Pet Portraits, my favorite class right now.

April 6, 2017

I have spent the last two days teaching my class 'Pet Portraits' and it is my favorite class to teach right now. I had 18 students from the Pine Tree Quilt Guild, Grass Valley, which is the largest class I have taught and I had my oldest student, 93 year old Lila. When I have taught this class previously there have been a week or longer between the classes giving the students time to get their homework done! So tackling the project in 2 days was challenging.

Most people chose to make a portrait of their dog or dog they know. I love all the different interpretations and approaches to this raw edge collage applique technique that I teach.

The start of the class is most daunting as it involves drawing and no one thinks they are an artist! I was really impressed how everyone tackled this and made their own professional looking patterns.

Not everyone chose to make a dog but these cats, and other animals made great subjects for a portrait. What fun quilts and a fun bunch of ladies to hang out with for a couple of days.

This sweet dog was stitched down with plenty of thread play bringing out his fluffy personality.

I am now looking forward to teaching this class again in September in Auburn, CA.

Best Year Yet - 2016

December 31, 2016

This year was another busy year for me. I have had my shop on Etsy since 2011 and this year I reached my 100th 5 Star review and 236 official sales. I really appreciate all the wonderful customers I have had over the years. Especially as they love the quilts I make and leave me such positive reviews. Many times they tell me how when they have opened the box they are brought to tears. That is what keeps me sewing as I see my quilts make such an impact in their lives especially when the quilts are made after a loved one has gone.

For Etsy I made 34 T-Shirt quilts, 12 necktie quilts and 8 other quilts that include vintage hankie and picture quilts. The T-shirt quilts I make are often high school graduation quilts, quilts made using shirts spanning from preschool through college, or sports fan shirts from a favorite team.

The type of quilt I enjoy making the most and I made 11 of this year are necktie quilts. I love to use the silk fabrics and am always amazed at the patterns and colors that I get to work with. As the blocks grow and then as the blocks are laid out to form the quilt the satuation of color and pattern is endless.

This fun quilt I made as a retirement gift for a Chick-fil-A executive who retired after 35 years. It was such fun working with all these Chick-fil-A ties. I learnt so much about that company and then they opened one in my town.

I also got to make my first Dresden Quilt. I was sent about 60 quilts from a collection of ties from my customers father. He had many ties from his school days, Harvard and other old East Coast institutes. I included the tie labels next to the appropriate ties and used his initials and dates in the center.

Another popular quilt I make is one using vintage handkerchiefs. The pattern I use is laid out en pointe, which means the blocks are diamonds not squares. I have to make the blocks a uniform size which works with hankies that are all different sizes. I love the shabby chic look

Now 2017 is here one of my goals is to blog more regularly. I will share some of the unique customer request quilts I have made and not shied away from.

Sunflowers seem to be the flower of the moment.

July 17, 2016

January was approaching and I hadn't received a 2016 calendar. Luckily I found and purchased a Sunflower Calendar for half price. Looking at all those striking images inspired me to start making Sunflower quilts. The first few were small wall hangings that I have since developed into a raw edge applique class to make a 16" wall hanging that can be stretched onto a 12" canvas. I then remembered an oil pastel sketch I made in college of a sunflower that would be perfect made into a larger wall hanging.

Work in progress of a small Sunflower wall hanging

I am happy to say this quilt that I made in April has been accepted into World of Color at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall. The quilt I named Life is Good as I used many scraps from the t shirt quilts that I make and cant bring myself to throw away all that good t shirt fabric. The colors are rich and work perfectly with the added print fabrics that include.