Adventures in teaching - part two

Ok, on with the rest of the classes I taught this year.

 

These equilateral triangle quilts are from the equilateral triangle quilt class I taught at Stitchbird.

 

This is yet another class I taught twice this year, once at Stitchbird and once at Nancy's Stitch Studio.  Unfortunately, I only have photos from the Stitchbird class, but they were both great fun and my students did an amazing job.

 

The next few photos are from the free motion quilting class I taught at Stitchbird.  This was a two hour technique class, and so much fun.

 

I think free motion quilting is one of those things that is really nice to learn in person.  It's truly not that difficult, but having a little bit of encouragement and someone to make suggestions can make all the difference.

 

My students did amazingly well in this class, busting out a few of my favourite designs and then moving on to coming up with their own.  Awesome!

 

Last, but certainly not least, is my Garden for Birds class.  This one runs over six lessons, and is a form of sampler quilt, with students tackling a variety of blocks, piecing and applique. 

 

This class is always a blast to teach, because the quilts people produce are always so different from one another.

 

A few cats crept into these quilts, as well as other more creepy crawly creatures...

 

I would not have thought of doing an all solids version of this quilt, but I love how graphic and modern it turned out!

 

Another cat!  And I love this warm autumnal colour scheme!

 

The quilt above was made for its maker's third baby, who I'm sure will love it!  A couple of people in this class (and in other classes) had only just started sewing.  I love seeing people's confidence grow as they get to grips with sewing, and I'm always delighted when I get to the end of a class and know that people are converts to quilting!  

In this class, everyone started quilting their quilt by the last class, which I really strive for.  I always think it's nice, especially with a first quilt, to at least start the quilting in class.

So, that was my year of teaching.  It was pretty busy (not least because I was flat out at work at the same time), but so enjoyable.  Do you have any questions about teaching patchwork and quilting?

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Autumn with a Twist Mini

Sometimes, when I'm making a quilt, it's easy to calculate and cut exactly the right number of pieces at the start. Usually I err on the side of caution and cut slightly more than I think I'll need, in case I lose a piece or mess something up and have to discard something. However, with equilateral triangle quilts, I often seem to end up cutting more than a few extra triangles.

I had a bunch of triangles left over from my Autumn with a Twist quilt, and used them to make this mini. I really started it so I would have something to demonstrate joining the rows of triangles with in my equilateral triangle quilt class. To mix things up a bit, instead of a random layout, I grouped the triangles by colour so they make hexagon shapes. That was fun but I think the hexagon shapes would be more obvious if it was a larger piece (or used smaller triangles).

My last class in this series of three covered quilting and binding, but I knew my students wouldn't get up to the stage of binding their own quilts by the end of the class. So I lightly quilted this mini to emphasise the hexagon shapes, and then used it to demonstrate how to bind a quilt. When I was learning, the trickiest part of binding for me was remembering how to make the mitred corners of binding (you know, when you hit the corner and fold the binding away from the quilt and then back over itself). Because of this I wanted people to be able to have a go at performing the folding action themselves so they would really understand how it was done (and hopefully remember, with the help of my written instructions, for when they were doing it at home).

I used a fun bright print for the back of this mini - I just had a fat quarter which happened to be the perfect size. I always enjoy hand stitching binding, but on something like this it's particularly satisfying because it's a pretty short job (and hour or so in front of the TV and you're done).

I could have made this mini into a cushion or a wall hanging, but I was feeling too lazy to put a back or a hanging sleeve on it so it's just a plain old mini quilt. It turns out it's just the right size for one cat to spread out on or two cats to snuggle up on.

There's nothing weird about making your cats a couch quilt that matches your couch quilt, right...?

I'll be linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Autumn with a Twist Quilt

I am revisting my Autumn with a Twist Quilt for the Bloggers Quilt Festival. I made this quilt as a sample for a class I'm teaching and it was just a delightful experience. The colour palette was inspired by some fabrics I picked up on a quilty roadtrip with a friend, and then I found the perfect backing at a local quilt shop (on sale, no less). I think it was just meant to be!

This quilt is just a simple equilateral triangle quilt.  It's the third one I've made and I'd make another tomorrow!  If you're interested in making your own, you can check out my tutorials on how to cut equilateral triangles and how to sew equilateral triangles.

I've been wanting to make an autumnal quilt for a while, and I started on that with my Midnight at the Oasis quilt.  However, that project is on hold for the moment, so the need to make a sample for my class presented the perfect opportunity.  I've said before that if someone said they were putting chartreuse, plum, hot pink, grey-brown and cream together, I'd think of a hot mess, but I really love this somewhat unexpected colour combination.

As much as I love the front, I think I like the back as much.  I used a really beautiful panel from Cori Dantini's Beauty is You line, and it ties in many of the colours from the front, in a much softer palette.  I'm really glad I managed to find this fabric, because I had in mind to use on the back once I started the front, and it's quite hard to find online.  I might have cleaned out the local quilt shop I found it at!

