Linda M Poole comes to Pelham Quilters - January 2014

The Pelham Quilters may be living through the coldest temperatures we have seen in almost a decade, but we had fun learning some new quilting techniques over the last 2 days.  That's right Linda M. Poole, a fiber artist extraordinaire came to visit from Milford, Pa.  

On Sunday, she taught her workshop, Color Me Beautiful, from her latest book, Painted Appliqué.  The ladies had a ball, learning to use Inktense pencils and paint mediums. Here are a few pictures of us during the day.  The first is a picture of the sample piece we worked on in class.

 

Linda also taught us how to make the perfect oval and fusable bias strips, so we can appliqué our painted butterfly on the background.  Her class handouts are great, it is as if you are given a full pattern with step by step color pictures, taking you through the entire process to make her Color Me Beautiful wallhanging.  

Then on Monday night Linda came and gave us a lecture - Quilts Around the World.  Linda shared quilts by makers influenced by their travels around the world and the various ways we as quilters are inspired to create.  A good time was had by all.  Here are some of the quilts she shared as part of the Trunk Show she shared after the lecture and presentation.  

Lola Jenkins comes to Pelham Quilters!

As a TQS (The Quilt Show by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims) Star Member, I get to watch all the available shows.  To be honest I watch some and not others, all depending on how interesting the subject 'sounds', or if I know the featured quilter.  Well, when I saw the intro for the show featuring Lola Jenkins, I almost didn't watch it.  In fact, I think the show had been available for a couple of months before I did.  Boy,  was I glad I did!

First, Lola was a very entertaining guest on the show.  She is energetic and bubbly, with this interesting voice. Yes, interesting is the only way I know how to describe it :-).  But what really got me was her personal story, how she came to quilting and how she tackled each step along her journey.  It is a very moving story!!  Please watch if you can.

But what got me to reach out to her, was when she said she had a goal of visiting every guild in the country.  So I emailed her and asked if she wanted to visit our small, casual guild in Pelham, NY.  She responded immediately, saying she would LOVE to come and that she was presently scheduled to be in NY in September, 2012.  So we booked her, and boy was that a smart move.

Yesterday, Lola taught her Fantasy Landscape workshop to the Pelham Quilters, or at least 9 of us and 3 guests.  We had a ball.  Lola shared her secrets of looking at fabrics with an eye for the scene we have in our minds, vs what fabric as a whole.  She shared the 1/3's principle of design and guided us to our own, COMPLETED, top of the day.

That is right, everyone in the class completed a landscape top and earlier than we had expected!

Let me share with you some pictures from the day....

First, pictures of the quilts she brought with her as inspiration...

This first piece is from Lola's online Art Deco class.  She uses it as a sample for the class.  It is a whole cloth style quilt, with black thread as the basis of the design and then the fabric is "colored" in with colored pencils and other coloring aids.


Each of the following pieces are done using Lola's collage approach.  I tell you, I will never look at fabric the same again!

It is amazing to see what can be done by clipping pieces of fabric from many different pieces of material and pasting it down!













Here are some of the pieces that were completed in this one day workshop...

Barbara and her Apollo Jazz scene.  To you recognize her sky from one of Lola's quilts.  Funny they had a lot of the same fabrics!

Cheryl's piece with her fire sky...




















Donna's, City meets Africa cityscape...  As always Donna listened to the instructions and thought out of the box.  This was supposed to be a 'fantasy' landscape.  I think she captured the essence of "fantasy".

Doris, one of the doll ladies joined us and did a serene, calming landscape...

 Doris Green and her gorgeous water scene. I love the boys running by the river bank.  Sorry Doris, it is prettier than you think....


















Dorothy's inspiration fabric had these gorgeous fall tree's...



















Jacqueline another of our guest for the day, did a wonderful desert scene...



















I love Lorraine's New England scene with a lighthouse and sail boats...



















Here I am with my second Sister Chat piece or as I will call it, Sister Chat II !


















And a former member of Pelham Quilters, Gwyn, a doll maker and Doris's sister as she adds the last rock surrounding the river.

 Now, the queen of landscape collage, Ms. Sandra herself. Her birds are lovely as usual.  Sandra and Donna would ruin the class curve if this was a real art class :-). 

I love June's farm scene.  It looks like a little bit of Tuscany. 

It was a wonderful day, with a wonderfully group of talented women.

A special THANKS to Lola for traveling all the way from Oklahoma City in her PT Cruiser, with her sister Darlene as her co-pilot!

More from Quilting By the Lake 2012

Well you saw what I worked on while in Syracuse two weeks ago in my last post.  But I thought you would like to see what some of the others in my studio class worked on.

I arrived on Wednesday for the 3 day studio with Philippa Naylor.  But the QBL old-timers knew better.  They were there for the 2 day studio and 16 of them stayed in the class to make it 5 days with Philippa Naylor.  What a treat.  Wish I had thought of that! 

