Seminole Piecing

One of the classes I took at Quilt Fest was from Jan Lowe on Seminole Piecing.
This type of patchwork originates in South Florida with the Seminole Indians. Toward the latter part of the 1800's traders began supplying non-electric treadle sewing machines to the Seminole, and Seminole women began making intricately patterned fabric strips to decorate clothing.  I am not sure how seminole patchwork made it into the quilting world but you can see the beautiful results!
This quilt was made by the teacher.

The class was really fun!  It was interesting to see what fabrics people brought and how they ended up turning out.  Jan brought several patterns, taught us some basic techniques and then let us go for it.  Here is my first attempt.

Another quilt made by Jan.  You can also use Seminole Piecing to do some fantastic borders on traditional quilts, or modern quilts for that matter!

Here is my first attempt bordered by brown narrow strips.

Jan hung several samples up on the wall and as we finished a piece we would hang them on the wall too.  Following are several examples either from Jan or other class members.

This one is designed to look like a mountain range.  With different color choices you could make a landscape quilt with this technique.

Nice looking wall!!

Pictured above are my first and second attempts, hanging on the wall.
The day after class I had some time to finish up three designs and here (on the right) is how they turned out.  FUN class!  I really want to try more of this technique.  I am thinking of making a bag out of my samples - what do you think?

The Happy Mistake

This is quite a quilt story and I hope I tell it right! Michelle took a class from Crystal North at Quilt Fest on making this Christmas wreath.  They were using the Accuquilt cutting system and Crystal asked for someone to let her demonstrate on their fabric - Michelle volunteered.  After Crystal cut - oops!  The bow was supposed to be red and the leaves were supposed to all be green, but I think it looks great like this and Michelle was pleased with it as well!  She said in class they called it the "happy mistake".  The story doesn't end there.  Crystal had given everyone a foam core board with batting on it, sort of a mini design wall and Michelle had her wreath on it so it wouldn't get wrinkled or messed up on the way home.  While loading our bags and sewing machines in her car, she set the foam core board, with the quilt top on it, on top of her car.  Neither of us noticed it as we finished loading and got in the car and drove away!  After she got all the way home, Michelle realized what had happened.  She emailed Crystal and told her what happened and .... happily, someone had found it in the parking lot and given it to Crystal, so she is going to mail it to Michelle!  This quilt isn't even done yet and it's already had quite a journey!

Lisa Bongean

I really enjoyed Lisa Bongean's lunch lecture at Quilt Fest.  She told us how she started Primitive Gatherings and how it's grown over the years. I must say it seems that behind everyone of these successful traveling quilt teachers is a very supportive husband and family.  She talked about her husband quite a bit, and how he now works for her company.  It sounds like he is very encouraging and supportive. Karen Kay Buckley's husband was with her at the event and worked very hard.  He was not only helpful to her but he was helping the Quilt Fest committee members as well!  Hurray for fabulous quilting spouses.
Anyway, back to Lisa!  Among the things I loved about her work are these miniature quilts!!  Here she is holding up two of them so you can see just how small they are.  And of course, her work is impeccable.

Following are some of the items she showed at her lecture/trunk show.  She said she never really got into crazy quilts but loved doing some crazy quilt stitches on her wool appliqué.  I think she (and Primitive Gatherings) is best known for her work with wool, but she had wonderful pieces out of cotton fabric too and designs fabric for Moda.

This quilt is pieced with cotton fabrics and appliquéd with wool.  She uses an antique dye spray on a lot of her work as well.  I know they sell it at Hi Fashion, but I've never tried it! Yet....

More miniatures - I LOVE miniatures!

Can you see the beautiful feathered quilting in this little wool appliqué mini?

This is her new book - due to be released any day.  It is at the top of my Wish List.  It is full of miniatures.  I can hardly wait.

She gave away a lot of door prizes, including some of her beautiful wool.

Find out more about Lisa at:
http://lisabongean.com
and
https://www.primitivegatherings.us

And be sure to visit Karen Kay Buckley's website and blog as well!  My friend Phyllis says she has wonderful photography and a wide range of subjects.  I'll go check it out now!
http://karenkaybuckley.com/

Have a great day!!

The Next Generation of Quilters

There were quite a few quilt entries in the youth category at the Quilt Fest here in Utah. That makes me happy to see this art continued into the next generation. Both boys and girls had entered quilts in the show. 

Magical Maui's Gum Gum Tree by Afton Schwab won first place. She also won a Babylock sewing machine!

We All Scream by Hallie Lee Simper won second place!  Hurray for these girls! I'm so impressed! 

Heading home very inspired by a wonderful show and great classes :)

Another Day at Quilt Camp!

