Sarah Fielke's class and WIP Wednesday

I spent the weekend before last in Christchurch to attend a workshop run by Sarah Fielke with a couple of friends.  It was really lovely to get out of town, enjoy the balmy spring weather (it was sunny and calm unlike Wellington which has been extremely windy lately) and spend a few days just sewing and talking about sewing.  I'm going to take the opportunity to talk about the class a bit, and show the WIP I started there.

Sarah's visit was organised by Fenella from Stitch in Christchurch (you may remember that her mother Penny designed the pattern for my Hexy Ottoman) and she was an active participant in the workshop as well as having a lovely range of fabric and notions available for sale.

The workshop spanned three days - Friday and Saturday were for participants to learn how to make the Fancy That quilt from Sarah's latest book Hand Quilted With Love.

Fancy That - photo from Sarah Fielke's website

I'm making this quilt for my sister, so I let her choose the feature fabric to use in the points of the central star.  Sarah used a large floral print, but after I pulled out all of my large scale prints my sister chose this really gorgeous fabric from Rashida Coleman Hale's Washi range.  I've been hoarding it for ages and waiting for just the right project.

For the fans, I pulled a selection of fabrics which echo the colours of the washi tape in this print.  I'm using a grey Crosshatch Sketch for the background - I thought it might be a bit simpler to work with than linen while still having some texture and interest.

After cutting lots and lots of strips and sewing them together, I cut out the wedges to make my fans.  The next part involves needle turn appliqué.  I abandonned my last needle turn appliqué project (a single quilt block that's not finished after nearly 2 years and probably never will be) so was a bit hestitant about this step.  I think Sarah's technique makes it pretty easy, although appliquéing such a large piece was tricky and I ended up with a bit of a lump in my appliqué.

My version of Fancy That - definitely still a WIP

I will unpick and stitch it back down straight - fortunately it didn't take too long.  If you are interested, you can learn Sarah's needle turn appliqué technique (and lots of other things) in her Craftsy Class.

One of my favourite parts of the class was seeing how the Fancy That quilt looked in all the different colour and fabric combinations chosen by the other participants.  All the quilts being made were lovely but these two caught my eye and made me think "I wish I'd thought of that"!.

Julia Fomison's version of Fancy That

I just adore this combination of Anna Maria Horner's Hand Drawn Garden collection with Art Gallery Fabrics Oval Elements and a little bit of Architextures thrown in for good measure.  With the bright green background it's definitely a slap you in the face kind of quilt, in the best possible way.

Jo Sewell's version of Fancy That

I thought Jo's combination of lovely warm Kaffe Fassett fabrics and Mirror Ball Dots was unexpected and delightful.  The colours just glow against the soft grey background.  I also thought Jo's choice to arrange her fabrics in colour order was inspired.

I hope both Jo and Julia will let me know when they've finished their quilts - I'd love to see them and I'd love to share them too.  I have lots more photos and things to share from the class so look out for at least one more post coming soon.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

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