But anyway...  this is what greeted me as I walked in the room.  I knew I was in the right place :-)..

Well actually, I didn't get a picture of this when I arrived, but this is where she was at the end of the week.   Diane designed this quilt using PhotoShop Elements and then enlarged the pattern.  This is a quarter of the total quilt.  It is going to be phenomenal when finished.  I hope she sends me a picture :-).  Oh and no, that is not the title of the quilt above it.  Apparently Diane always takes Philippa Naylor's studio classes at QBL and that is something Philippa wrote for Diane 2 years ago.  Sorry to say it, but the consensus was she wears the title well :-).   Funny note, Diane and I decided we were sisters separated at birth.  Our fabric choices for the week were practically identical...  In fact, we ended up swapping fabric while we were there.  She didn't feel she had the right orange and so I offered her a piece from my stash.  Well wouldn't you know it, it was the same Carol Bryer Fallert gradation fabric that she used for the purple!  Of course, I got a wonderful new hand dyed from Diane :-).  Yummy!!

Sitting next to Diane, was Ellen.  Ellen had many pieces going on over the 5 days and one was just better than the other.  No over analysis here.  Ellen was done with this piece when we arrived. 




As you can see, she has another rolled up in the corner behind her.  That was piece made from a Jelly Roll, using the Jelly Roll Race pattern.  I didn't get a picture of it unrolled, but it will be the background fabric for a silhouette style applique.  I like that idea.  Will have to try it for one of my appliques.  Thanks Diane :-). 

This was the piece Diane worked on while we were there.  Oh my,  you have to love how she used that hand dyed background.   Those birches just come alive off of the fabric.  It really looks like you are in the woods at sunset.

The birch trees were made as an applique unit.  She did some thread sketching on the tress before adding them to the background. 

Delicious wouldn't you say!  Can't wait to see how she quilts this one.

Now my friend Donna Chambers and I went to QBL together.  Donna has been toying over the idea of making a quilt in honor of her grandparents who helped start a local church.  They donated a stained glass window when the church was built and translating that into a quilt has been a dream of Donna's.  Well, she used the creative energy in the room to kick-start this dream.  Like me, she arrived armed to tackle a couple of different projects.  But I am so happy she decided on this one.

Donna a goldsmith by trade, is not use to working in such muted colors.  At first she wasn't pleased with the way the inner glass was coming along.  Well, I can tell you, she added a piece of her signature rust metallic fabric around the inner glass and the piece was instantly transformed.  Whoa...  then adding the purple bottom and she knew it would be another winner.  Here she is adding the applique flowers to the center glass.  The bottom will have a photo of her grandparents.  As you can see there is another panel pattern to the right of this first panel.  That will be the stained glass that was donated by her grandparents best friends.  But I think she made a wonderful start in the three days!




As part of QBL the teachers make aprons to be auctioned off on the last night of each session for QBL scholarships.  Well I told you in my last post that Philippa had such a great wit and personality.  Here she is introducing her apron models.  Oh yes, I said models, not model.  As always Philippa outdid herself.  She made 3 aprons for the auction and they were modeled by her husband and two sons :-).

The QBL Dancers:  

 
She even made them bow ties in honor of the the Chippendale Dancers.  Of course, her aprons took the highest bid of the night!  Way to go Philippa!!

So that was my first QBL experience.  It was wonderful.  So wonderful I have already signed up for next year.  What am I taking you might ask?  A 5 day class with Hollis Chatelain!!  WooHooo.....

Until next year QBL.....

Cheers!!

Quilting by the Lake - 2012

So I finally made it to Quilting By the Lake!  I have been wanting to go for the last 5 or 6 years, but neither time or money seemed to work in my favor.  Well this year the stars aligned and I got 2 friends from my art quilters mini group to go with me.  Thank You Donna Chambers and Sandra Parrott!!

Together we attended Session II and took Philippa Naylor's Studio Workshop.  We were closed out of both of her classes for session 1, so a word to the wise....  if you see a class given by Philippa in your area, jump on it quickly!!

Well, I couldn't have been happier. First, Philippa is a wonderful person and an equally wonderful teacher.  She has such a sunny personality and such quick wit.  But boy, can she work a room.  Her teaching style allowed her to address everyone's questions in a timely manner, while still leaving enough time for you to progress your projects and for her to give numerous demos on things the students requested or topics she thought were appropriate for the class.  What a great style.  This is definitely NOT an independent studio!!  Especially since the projects we worked on were so varied in nature.  Folks took advantage of the fact that Philippa started in the fashion design business.  So while many of us worked on quilts, others worked on pants, jackets, dresses and such.

My goal for the 3 day studio workshop was to learn how to transform my sketches into full size patterns and then turn the pattern into a quilt.  Well, my mission was accomplished.  We started by looking over photos of my quilts, so she could get a feel for my style.  Then we looked over some of my sketches.  We discussed the various techniques she would use to make each of the quilts I had sketched and decided on one that would give me the opportunity to learn a technique I had not used before.