Yesterday I was in classes from 8:30 AM until 10:00 PM! Here it is 8:30 AM again and I'm back in class and ready for the day! I do have the afternoon free today and then one more class tonight before heading home to my hubby tomorrow :) I'll write more about my wonderful classes later, but for today I thought I'd share a couple of other fun things.

Each day we go into the main room for lunch and a lecture from one of the national teachers. We have a cute little "campfire" at each table.

We have the opportunity to earn merit badges! One can earn them by being a teacher's assistant, by spending more than $50 in the vendor mall (I earned both of those :), doing service for someone or volunteering in another way, etc. etc. You can even buy the ones you think are super cute. After you earn five merit badges, your name is entered in a drawing for a new sewing machine. For every badge you earn (or buy) after that, your name is entered again. (This necklace belongs to a lady that was sitting at my table Wednesday, she let me take a picture of it because at that time I only had one badge - the badge just for showing up - and hers looked way cooler :)

We even have a "merit badge counselor" who, every day at lunch, hands out the "Sunny Service" and "Most Marvelous" badges. We also get these beads for attending classes and luncheons etc. Yesterday our merit badge counselor said that before she left her hotel room she put all her vitamins in her pocket to take with breakfast. Later she pulled them all out, put them in her mouth and swallowed them all, with water. She said shortly after she realized that one of her pills was actually an orange bead..... She said she needed another one, because she wasn't going to look for that one :)

Here is our camp song that they taught us the first night. It's called "Camp Quilting" sung to the tune of Camp Grenada:

Hello Teachers, Hello Quilt Friends

We are wishing, camp will not end

Camp is far from, being boring

And they say we'll have more fun with fabric hoarding

We are here at, this year's quilt camp

Sewing with the, brand new Ott lamp

With the teacher, Marsha McCloskey

Doing feather stars we are so very happy

Cynthia England, loves those landscapes

Picture piecing, keep those seams straight

And Karen Kay, that's Ms. Buckley

Perfect circle appliqué if we are lucky

Lisa Bongean, Primitive Gatherings

She will teach some, of her wool things

Gosh our head hurt, oh can't you see

Oh deciding on which classes was not easy

Quiltfest Quilt Camp, it is really here

Time to stand up, and give a cheer

Many memories, to remember

As we laugh and quilt all this week in September

Camp Cheer:

Stitch the seam

Pick it apart

Do it again

Yeah, Quilt Camp!

Karen Kay Buckley

Yesterday was quite a day! I learned a LOT and met a lot of really nice quilters. Of course aren't all quilters really nice?

First thing in the morning I took a class from Karen Kay Buckley. It was a lecture/demo class. She talked about the equipment and supplies she uses for machine and hand appliqué, and how she gets and stays organized. She says she couldn't accomplish very much if she wasn't organized, so she gave us a lot of tips on that and showed slides on how she organizes everything in her sewing room.

Here are a couple of the many tips she gave us:

1. She uses Downy Wrinkle Releaser when she initially irons all her fabric. She said it gets the wrinkles right out all the time.

2. She uses a Microtex 60/8 needle in her machine for machine appliqué with invisible thread in the top and bobbin. This way you cannot tell her machine appliqué from her hand appliqué.

3. She does not have a phone nor take her cell phone into her sewing room. She said she makes it up there so rarely that that is her time and she doesn't want to be interrupted.

4. She put Daylight light bulbs in her sewing room and it makes a big difference in how truly the colors in her fabric read.

5. She cuts templates from Templar plastic and uses an Emory board to make the edges smooth.

6. She made her own ironing surface with Luan plywood with Drill fabric wrapped around it and duct taped.

She also has a lot of products on her website that I have used and love such as Perfect Circles, her whole line of Perfect Scissors, and I just bought her Square Up Ruler yesterday (more on that later). I encourage you to check out her website. I don't have the link handy but if you google her name I'm sure you'll find it!

All of these quilts were made by Karen and these were all hand appliquéd. She has patterns available for them all! I'm off to another day of quilting!

Welcome to Quilt Camp!

Michelle and I are off to a great start at Quilt Camp! We had a rainy drive over to Utah but saw this beautiful rainbow along the way!

The theme of Quilt Fest this year is Quilt Camp. We have the opportunity to earn beads and merit badges!

After our camp opening presentation last night and a wonderful lecture by Karen Kay Buckley we got to eat "pseudo s'mores" - yum! (Yes that is a chocolate fountain :)

Our own Laura Pedge from Grand Junction is one of the featured teachers, we got to walk around afterward and meet the teachers.

And there are several wonderful gift baskets to bid on (silent auction). Off to a great start!