DWM - TVQA Spring Seminar 2013

I attended all three days of the TVQA Spring Seminar this year, and I took four classes.  Yes, I started FOUR new projects!!!  Unbelievable, right?  But when the opportunity to learn from expert teachers comes along, you take it - that's my philosophy!  Plus, I get to count all of these toward my NewFO Challenge for June. 

Maybe with FOUR new starts, Barbara will put my name in the pot FOUR times?  

LOL!!!  It's worth a try, right?  =^..^=

My first class was Wild and Free with Pat Sloan - here we are together....

Pat was a lot of fun and we really learned a lot about color and how to choose fabrics in her class.  The object of my class was to choose a variety of fabrics to make the background for this pattern, which is one of her signature designs.....

She encouraged us to step outside the "neutrals" box and choose colors rather than simple creams and beiges.  My choice was to go with a black background and pop the applique with lots of bright color.  I'm sure you're all gasping with surprise here LOL!!!  And yes, I was the only one who designed a black background :*D  I took a HUGE bag of black fabrics with a few grays for dimension - all of which had to be washed and ironed beforehand remember! - and barely had enough of what I needed to build my background after we eliminated the ones that did not play well together.  

We started by choosing a focal piece that would fill one or more of the large spaces.   My focal is the gray text print in the photo below...

Pat's rule for pieces that stand out strongly against the other fabrics is to use it at least 3 times in the quilt, but I felt 2 times was sufficient for this favorite gray fabric, especially since a few of the others read as gray.  Then I decided that all black was too blah and I put a bright lime green in the accent strips for pizzazz!  The two flower prints you see in there also have a touch of lime in them.  This is my final project piece.....

Pat was our speaker on Friday night.  My favorite of her quilts was this one....

Here it is all by itself...

Each block represents a month

I bought this book so I can make one of my own someday - plus I really LOVE that bag on the front, you know what I mean???  =^..^=

On Friday, I took two half-day classes.  First up was Celtic Spin, taught by Fern Damour.  Fern was a very sweet, lovely girl, but I seem to have been too involved in my project to take any pictures of her - sorry Fern!!!   These are the fabrics I pulled for this project, with the border fabric on the left....

And here is the completed center section.....

Then here it is with the beginning of the outside pieced border, which will give it the "spin" effect.  The dark background of the carpet really messed with my flash and washed out the fabric colors.  There will also be a narrow yellow inner border.  By the way, did you notice that black is my "neutral" for this quilt too?  ♥

My next class was called Over the Rainbow....

Over the Rainbow - Lisa Hardy, teacher

This was a nightmare to prepare for!  I had to have 30 fabrics washed, ironed and 2" strips cut before class -

Thank God for my wonderful Sizzix cutter!!!  Then I found out after I had already left home that I needed a couple of 3-1/2" squares for the block centers, too.  No, I didn't have extra fabric with me!  I dug in my black scraps and chose something for the centers - time will tell if I stick with it or not.  Here are the two blocks I completed in class...

My favorite version of this quilt that Lisa showed us was this one..... 

Yum!!!  I wish I had seen it first, because I would have been making it instead!

Saturday was spent with Peggy Barkle learning how to make Blended Nines ...

Peggy's "thing" is to take an ordinary, traditional block, slice it up, and add curves to it.  Our class made nine patches and sliced them up.  Here is her quilt sample...

I really had a hard time choosing fabrics for this.  I'm not really sure why, but it just wasn't coming together for me.  Then I decided I wanted to work around this bold leaf print and maybe take a page out of Pat Sloan's book and make a pieced background for an applique design.  So I chose subdued colors that would be able to handle a design without taking over ....

Here are the two blocks I finished in class except for sewing them together....you will notice that my background is NOT black!  Black-and-white, true, but not black!!!  LOL!!!  The pale lime green in this picture washes out to almost yellow.  It looks a little better in the second picture below this one.....

Kinda cool, right?

Here they are with the focal border print...

I'm trying to decide whether to put a thin lattice out of the black dot in the center like Peggy did on her quilt.  I want to wait until all the blocks are done before I sew them together.  Peggy shared some really wonderful layouts with us, so I may choose to play with these blocks and maybe do something fun and funky with them.

You can see what I mean from these next two quilts of hers.  You can get some really interesting movement by the way you place the blocks....

Quilt by Peggy Barkle

 Almost like pathways or rivers....  look at the tree on the left of this one and the way she finished off by binding around the roots - it was really cool!!!

Quilt by Peggy Barkle

So that's my class projects!  I hope you've enjoyed sharing in my class experiences :*)  And of course you'll be seeing them again as I pick them back up soon to try to finish them up!  It may be a little while though before that happens.  I have another week-long trip coming up very soon, and several projects that need to get some attention before I pick these back up.

What's on your design wall today?  

You can share it with others over at Judy's Patchwork Times!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=