My favorite class at Quilt Fest was "Off the Path" taught by Sharon Wright. It was more of a lecture/trunk show really but very, very inspiring!
I left feeling inspired to be more creative in my quilt making. She gave 20 different ideas of things we could do and try, to be more creative. I am hoping to get her to come give this lecture as a program to our guilds here.
Sharon showed sample after sample of her work with ideas that she has tried.
One thing she said, that I could identify with, is that it is really hard to move on creatively if you have too many UFOs (unfinished projects). I never really thought before how stifling those can be! But I find myself not doing challenges or starting a project I feel inspired and want to do, because I have so many things that I need to finish....
This quilt was made from old tea towels her mother had embroidered.
I think she said this was a block exchange.
Here are a set of blocks set into two different quilts in two different ways, giving them a totally different look!
She encouraged us to put text or writing into our quilts and explained her process. Having taken that class from Deirdre McElroy I feel like I could do this!
Great Halloween quilt! You can see her Celtic appliqué quilt in the background. She taught that class too.
She reminded us we can be creative with our edge finishing!
This is a quilt her daughter made for a book report - in one weekend!
After her lecture/trunk show, she encouraged everyone in the class to show a quilt that we had stretched ourselves creatively with, or one we were working on and wanted ideas for. Then she had a table full of stuff from her sewing room that she was getting rid of and challenged each of us to take something and use it as inspiration to make something this year and bring it back to show next year. I took a book on Medieval Art - my wheels are spinning with ideas!!
