Positive/Negative at Sew From the Heart

Positive/Negative was such a great teaching experience for me today -- it always humbles me how a quilter can take a teacher's ideas and run with them, making something uniquely their own.

Joanne took both workshops and was dressed both days in purple and orange -- are you surprised?


She chose this lurid orange fabric -- I can't think of another word for it -- as her "shadow" fabric and it worked great!

Had to show you this fabric!

Ellen also used orange fabrics, but she used a print to shadow through....


Couldn't decide which picture of the block was better, so posted both.

Debbie used a green color scheme similar to my original sample.


Sharon did something totally original -- she cut her sashings from already pieced fabrics .....











...and in the fabric showing through, as well.

Gretchen made her pieced quilt top in the green and white combo I used......


..but the black and white polka dot as her shadow fabric was the best!!!

Norma had these beautiful dark blue sashing with the great complementary print....


Carla also had a green and white scheme, although the bright colored stripe in the sashing was a very good contrast.....

She also had a print rather than a solid as her shadow fabric.

I liked Kris' soft color scheme of pink and green; she used a darker green to shadow through her white.

Carol chose a blue-on-blue colorway with a bright yellow print peeking through the white.

All of the fabric choices today gave me some really great ideas for some samples I need to make in the future!

Sew From the Heart -- Scottsdale AZ (Part 2)

After I set up for class this morning, I took a few minutes to wander around the shop and look at some of the displays for upcoming classes....

These three little landscape quilts are in the Anatomy of an Art Quilt workshop that will be taught by Barb Janson.

Here's a close-up of one of them.....



I thought that the floral applique quilts by Jan Potter were awesome, so had to get all of them in here for you..

If you recognized Jan's name, it is probably because of the numerous awards she has won for the quilt pictured above. It is amazing when you consider that Jan has been quilting for less than five years and works full time! She lives in the Phoenix area and teaches here at Sew From The Heart.

Jan is also a member of Mavericks, which is a part of the Arizona Quilt Guild devoted to art quilting. Unlike a lot of us who started out making traditional quilts, when Jan first saw art quilts she knew she wanted to make them. I know it's a timeworn expression, but she has come a long way in a short time....


Another star who teaches at SFTH is Sarah Vedeler, who has a line of patterns utilizing her original machine embroidery designs. Pictured above is one of the blocks from her ongoing block of the month program called "Embroidered Applique Surprise". Sarah will be teaching classes to Bernina dealers at this year's Bernina University to be held in Orlando FL.

This was a very cute poinsettia wall hanging, an original Kathy Siders design, is made from a printed fabric. The kit has everything in it -- fabric, stabilizer, ribbon, backing, binding -- everything! I couldn't resist it, so it's going home with me!

These are some of the fabrics I bought -- the stripe and one of the poinsettia fabrics and a hot pink polka dot on a black background that you can't have any of because I bought it all -- HA!

Intro To Machine Quilting at Sew From The Heart

Before everyone flooded into the classroom yesterday morning, I took an opportunity to get an unblocked view of some of the samples of upcoming classes at Sew From The Heart. There will be more pictures posted about this later, but it was fun to see quilts, home accessories, gift items and clothing represented in the wide variety of instruction available.

In the morning, we were practicing "fluffing & stuffing" and inobtrusive starts and stops on small quilts.

After lunch, we had free motion "demo time"....

Paula didn't have a small project ready, so she stitched squares into her plain fabric and then practiced her free motion techniques in each square.

She tried a lot of different designs and plans to donate the lap-size quilt to one of the charity projects the guilds here are always working on.

Ellen was having fun with freehand (unmarked) free motion quilting; Ellen teaches here at the shop.

The flowers she quilted into her border are similar to some of the flowers in her fabrics -- and she got the whole thing done in class!

