Piecing Again, A Class, and A Gift

I just finished being the President of a local guild.  This is the beautiful quilt that was given to me as a "Thank You".  It was pieced, quilted and finished by Melanie Larsen, who will be the president next year.

Here is the lovely lap quilt...

Here is the backing she chose... Yummy, Yes?!

Here is a close-up of the quilting, which I think is fabulous!

Then, on Friday and Saturday, our LQS had 2 days of classes of Machine Quilting with Sue Patten!  We had such a fabulous time.  Of course, I didn't learn much because I was support staff, but what I came away with is very valuable to me.

Here is Sue, showing some samples of practicing she has taught in classes.  It isn't a great picture of her, and does nothing to capture her dynamic personality, but I had to include it anyway.

And this quilt was made by Sue Patten, as a stress reliever.  All color shown is thread, all sewn on black fabric.  I would love to be able to play like this.  It's on my list of things to do in the near future.

This year, I went to HMQS in Sandy, Utah, to upgrade my skills (hopefully).  I thoroughly enjoyed the classes, and got to see some great quilts.

This one was made by a local quilter, and president of our Mini Guild.  It won first prize, and sold at a charity auction for $850.

This one was a favorite of mine, with shadow trapunto.

 This one was quilted by one of the teachers I took a class from, Judy Woodworth.  She taught a fabulous class, and seemed so at ease while teaching.  Here I am only showing detail from the quilt, not the whole quilt.

This one was quilted by Lisa Calle.  She taught my second class, and we spent two hours drawing feathers.  I did pretty good in class, but when I tried it on the longarm, it wasn't pretty. When I got home, I found out I had pinned this quilt before I knew who had done it.  Now I've seen it in person, too!  Very spectacular!

I've ordered her "Wholecloth Class in a Bag", complete with DVD, so I will be learning how to design a wholecloth quilt this next year.  It may be something I do on my domestic, instead of the longarm, since I have better control there.  I'm not sure.

Finally, a finish.  This was our guild mystery this year.

You may recognize it as the quilt on the cover of Kim Diehl's new book, Simple Appeal.

Only, I don't have the patience for applique, so I quilted in the flowers.  I am considering painting them in with ink, eventually, but I can actually see the flowers pretty well when it is hanging on my banister.

So, let me know what you are doing, and I'll try again to make this blog work for me.  Have a great week, and

Happy Sewing!