Creative People

I am very lucky to now work as a quilt tutor and spend time with fabulous creative people. I had a fun time last week with all four of my classes starting again plus a dyeing day up in the Yorkshire Dales. My classes hadn't met since the end of November so everyone was pleased to be back and eager to make a start on new projects!

The beginners on Monday started my 'Triangle Tricks course with an introduction to quick pieced half square triangles. I haven't taken any photos yet but will try to remember to record their progress tomorrow.

Tuesday was the beginning of an appliqué course. We're starting with quick fused pictures inspired by Laura Wasilowski who's quilts I've loved and admired for a long time.  Anthea chose a fabulous striped fabric for the quirky house in the photo above. She's going to embellish this with some hand stitching next. Others in the group chose different subjects:

 Katherine loves Laura's dog pictures as she has a puppy. As you can see she's been experimenting with fringing to represent grasses to great effect.

 Glenwin is making a flower to use as a block in a large quilt she's making.

Muriel has cut some lovely curves for the tree and the roof shapes. She already has a plan drawn up of her next project!

I can't wait to see how all these develop!

On Wednesday I visited Kirsty Hopkins (a talented textile artist) and her Mum Charmian for a dyeing day. We dyed cotton fabrics in the morning:

Then moved onto silk and wool in the afternoon:

Kirsty runs workshops on felting and other textile techniques in her studio in Pateley Bridge as well as selling her artwork and gift items. Visit her website for more details.

On Friday I teach two classes. This term the morning class is on curved piecing so we were sewing Drunkard's Path units - photos of those another time! In the afternoon We started on a foundation pieced flower pots picture quilt which I drafted in EQ7. First we tackled flower pots which are the simplest blocks in this quilt.

 Elaine chose beautifully soft peach and terracotta batiks

 Brenda made hers in a pretty floral print.

 Barbara's fabric reminded her of moss growing on terracotta.

Here are Lynda's fabulous pots with a heart which will go in the corners of the quilt. Barbara also finished a heart:

Great work everyone!