Bari J.

The original of this piece was made for an auction in SIsters, OR this summer where I'm teaching at The Quilter's Affair. So if you're going to be there come and bid high for a good cause!

But if not... I wouldn't want to leave you out. I've made it into a PDF pattern. And, not to leave you hanging if you don't already know the the stitches... there are 7 embroidery stitches included with detailed instructions and illustrations. Never you mind you'll only use five of them in this pattern. Two are just for fun! 

This pattern is based on my Paris Apartment fabric line, and will be one in a series of patterns.

You can get this pattern, here, on PatternSpot.com OR on my website (scroll to bottom).

Happy stitching!

 

I may or may not have an addiction to color. You decide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More tomorrow. The photo inserting tool for TypePad keeps freezing up on me. I'm taking it as a sign I should call it  quits for now. Happy Friday all!

 
  
  
  

Back in Sisters on Thursday I taught a handbag class. This was part design and composition and part general handbag construction. It was so fun to see what people did with my initial concepts. I'm all about getting it done the way you want it.  Janis and I always say, "Make it Work"... a la Tim Gunn.  

So when several students wanted to have larger bags or smaller bags than the original pattern I gave them, we just altered it to fit their needs. Several also wanted to do different appliques than I gave them, which was more than fine with me. It was a thrill to see what they did! 

Here is the sample bag I used in class, an Emily Tote, which I have made at least 100 of. Each has been different because until I taught this class, I never made a template for the bird, I just cut them as I went.

 

Here is another example of one of mine. I often use velvet ribbon for the branches, but I had the students use their fabrics.

 

And here are some student bags. This one I just adore. Those birds are a hoot. For her bag we altered the pattern for not just size, but she also brought some really cool handles to use so we had to adjust where the magnet went and add tabs for the handles.

 

On this one, she did a design very close to mine and used my bird template. But you can see that she got creative too. And ... drool... Kaffe Fasset!

 

This lady totally did her own thing. Notice the quilting lines on the leaves etc? Doing that gives he design added texture. I do that one all of my birds and leaves.

 

I love this one... too cute!

 

And here she got super arty. It even has gold foil on it.   

On this one, she used a little trick of mine to add contrast. Double up the wings with felt beneath to add an outline. Later I believe she quilted it well too.

 

And this last one used Full Bloom fabric! Again, a very similar design to my original. The way she cut the felt for the branches is just lovely too!

 

This was just a super fun class to teach. There were 18 students, I believe, and they all got into it and did their own thing which totally made me beam with pride.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Now where were we? Tuesday I think. On Tuesday and Wednesday I taught the Garden Tea Party Quilt that you see in my sidebar. Four of the ladies went on scavenger hunts to find the exact Full Bloom fabrics from my line, and apparently it was an adventure as most are near the bottom of their inventory of it. But alas, they prevailed and came up with the goods. 

The first job in making this quilt is obviously piecing the center. If I teach this class again, I will definitely have people at the very least cut all their blocks before coming to class. And the other thing will be to cut motifs out of their fabrics for the border ahead of time. Here are some of the centers in progress:

This is Susan from Michael Miller Fabrics pin basting her center to get ready for quilting. 

 

And here these two are quilting the centers of their Full Bloom quilts.

 

 

And here is a beautiful quilt done in greens.

 

And one done in Kaffe prints and some from her stash.

And then it's time to start adding the border motifs. Here she has already started the free motion quilting. 

And in these photos the motifs are being laid out in a composition. It takes a lot of moving stuff around to get it just right.

   

All in all, everyone got at least to practice their free-motion quilting skills and all of the centers of the quilts were finished. It was very fun to watch people coming out of their box and mixing fabrics they usually wouldn't think would work together. But I can't emphasis enough that it is possible to mix and match ... even... gasp ... fabrics from different lines and even... gasp... from different designers! What's important in Fabric Mix•ology (my trademark term ;) ) is that if you use a particular fabric or motif, you need to repeat that color or shape somewhere else in the quilt to bring it all together. Sometimes they do not all play nice together but it's worth it to try to mix it up a bit. There is always the option of un-sewing. 
 
 

  

 
 
 
 

 
 
On Monday evening all of the teachers were invited to Jean Well's home for dinner. It was wonderful meeting all the other teachers, and such a beautiful setting. Jean's home backs to farmland with a clear view of Sisters Mountains. Heavenly.

This is the view to the right in the backyard:

   

And to the left:

 

And here are the hostesses, mother and daughter, Jean and Valori:

 

A good time was had by all! Thank you Jean and Valori!
 

  

Sisters is a great place to teach. Not only do the students enjoy learning, but as I mentioned in a previous post, the whole community seems to get in on the action. When you arrive at the high school, where the classes are, you are greeted by a contingency of high school students who help you bring your supplies and machines inside in grocery carts. The kids are around all day helping with various and sundry things. You get the feeling that everyone wants to be a part of Quilter's Affair. 

And, I love teaching. There's nothing like sharing what you enjoy most with others. One thing I enjoy most is cutting big old motifs out of the center of a piece of fabric and then creating a collage to make something new. I do this with free-motion quilting. That's exactly what we did with my first project, The Container Garden Pillow. The original is a 24" x 24" pillow which I'm not going to show you because it's in my upcoming book, and I need to leave a little to the imagination, you know what I mean? But here are some pillows in progress and almost finished pillow fronts made by my students. My goal here was to make collage addicts of all of the ladies, get them comfortable with free-motion quilting, and so that, like me, they have big pieces of fabric with holes in the middle because there was a Had-to-be-Had Motif there. I have tons of pieces like this. It's a sign of a true love for fabric. 

The first four are in the process of creating compositions...
 
 

 

In this photo she is ready to start free-motion quilting... 

And here she has started her quilting... notice the quilters gloves? They make free-motion much much easier.
   

Here her motifs are all pinned on and she's ready to start her quilting.

 

And this lady decided that rather than cut out motifs she would just cut the fabric in the shape of flowers. I loved this idea.
 

I try to give students the freedom to make their projects into what they want them to be, and this next one is a great example of someone who did just that. She based this one on a vase she had in her home.

And this is the back of a finished pillow front... the white is the bobbin thread. Don't you love how you can see what was on the front? Sorry for the blur... but you get the idea. We were all very excited over this one.

 

And here is a fully quilted front. I just Looooove all that Kaffe fabric!  

In the end most of the ladies (there were 16, I think) got their pillow fronts quilted. I then sent them all home with instructions on how to finish their pillows. I'm dying to see how they all end up! So, if you are reading this... be sure to send me your photos!