This is the original sketch @ 12" x 18".  Sorry it is a little light, but the pencil lines aren't showing up very well.  I just wanted to give you a clue of what I walked in to the workshop with :-).....

This is the quilt in progress on the design board @ 40" x 60"  (I tried taking a picture of the full size pattern, before I started placing fabric, but that was even lighter than my sketch in the picture :-(.

This is a picture of the center partially completed, without the applique or side 4" panels :

And here is a picture of Philippa and I in front of the quilt as we wound up the 3 days : 





Unfortunately, I have deadlines on other pieces that I need to meet before I can pick this quilt back up.  But, I am anxious to get back to it.  I have side borders that need to be added to complete the top.  We discussed how it will be quilted, including trapunto and embellishments.  Oh yes and hopefully with the tips I learned from Philippa, I won't cut through my quilt top when cutting away the batting around the trapunto.  But guess what ....  yep, she taught me a trick for that too!!!




I'll share photos of some of the other pieces folks worked on later in the week.  Including the gorgeous piece Donna is working on.
  WooHoo!!

Until next time, Cheers :-) !!

Paper Piecing with Pelham Quilters

In February, I had the pleasure of teaching paper piecing to some of my fellow Pelham Quilters.  We are fortunate to have a wonderful community room to use with lots of light, thanks to Doris Green!

Here are some pics of the ladies working on their NY Beauty arcs....

Lorraine is always so intense as she works on her pieces... 













Here are Nancy and Anne.  Neither of them have ever paper pieced before, but they sure did catch the hang of it...        Nancy even tried out a new mini iron.  She said she loved the portability of it and how crisp it made her seams.

Anne really picked up the concept of how to match your fabrics to the lines while going around the curve.  It is a hard concept for some, but she got the swing of it pretty quickly!

Joanne and Millie, both had experience in paper piecing.  I think they both took the class to make me feel good :-)...

You can't tell from this shot, but even though Joanne was late (she had to run back home to get her foot pedal), she got 2 NY Beauty blocks completed.  Maybe I should call her speedy gonzalez :-). 

Mille was also pretty speedy.  She is here working on her second block.  As always she is heads down as she works.

Don't know how I missed getting Paula's photo.  I clearly remember taking the shot, as Paula was having a hard time with the whole concept of lining up the fabric around the curve and sewing through the paper.  I so wanted to show her completed arc!!!  Sorry Paula :-(.


I really enjoy teaching new techniques to my friends.  We have discussed a couple ideas for next year.  I will have to see how that turns out :-).


Hugs!
Renee

What a weekend @ Storytellers!!

I came home on Sunday with such a HIGH.  Nothing better than being surrounded by other quilters, who are all so supportive and nurturing.  There was 75 quilters in attendance with a few husbands sprinkled in, to help with technical aspects of the weekend.  This was my first time at a Storytellers retreat (some have been going for 15 yrs!) and I will definitely be going back next year.

I took more than 70 pictures over the 4 days, so I will break my posts up by subject....  and no I won't post all the pics, but will do another Smilebox for those who want to see more than a few.  I should start with my ribbon for the Challenge ...   I WON 1st PLACE  :-)....  but since that was on the 3rd day, it will have to wait....  I will post all the challenge pictures together.

Ok, first thing Thursday morning was the first segment of Juanita Yeager's 2 1/2 day class, Paint It... Quilt It...Finish It...  I took the first 2 days, paint/quilt it, and am I sooo happy I did!  You can take a look at Juanita's blog here.  She is such a talented fiber artist.  In fact, while we were there she found out that she had won Best Machine Workmanship Award at Mancuso's  show in West Palm Beach over the weekend....  way to go Juanita!

Juanita uses watercolor pigments to create the most stunning floral quilts.  She stepped us through the materials she uses, including how she prepares her fabric and then guided us through a day of painting two different floral designs.  Here is a picture of my first flower, that we drew freehand and then painted:

and here is my second flower which was first traced from Juanita's pattern and then painted....

On the second day, we learned all of Juanita's tips and techniques for machine quilting our flowers.  The class was geared to anyone from a novice to someone like myself who has machine quilted for a while.  I always find it amazing that quilters everywhere seem to have little tips to make quilting easier and Juanita had a few that I had never heard before.  I love her tip on burying threads...  oh my gosh so simple!...  but you have to take her class to learn how (I can't just share her secrets with the world.. hehehehe...)

So here is my first flower after quilting:

All the quilted is done free motion, with no marking.  She had us sign our piece while quilting in thread, like an artist signs their paintings.  Notice the thread painting that provides more depth and contrast above the stem in different color Sulky Rayon threads.

I had such a wonderful time with Juanita and the other ladies in the class.  Here is a short Smilebox with a few pictures of the other quilters work...

Another digital slideshow by Smilebox

I hope you get to take a class from Juanita one day...  it will be well worth it!