Global quiltsphere...

As I was working on my latest UFO to hopefully get completed this week, I began to realize how thankful I am for the influence of others on my quilt life. 

A year and a half ago, two quilting friends and I went to Quilting By The Lake in Syracuse, NY.  We were signed up for Philippa Naylors Open Studio class. I was so excited, because I had Philippa's book, Quilting In the Limelight, and I just loved her work and how she tackled complicated quilts. I was armed with my sketchbook and my goal was to have her share her technique for completely at least one of them. Oh wait, this post is about global influences....did I mention that Philippa is from the UK and has lived in Saudi Arabia, where she first started quilting :-). 

So Philippa described how she would tackle the three sketches and we decided on one, since the technique for the center was something I had never done before. 

 

Once home, I was thrilled, but other projects got in the way and it sat.  I did work on it just under a year ago, to add the borders and trapunto. Philippa's book is how I learned to perfect my trapunto style. 

Now that the top is quilted, I realized how many other quilters have influenced this piece.  There is Claudia Pfeil, from Germany, who gave me the courage to make my own feathers and not worry if they were correct.  You can see those feather's in this piece.

There is Mandy Applebee Hares, Lisa Stripes, Mary Anne Ciccotelli and Karen McTavish, all from the US, who have influenced and inspired me to perfect my quilting.  No it isn't perfect, but these ladies at different points along the way, all gave me the confidence to take the next step. There is even Donna Chambers, one of those friends that took the trip with me many months ago, who challenged me to up my game in the creation and style of my tops.

Of course, there are others that I have missed, but am I ever thankful for the internet and all these wonderful sharing ladies, who have helped me to progress along this journey we call quilting!