Celtic Applique

Michelle and I took a Celtic Appliqué class from Sharon Aposhian Wright at Quilt Fest last week.

Sharon lectured and taught a workshop here in Grand Junction several years ago.  I think it's time she come again!  Her work is AMAZING and she is a fantastic teacher.

I learned a LOT in this Celtic Appliqué class - it is unlike anything I've done before.  It was hard too!  I think with practice I could get better though :)

These quilts were all made by Sharon - like I said - stunning work....

This quilt won Best of Show at Quilt Fest last year.  She said after the quilt was quilted, she decided that the Celtic appliquéd center was a bit crooked, so she unpicked all of the quilting (in the center area), removed the center piece and RE-DID all of that Celtic appliqué, put the center piece back in the quilt and re-quilted it (it's all hand quilted too.)  That is dedication - no wonder it won Best of Show!




I love the design of the whole quilt, with the borders crossing over and wrapping around the center, with subtle color changes.  I'm still trying to figure out how she did that.

Here is another one of her beautiful Celtic Appliqué quilts.  She does this with bias strips, made with bias bars and these strips go over and under where they are supposed to and are all appliquéd down by hand. Is your jaw dropping yet?

All hand quilted....

And do you see the face of Christ in the center appliquéd part??  I at first thought it was a map of the world or something, after she pointed out his face, that's all I see now :)

(If you're having trouble seeing him, try squinting your eyes.)

This was her first attempt at Celtic Appliqué .....

And this is my first attempt....

This is a difficult process, but fun too - very challenging!  You can see by my examples that it can be hard to get the design straight and not "crooked".

Oh, and in the quilt at the top - the center "crooked" piece she removed from the quilt is now her quilt label on the back :)

Celtic Appliqué anyone??