The next big project on my quilting agenda is a class I’ll be teaching this fall at my guild’s annual quilting retreat. I’ll be teaching with my good friend Stacy who attends the retreat with me each year. This is a picture of the quilt we’ll be making:

Isn’t it cute? (And no-I didn’t cut off my hair yet – it’s just in a ponytail!) The sample shown above was made by Teri Christopherson, author of the book “Patches and Posies”. With her permission, we borrowed the quilt to show around until our samples are finished.

Machine applique is my favorite technique, so I’ll be doing my quilt utilizing this method. And Stacy is the scrap queen so she’ll probably use a different fabric for each block! Now, I’ve just got to get started…

Fiber artist Annette Kennedy came to our quilting guild meeting last night and it was quite a treat! Her specialty is landscape and pictorial quilts and she uses beautiful embellishment techniques to bring her images to life.

She likes to paint on the surface of her quilts to add detail, texture, and depth with elements of shadow. She then quilts them by machine with decorative threads.

Here are two beautiful examples of before and after quilts that she’s teaching our guild how to do in a couple of workshops this weekend (images used with permission):

The picture above is Red Rock Canyon. Below is Calla Lillies.  It’s amazing how such details add to the beauty of the finished piece. I think I have been inspired!

The last class I took at Road to California was learning how to quilt allover geometric shapes on a quilt WITHOUT marking! This class was given by Charlotte Warr Andersen and she was so energetic and full of great quilting wisdom. She gave me permission to take photos during class so that I could share them on my blog.

Here’s Charlotte showing us her award-winning quilt using her no mark-method:

It’s  amazing what you can do with blue painter’s tape!

The basic idea is starting quilting with just one straight line. Her book, “One Line at a Time” expands on this premise.

By using tape to mark off certain areas and intersections, you can achieve amazing results.

Here are some step by step photos showing the creation of a plaid texture design starting with a square grid.

This one is slightly more complicated but very cool. It’s all about sewing from point to point to create the design.

You can see a little closeup of Charlotte’s quilt underneath. I thought it made a nice background for my picture!

The photo below shows a Double Wedding Ring Quilt with a different quilt motif in each ring. Old meets new in this quilt. It’s called, “Double Charlotte”, named for her grandmother Charlotte Warr who pieced the top.

I took “Advanced Machine Quilting” with Mickey Depre when I attended Road to California recently – the quilters conference and showcase extraordinaire.

Mickey taught us three simple principles to achieve fabulous machine quilting stitches.

1. First, – make that mind body connection drawing out your free motion designs on paper. If you can draw it – you can stitch it. Here’s my pencil drawing and then the stitched out design done free form with no marking on a practice quilt sandwich.

2. Next, look for inspiration all around you.

Mickey handed out some ads and had us look for design elements within that ad. Here’s what I came up with – can you tell what part of the ad I’m using?

I saw diamonds on the fabric in the ad and they morphed into concentric squares. The lamps gave me two shapes to play with – a tapered squiggle and half-moon design. The sun/stars came from playing with the tassel design in the picture.

Then we combined two of the styles and did another pencil drawing and quilt design. I combined the squiggles with the stars and here’s what I got:

3. The final words of wisdom she gave is that we need to practice several times a week. I call it “quilting exercise”. Once your quilting hands are primed for daily quilting, it will be as easy as drawing on paper. This was a fabulous class, taught by a fabulous teacher!

Check out Mickey Depre’s website at mdquilts.com.

I’m here at Road to California having a wonderful time and I know I will be exhausted by the time I drive home. Here’s what’s on the agenda for this weekend:

Today, I’m taking an advanced class called, “Customize Your Quilting”, taught by Quilt artist and author, Mickey Depre. Here’s a sample of her beginning quilting class. I can only imagine what the advanced class will be like!

Tomorrow, I will spend the morning browsing the show floor taking in as much inspiration as I can handle.  In the afternoon, I’m going to attend a lecture entitled, “Show Quilts, From Start to Finish” given by Linda V. Taylor & Cheri Meineke-Johnson.

Isn’t the machine quilting in this piece simply lovely? These ladies are my inspiration!

Finally, on Saturday, I’ll spend the day with Charlotte Warr Andersen learning some of her tips and tricks for perfectly quilted quilts. She is one of my favorite artists and if you’ve never seen her work before, take a look at the picture below to see why she is so amazing:

I plan on taking lots of class pictures and can’t wait to share them with you when I return.

I’m so excited! I’m going to Road to California this week, the quilt show and conference where I’ll get to hobnob with “quilting celebrities” and experience award winning masterpieces.

I’ve signed up for several classes and lectures and I’m attending with my friend Judy who just happens to live in California and just happens to have a spare room for me to stay! So stay tuned and I’ll post pictures of my quilting adventures.

I’ve been trying to take more non-quilting domestic sewing type classes.

Last Friday my friend Jessica, her mom Judy and I took a little bag-making class where we learned how to put in a zipper. I’ve never even sewn a buttonhole before, so this is all new to me!

First, we stitched together a bunch of 1 1/2″ wide strips (I used a Crazy 8 Honey Bun by Sandy Gervais for Moda).

Then we added some free-motion quilting. This was the fun part for me! I quilted one of my favorite designs – loopy swirls.

Next, it was time to add the zipper – how exciting to use a new foot!

Finally, I stitched the edges closed and trimmed off the excess zipper. The instructor warned us to put the zipper pull in the middle of the bag so we could reach it and not to sew it closed. Thank goodness for those detailed instructions! Then we flipped it out and “fluffed” the edges.

And voila! The finished bag! Isn’t it “sew” cute? I think I’ll make several more of these and use them to store notions and supplies when traveling to future sewing classes.

Here’s a picture of Judy, me, teacher Lynn, and Jessica with our fun finished bags!