A little while ago I ran a series of 'skills' classes at my favourite quilt shop,
The Country Yard. The classes covered stitchery, turned under (needleturn) appliqué, foundation paper piecing and english paper piecing.
Some participants came to all the classes and some just one or two. I devised the project/design below for them to do at home, if they wished to, to practise the skills we covered in class.
My project sat unfinished for a while - firstly, so that the class participants could look at the back of my work to see how I had done something, and then secondly, because I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to finish it!
I finally decided it would make a perfect cushion, so being inspired, I forged ahead and got sewing. I challenged myself to have some skills practise of my own and had a play with my free motion quilting.
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I added some texture to the border and tried to highlight the
lovely round scallops.
(English paper piecing class) |
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Dimension added to the centre panel with the sunflowers
(See how well the variegated thread worked on the centre of the sunflowers?) |
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The dog might be gone, but he left his bones behind!
I tried to balance the quilting after the 'heavy' border work with meandering
in the flying geese border (foundation piecing class). |
I used subtle quilting so my wonky stitches wouldn't show too much, and so as not to overshadow the initial class work. (Beige and white Mettler Seralene (120 wght) thread).
All in all nothing too earth shattering but a fun thing to do. Lots of practise playing and 'designing'. Nice to see that practise does help my fmq skills and confidence grow!!
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Edges bound and finished as if it were a quilt. I wanted the edging to frame the piece.
Just need to find a 20" inner now. |
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| I played around with fabric for the back. (Having fun) |
At the recent Country Yard exhibition, I was delighted to see these three finished projects from the classes, all made into cushions.
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| Jan's Cushion |
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Barbara's one. She also made a second cushion using a slightly different centre block.
Barb is very good at using up her scraps - these are leftovers
from her beginner's quilt classes last year! |
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| Liz made hers into a cushion cover, also. |
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| A nice display. |
It's great to have another project ticked off my list of to-finish projects! (Maybe I can start something new now?....he he just kidding!!)
Have a lovely week everyone,
Happy creating,
My project sat unfinished for a while - firstly, so that the class participants could look at the back of my work to see how I had done something, and then secondly, because I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to finish it!