Next class: Positive/Negative: Adding Color to Trapunto by Machine

Sew From the Heart -- Scottsdale AZ

It has been my good fortune to teach at Sew From the Heart twice before this, so it was a familiar and welcome sight when we pulled up to the shop. I first visited the shop in 2003 while Dan and I were on vacation in Scottsdale, so we stopped in, browsed around and bought a little fabric. The owners, Susie and Hank Parker, were on a trip themselves, so I didn't get to meet them that first time.

After that, we did connect and I taught at the shop in the fall of 2008 and February 2009...


This was the first thing I saw when I walked in the door this morning -- it's good to be asked back!


An excellent selection of threads with beautiful quilts displayed on the wall above the fixtures. Aurifil is carried here as well as a wide variety of threads made by Superior. For embroiderers, there are many, many colorful spools of Isacord!



The Bernina section of the store has all of the machines threaded and ready for customers to try. There are sewn-out samples on the tables, on the walls -- everywhere you look!

Susie made these banners to draw attention to the Bernina 830 when it came out....

This is one of the two HandiQuilter models in the store -- both the Fusion and the Avante are on display and available for everybody to play with...

And, of course, I had to cruise the fabric! Printed minkee really caught my eye -- look at all the cool pink prints at the left of the shelf!

This beautiful star quilt was a block of the month project from Sew From the Heart.

Had to get a good close-up of the pretty quilting with the variegated thread.





Next post -- the classroom and the fun people in it!

Meeting the Newest Addition to the Family

With all these posts, you'd think I was in the Folsom/Placerville area for a week instead of just three days!

In the morning, before the quilt shops, Carol and I went to Babies R Us. She became a grandmother in February and one of the reasons that Dan and I made the trip up here was to meet our new nephew (or great-nephew or grand-nephew or whatever!).

So of course I had to buy clothes -- because you just can't meet a new family member empty handed! Babies R Us has really cute stuff! We especially liked all the frilly pink wonderful things for girls, but I guess we have to wait for that.....HINT! HINT! to Kim and Jason! Well, I guess we all have to give you time to get used to one baby....


But there were some things-that-jump-into-the-cart for boys, too -- like this fun tank top and those adorable little shoes...

My niece Kim, her husband Jason and Brendon
at my sister's house in Placerville.

It's hard to imagine Carol's and my mom as a great-grandmother! She's liking this...

After dinner, Dan and I went back to the hotel; we stayed at a brand new Hampton Inn in Folsom.

The hotel carpet could certainly be an inspiration for some curved piecing as background for applique and/or embellishment?

I liked the way the background changed colors...

On our drive home Tuesday morning, we saw more beautiful wildflowers.

Now I'm pretty much caught up, blog-wise, until I leave again -- today! I'll be flying to Phoenix to teach at Sew From the Heart in Scottsdale AZ for two days, then to Salt Lake City for the Home Machine Quilting Show and a class at Nuttall's; last stop is in Las Cruces NM for a two day workshop at the Bernina Sewing and Design Center.

I will have a very busy schedule and possibly intermittent access to the internet, so may not be posting everything as it happens. However, I promise to take lots of pictures at HMQS and get them up as soon as possible...

Until then....

High Sierra Quilters -- Cameron Park CA

The second quilt shop that my sister Carol and I visited is High Sierra Quilters, located on the other side of Highway 50.


Behind the register is a quilted shop sign as well as blocks and quilts advertising upcoming classes.

There are quilts hung over almost every fabric fixture....

Don't think I saw any free wall space!

This is my sister's friend Chris, folding fabric she had just cut for a customer.

Nice collection of table runners on the wall; must have been a table-runner-of-the-month club?

Had to zero in on the one that reminded me of Halloween!

We continued collecting fabrics for the projects we had in mind earlier in the day -- this is what I bought for the Calendar Quilt...

...and this is what Carol bought for her crazy quilting.

High Sierra Quilters is located at 3450 Palmer Drive in Cameron Park CA; phone 530-677-9990. To see their website, click here.

All our shopping's done -- off to Starbucks!