THIS AND THAT

 Ahhh tulip time!

Yes... 

with some good ole Pacific Northwest rain... 

BUT

 that meant it wasn't crowded!

Last Saturday,

I taught a Roman Stripe class.

Interestingly, one student 

was given this pinkish spool of thread 

and told to get a paint sample card

and work with those colors

as a challenge. She chose this pattern to do it!

Another student worked 

in these bold purple and yellows!

It's a simple block 

that is fun to work with 

and come up with different designs.

My oldest son has been busy 

glassblowing floats and hearts

in order to fund his trip to Indonesia this summer with his anthropology class.

Do you need some pretty and colorful glass?

I know where you can get one!

I have been busy working on some "fat quarter" bags.

I used the great pattern from here -

http://www.favequilts.com/Bags-Purses-Totes/Fat-Quarter-Drawstring-Bag-from-Martingale

LOVE them!

I also continue to chug along...

dancing with a few diamonds every day!

I have also been making these cute pouches.

The outside fabric 

is from Freddy Moran's line called "Pure Color".

Freddy!!!

Did someone say Freddy?!

Stay tuned!

Linking up again!

So many nice people and

So many creative processes going on!

 http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WORDLESS WIP WEDNESDAY

linking up!

http://www.freshlypieced.com/

CLASS WITH GWEN MARSTON

My friend Dorothy and I were adventuring again!

This time the ferry took us to

a cute quilt shop in Port Gamble, WA

called the Quilted Strait.

A hop skip and jump away from the shop

was the most fabulous place for a sewing class!

(space and wall to wall windows to the water!)

We spent the day with a nice group of 

creative ladies

and...

drum roll please...

Gwen Marston!

She is wonderfully gentle and elegant,

instilling confidence

that everything is

not only possible

but also wonderful!

Above she is demonstrating the basket block.

Below she is working magic while pressing!

She spent the day connecting with every student.

Here she is with Sharon

from the fun blog Indigo Threads

http://indigothreads.blogspot.com/

Here's Dorothy with her first fruit basket!

Here's a peek at what was on the design walls.

The next two gals turned their baskets into pails 

and even added a shovel.

One lady pieced this top years ago

and wasn't sure how to finish it

so she brought it to hear Gwen's ideas.

What a great way to show off the fabric.

There was some African, Australian, and even a Kaffe!

I loved the way she played with the snake.

All vintage!

Very pieceful...

                                       Here's my baskets.
                                    All with eggs in them...

(are you ready for this?)

                       "Don't put all your eggs in one basket!"
                                           hahahahaha

Gwen did the usual confidence building talk...

relax, play, try something new,

don't worry, puckers are OK - look, even I have puckers in my quilt!

But my take-away from this class

came when she talked about 

how every one says that 

you must think about value and have contrast.

She went on to say

that a quilt where everything is planned to have high contrast

can also become less than...

 the quilt you walk by at a quilt show - the one that does not not beckon you to look longer.

She said that having some blocks with low contrast

to the point where the block might even be a visual hole

can be a successful element.

Hmmmm....!!!

Here's a link to some photos of her latest museum exhibit.

http://lomeranger.zenfolio.com/gwenmarston

Enjoy!