Stars over Winona

Dear Readers,

Another quilt I finished last fall was my Cookie Cutter Stars quilt that Barbara Cline designed for the Mississippi Quilting Association.  I had decided that I was going to make it using material that I had on hand.  In addition, I have wanted a quilted wall hanging for my classroom for a while, so of course I wanted it in school colors.  Red and white are the official colors but, we also use grey and black.  So I chose to do it in a variety of reds, black and white.

So each summer MQA hosts a nationally known teacher.  Last July it was Barbara Cline from Virginia.   She is the sister of one of my local guild members Julia Graber.  She has written a number of books, I have 3 of them I think.  You can go to her shop here.  Anyway she developed a new pattern that was only available to MQA members to teach.  She has it in her shop now.  It is called Cookie Cutter.

I learned several new techniques, which is wonderful!

Barbara has a way of inserting a fabric into a piece of fabric and she outlines that technique in her newest book.  Anyway, she taught us that technique and others too.  The two sided fabric twist at the corners was another technique that was new to me.

My tiger paws meander

I quilted this using a graffiti quilting technique I had been seeing quilting teachers like Angela Walters do on youtube.  I had also watched videos by Karlee Porter.  The other inspiration came from a book I have had for a while by Laura Lee Fritz.  I created my own design of for the top right corner and bottom left corner of tiger paws, since we are the Winona Tigers.  In the top left I quilted symbols for all the different subjects and activities I could think of.  In the bottom right I did words that I think of when I think of our school.  Around the edge I quilted words.  I did echo quilting on the stars and stipple quilting on the red background areas.

This quilt is 38 x 38 and is hanging in my classroom.  I put fabric with numbers on the back as I teach high school math.  No one will ever see it since it is a wall hanging, but I know it is there.

Have fun with your quilting from start to finish.  Thank you Barbara!!

Sew on,

Terry

A Barbara Cline class

Dear Readers,

Last Friday I got a chance to go to a Barbara Cline workshop.  Each summer Mississippi Quilt Association sponsors a nationally know quilt teacher to come to Mississippi and present a workshop. They normally pick three locations across the state and run two workshops at each location.  This year they did one workshop at 6 locations.  I called my friend Lou Caffey and asked if she would like to go to the workshop with me.  I suggested that we could put Starkville as our first choice and Oxford as our second choice.  We ended up being moved from the Starkville class to the Oxford class.  Oxford is about 10 minutes farther drive, but it was a smaller group, which is really nice for a workshop.

Barbara developed a special pattern for MQA workshop so we, in Mississippi, were the first to take it.  She called it cookie cutter quilt.  She has developed a way to put additional interest in 60 degree triangle quilts.  More on this technique in her Triangle Stars book.

I did not take enough pictures when she was teaching, but at lunch, she gave a trunk show of her quilts and I took lots of pictures of some quilts from each of her books, but will only post a sampling here.  She had written 5 books, 4 that are already published You can purchase them on Amazon or at her website...click here.  My pictures are good, but if you want to see really good pictures here is a link to her blog.

Here we are with what we got finished in the workshop.  Lou had stepped out and missed the photo, but we had a nice time.

The summer is about over.  It has been wonderful...I do love my job, but I have so enjoyed this season!!  It will be hard to leave it behind.

Sew on,

Terry

Stars over Columbus part II

We hung the remaining items in the PTQ show at the RAC and I was able to get pictures of the quilting on my Star Trick Quilt, designed by Barbara Cline (to see more about her click here)...so here they are:

I did parallel line in the white area next to the stars.  In the white border area I  did free motion.

In the lightest shades I did free motion leaves.

The middle color had a wave shape and the dark color a slanted orange peel.

In the dark purple I did large swirls, inspired by the swirly nature of the print.

I used variegated thread on the two outer bars of the yellow, and since I wasn't too wild about that, I matched the colors on the purples.

I bled on it when I was putting on the hanging sleeve, so I had to wash it, and now it is somewhat ripply, but I like it, once I got used to it.

This quilt is hanging in our annual show.  Go see it at the RAC or if you can't make it you can browse it on the our guild blog.

Star's Over Columbus

About 3 years ago, I took a class, hosted by Julia Graber, taught by her sister Barbara Cline.   The class was for a pattern she called Star Tricks.   I had picked these colors to make a dramatic quilt to hang in my classroom.  Well, about that same time, I had gotten a mid arm quilting machine and frame.  I was struggling with using it. I loaded the quilt on the frame and then was not happy with the way the quilting was coming out, so there it sat for the last two years.  In the mean time, I was paying Watana Cantrell to do my quilting, but still it sat, nagging at me to do something about it.  In the meantime, I had other projects and school work to do, so it kept being put back on the back burner.  Sometime during that two year period, Mary Anne Abrams who had also taken that class, brought her completed quilt to show.  I looked at her quilting, and quizzed her on what she had done.  She had done it on her home machine.  The more I thought about it, that is what I wanted to do.  So I ripped out the quilting that was on it, and started quilting it on my home machine.  I will post pictures of the quilting, in a few days.  It is hanging at the arts center now, but it is closed for the holiday.  I forgot to take close up pictures of the quilting.