all the hours I've wasted on Facebook or Pinterest, OK? 

Isn't this a fun scrappy Double Irish Chain?  I don't think I've ever seen a scrappy one like this!  Donna brought this to share at our little sewing get-together a few weeks ago.  This is a quilt that her grandmother made for her and is the reason she's a quilter today.  

It's hard to tell in the photos, but the background of this is a very pale pink.  The scraps are pieces of family clothing, etc.  I love the lime-y green!  And I like that the pink is not so strong that it competes with the other fabrics.  Not sure how much this has faded over the years, though.

There are some fun fabrics in this quilt!

Here is Dunkel "helping" me with a project that I had laid out.  He always wants to get under the fabric but just ends up wadding it up.  More on this one later.

Here is the word I made for Carol of Giraffe Dreams blog, who is making a quilt of verbs to celebrate her 60th birthday.   It took me about 3 tries to get going on this, as I'm out of practice.  I'm still not completely happy with the C or the R, both of which could be a little bigger, but all in all, I like it.  I used a batik for the hot pink, because it was bright and has dots!

Here is Dunkel, again, helping you get an idea of how big this turned out.  He's such a helpful kitty!

Here is the lovely flower I found in my yard last week.  I hate having these in my lawn, but they are really pretty.  So far, this is about all the flowers I've managed this spring.  It's raining too much to get out and do much yard work.  I don't know if that is good or bad, but it sure makes it easier to be in the quilt studio without guilt!

When I was taking out the trash tonight, I found we had some visitors in our driveway.  They were enjoying the big puddle near when this shot was taken. (I thought you'd probably enjoy seeing their cute little ducky faces rather than their tail feathers!)  I have no idea why they've wandered away from their usual hangout at the lake.  I think they were looking for a hand-out.  They waddled over pretty fast when I "quacked" at them!  LOL

And here they are leaving after our photo shoot - heading away from the lake! And because I was taking pictures of the ducks instead of putting out the garbage cans, I missed my window of opportunity, so to speak, and got drenched when it started raining right after this!  Some days ya just gotta laugh!

A Finish and An Award

At long last, my Liberated Amish Challenge quilt is totally done!

You can read more about this challenge by scrolling waaaay down to the list of labels on the left-side of my blog and clicking on the tag "Liberated Amish Challenge".  There's a few posts - apparently I've been pretty wordy about this project!

"Snuggle"
53 inches by 65 inches

It took me some months to get around to getting the binding done.  I couldn't find any of the fabrics I used on the front, so ended up using the batik backing fabric I trimmed off the quilt.

Here is the back, with the pieced label I did.  I will be adding another label with more information on it.

A close up of the piecing, with the free-pieced Unruly letters from Lazy Gal Tonya.

Here's a photo of my free-pieced word on the front, all quilted.

And here's a shot of the quilting on one of the blocks.  This photo has the truest colors.

And a photo of the quilting that Shari did in the alternate blocks.  She knows I love Celtic knotwork.  I left this picture high contrast so the quilting would show up well.

I'm so happy that this quilt is finished and ready for use!  

The talented Kelly over at Pinkadot Quilts has nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award.  Thank you so much, Kelly!  I'm honored.  Go check out her blog.  She is making a small quilt every week for her personal journal quilt, and she's making some beauties!

The Liebster Blog Award rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

2. Link back to their blog.

3. Copy and paste the Liebster award to your profile.

4. Pick 5 blogs that you feel deserve to be in the spotlight (they must have @200 followers or under).

5. Blog about it and leave a comment for your nominations to let them know that you have chosen their blog.

Here are my blog nominations for Liebster Awards:

1.  Joe Tulips at Joe Tulips Quilts blog.  She has made the BEST zombie quilt ever, she makes funny, fabulous cards (both paper and fabric), she geocaches, and she makes great quilts too!  She always has something fun to see on her blog.  Oh, and she's pretty obsessed with the Scrappy Trips pattern, and it's my fault.

2.  Michelle at Nostalgic Cafe.  Michelle is a funny lady - she'll make you smile.  Right now she's having some snake-y issues.  She also has some intriguing recipes on her blog.  Oh yeah, she makes bright, happy, fun quilts too!

3.  Kate at Kate Kwiltz blog.  Kate is another ADD quilter like I am, but you wouldn't know it.  She's in the process of making 5 baby quilts and 2 wedding quilts that are due this spring.  She's making great progress.  She makes great modern quilts with a real grounding in tradition.  

4.  Maureen at Pursuit of Quilts.  Maureen does more traditional quilts with great style.  Right now she has two posts up that are full of eye candy from two big quilt shows that she has visited.

5. Sharon at Grass Roots Quilting.  Sharon is making the Beyond The Cherry Tree quilt and is making great progress as well as other quilting projects.  She does long-arm quilting with the most wonderful feathers.  She is a funny, generous quilter.  I took the Gwen Marston class last year with her, and it was great fun.  I'm happy to call her "friend".

Go take a look at their blogs.  I think you'll enjoy them as much as I do.

One last thing:  Michelle at Nostalgic Cafe blogged today about the new Dark Shadows movie starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton.  I deeply loved D.S. when it was on TV.  I think my sister and I watched every episode!  I went to IMDb (Internet Movie Database) here and watched the trailer for this movie.  It looks like it will be hilarious and great fun.  I mean, how could you go wrong with Johnny Depp??  I can't wait until May 11th when the movie is released!

Happy quilting!