Even though cream linen binding is horribly impractical, it just seemed like the right choice for this quilt.

 

For the quilting, I decided to go very simple so as not to compete with the quite busy quilt top (and because I loved the quilting on this equilateral triangle baby quilt that my mum made).  I simply stitched a quarter inch off each side of the seam lines.  It was much quicker and easier than I thought it would be, especially because I didn't need to mark any of the quilting lines, and just used my walking foot as a guide.  I actually used a different coloured thread on the top and in the bobbin, but the colour differences are very subtle (a very light beige on the back, and a slightly darker beige on the front).  It does make a very nice pattern on the back.

Of course, I added the label in my usual style.  I've found that curving the corners of my labels lets me blanket stitch around them a little bit more neatly, and they feel more secure without the points which can come loose.

At 238" inches around, my quilt just squeezes into the Small Quilt Category for the Bloggers Quilt Festival. Make sure you head over and check out the other quilts in that category and all the other categories!

Quilt Stats
Pattern: my own equilateral triangle quilt pattern
Finished Size: approx 56" by 63"

Fabric: various

Backing: panel from Beauty is You by Corin Dantini

Binding: Essex Linen in Ivory

Pieced and quilted by: me

Autumn with a Twist Quilt

I am more than happy to have this finished quilt to share with you today.  The top had been basted for a couple of weeks and this weekend I finally had time to sit down and quilt it.  After a couple of weeks with almost no sewing going on, it was lovely to be at my machine.  Absence really does make the heart grow fonder!

This quilt is just a simple equilateral triangle quilt.  It's the third one I've made and I'd make another tomorrow!  If you're interested in making your own, you can check out my tutorials on how to cut equilateral triangles and how to sew equilateral triangles.  Also, if you're in Wellington, I am teaching a class on how to make an equilateral triangle quilt at Nancy's Embroidery - check out the class schedule on their website for details.

I've been wanting to make an autumnal quilt for a while, and I started on that with my Midnight at the Oasis quilt.  However, that project is on hold for the moment, so the need to make a sample for my class presented the perfect opportunity.  I've said before that if someone said they were putting chartreuse, plum, hot pink, grey-brown and cream together, I'd think of a hot mess, but I really love this somewhat unexpected colour combination.

As much as I love the front, I think I like the back as much.  I used a really beautiful panel from Cori Dantini's Beauty is You line, and it ties in many of the colours from the front, in a much softer palette.  I'm really glad I managed to find this fabric, because I had in mind to use on the back once I started the front, and it's quite hard to find online.  I might have cleaned out the local quilt shop I found it at!

Even though cream linen binding is horribly impractical, it just seemed like the right choice for this quilt.  I used a big cheat on the binding so I could hand this quilt over to Nancy's to be displayed pending my class.  I very much prefer to hand stitch bindings, but it does take a while.  I didn't want to machine stitch the binding on this quilt, so instead I used Roxanne's basting glue to glue down the binding.  It's not a permanent solution, but it lets the quilt look finished until I have time to hand stitch the binding down later.

 

For the quilting, I decided to go very simple so as not to compete with the quite busy quilt top (and because I loved the quilting on this equilateral triangle baby quilt that my mum made).  I simply stitched a quarter inch off each side of the seam lines.  It was much quicker and easier than I thought it would be, especially because I didn't need to mark any of the quilting lines, and just used my walking foot as a guide.  I actually used a different coloured thread on the top and in the bobbin, but the colour differences are very subtle (a very light beige on the back, and a slightly darker beige on the front).  It does make a very nice pattern on the back.

Of course, I added the label in my usual style.  I've found that curving the corners of my labels lets me blanket stitch around them a little bit more neatly, and they feel more secure without the points which can come loose.

Is an equilateral triangle quilt on your quilty bucket list?

Quilt Stats
Pattern: my own equilateral triangle quilt pattern
Finished Size: approx 56" by 63"

Fabric: various

Backing: panel from Beauty is You by Corin Dantini

Binding: Essex Linen in Ivory

Pieced and quilted by: me

Linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

WIP….Thursday?

I meant to post this up yesterday, but I ran out of time.  Anyway, better late than never!  A couple of weeks ago I shared the start of my Autumn with a Twist quilt.

The quilt top is finished now and I'm hoping to get it basted this weekend.  Please excuse the less than perfect photos - I am having a very busy week and had to sneak out for super quick quilt photo shoot during my lunch break!

Anyway, I'm really loving this quilt, and apart from the bit where I sewed the rows of triangles together wrong and had to unpick about 400" of seams, it has been pretty painless.

It's still Wednesday somewhere, so I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

By the way, if you're looking for where to enter the 2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge, it's here!

