I got to teach!

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of being invited to teach at Arizona's only Gammill dealership. I have taught quilting classes before, but never on the longarm. And, of course, I drive a Gammill. (That elicited giggles in class, the concept that I “drive” a longarm.)

I wanted to teach Free Motion Feathers, as I know that feathers are something many people stress over. First, I created a sample for the shop to hang to advertise the classes. My sample is on satin (if you have followed me for any amount of time, you know that I LOVE quilting on satin!) and shows just a sampling of the feathers that I intended to demonstrate.

 

There are a zillion ways to quilt feathers. They can be plain or fancy, elegant or whimsical, structured or fancy-free. The students were eager and asked lots of great questions.

 

I quilted out some simple feathers, embellished feathers, feathered swags and feathered hearts, feathered wreaths and feather borders. Finally, the elegant Victorian feather, which curls up and over and around to fill any type of space.

 

And, I want to give a big “shout out” to my unofficial Rim Country fan club – both sessions contained friends from my guild and other local quilting groups. Thanks for your support, my quilty friends!

I have to say, I can't wait to do it again! In a couple of months, I will be teaching a full-day, hands-on class. It will be great to lead them in stitching out their own beautiful feathers!

“Ring the bells that still can ring,

forget your perfect offering.,

There is a crack in everything;

that's how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen

Rolling Hills Landscapes

 

We have just returned from vacation; high in the Sierra Nevada mountains that span the length of the California/Nevada border. Here's a little view of Twin Lakes. Yes, believe it or not, that is a glacier highlighted by the sun. Needless to say the water in the lake, as well as Robinson Creek which flows down from the Lakes, is very, very cold. Fabulous place to be on a hot summer day!

Have you ever been on a drive, where you crest over a hill to a vista of rolling hills? Each layer of hills is a different color. Or, a different shade of the same color, getting lighter and lighter as each layer reaches out to the horizon.

That has been the inspiration for my series of Rolling Hills Landscapes. This is Number 6 in the series; this one for a dear friend's birthday. It takes only 2 hours to cut and piece the gentle curves, and I really only began the series so that I would have lovely spaces to put tiny quilted fill patterns. The whole piece is only 24 x 30 inches. I think you can see that I am not finished with the binding.

 

You only need to lay out a few fat quarters, darkest at the bottom and the lightest at the top. I like about 11 or 12 pieces. Cutting is done free hand, two layers at a time, with the rotary cutter, and the curves are gentle enough for easy piecing.

Here is the first piece in the series; a landscape at sunset. The little circle “sun” just appeared in the hand-dyed fabric that I used for sky. A happy accident that I played up by stitching.

                          “Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death.”

                                                                                              Anon.