WIP Wednesday

A couple of weeks ago I took a little road trip to the Craft and Quilt Fair in Palmerston North (about two hours drive from Wellington, for those outside New Zealand).  I travelled with a friend and we decided to make a day of it, stopping at quilt shops in small towns on the way.

I ended up buying four fabrics, not all from the same place, which ended up sitting together and formed an unexpectedly charming combination.  I'm pretty sure if someone told me they were putting together chartreuse, hot pink, plummy purple, greyed off brown and cream together in a quilt I would expect it to be a hot mess!  Anyway, those four fabrics formed the basis for this bundle and I think it works surprisingly well.

 

It's coming into autumn here and the weather is already getting cooler.  Most of our trees are evergreen so we don't get the spectacular scenes of turning leaves like in other parts of the world.  I'm still noticing and enjoying the little changes though.  I think one of the best things that quilting has done for me is make me more aware of the beauty in everyday things, and seek that out more often.

Anyway, enough with the smooshy stuff - I now have an even bigger pile of equilateral triangles cut and ready to piece.  Yes, I'm making another equilateral triangle quilt - like the one for my brother, the layout is going to be fairly random.  This is going to be the sample for the class I'm teaching at Nancy's in May.

 

One of the fabrics I'm including in this quilt is from the Beauty is You collection by Cori Dantini.  It's getting a bit hard to find online now, so I was thrilled to find a few prints, including the large and small panels of ladies, at a local quilt shop this week.  I think these girls will be right at home on the back of my quilt.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

Teaching at Nancy's Embroidery Shop

My mum taught me the basics of quilting, and with her help, I made my first two simple quilt tops (she quilted the first one for me, and the second one was long arm quilted).  After that introduction, I took an almost year long sampler class at Nancy's Embroidery Shop, where I learned all kinds of techniques I'd never tried before, like English paper piecing, foundation paper piecing, needle turn appliqué, piecing curves, etc.

Now, I'm very excited to be teaching at Nancy's myself!  You can check out the 2014 Class Syllabus here.  Here's what I'm teaching:

First up is a nice short technique class on my hand blanket stitch appliqué technique.  I'm working on a few different designs to stitch up and bring along, or students can make up their own design.

Next up is an equilateral triangle quilt.  No, it does not need to be as enormous as this one!  I need to make another of these for a class sample - any colour palette suggestions?

I had a brainwave over summer, and figured out a way to dramatically improve my hot water bottle cover pattern.  I'll be teaching that class in June, just when you'll need a nice cover for your hottie.

My Garden for Birds quilt is kind of a modern take on a sampler quilt, and I'll be teaching it over the course of the second half of the year. 

Finally, a class on a quilted Christmas stocking is at the end of the year.  This is an unquilted version, but I plan on making a few samples for the class, in different styles because I really hope people put their own spin on this pattern.

For the two quilts I'm teaching, we will be covering quilting and binding in the last class.  For me, quilting was the most intimidating part to learn, so it was really important to me that it be covered.  I know not everyone loves binding, but I do, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I'm hoping will help make it an enjoyable experience for my students.

Phew - I think 2014 is going to be a busy year!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Equilateral Triangle Quilt

This is my entry for the bed quilt category of the Bloggers' Quilt Festival running for the next couple of weeks.  If you've come from there - welcome and thanks for visiting!  

I started making this quilt back in September last year, and I blogged about the design process back in October.  I had the quilt top finished by late October, but it waited several months for me to quilt it.

Eventually, I realised that it was at least partly the basting process that was daunting me, so I had the quilt basted by Sue Burnett, a local long-arm quilter.

Sue might have laughed at me (in the nicest possible way) when she realised that I intended to quilt this monster myself on my little 25 year old domestic sewing machine (you can read all about my little Bernina, and why I don't think you need a fancy expensive sewing machine to make lovely quilts, here if you're interested).

Once the basting was done by Sue, it only took me about a week to finish the quilting, using straight lines (very) approximately 1/2" apart.

Even though this is a pretty big quilt and will probably take its fair share of washing, I hand stitched down the binding.  I really enjoy that last hand stitching process, and the finish.  I gave this quilt to my brother for his birthday in April, and he immediately wrapped himself up in it like a very very large burrito.  I wish I had a photo but I was too slow with the camera!  I'm sure he is really enjoying it now the colder weather has arrived.

By the way, if you are interested in making your very own equilateral triangle quilt, I have a couple of tutorials that might be useful, on how to cut equilateral triangles and how to sew equilateral triangles.

Quilt Stats

Finished Size:  Approximately 87 inches by 84 inches.

Fabric: Assorted cream, grey and taupe solids, assorted cream, grey, mustard, blue, red, brown and taupe prints.

Backing: DS Quilts print from Spotlight.

Binding: Woodgrain print from Joel Dewberry's Aviary 2 line.

Pieced and quilted by: me, on my domestic sewing machine.  Basted by Sue Burnett on her long-arm machine, and basting threads removed by me and my mum (thanks mum!).