Getting Ready to Teach Fun Classes!

I head off to the lovely Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, MD next week to teach 3 fun classes. Two are projects from my upcoming book, Paper Piecing Perfect Points (Martingale, February 2013). Here is a picture of the book cover. I love, love, love that cover quilt. It's my happy quilt and I called it Katie's Garden. Lots of sharp points, only possible with foundation piecing (those are NOT tiny blocks, btw).

Paper Piecing Perfect Points by Debby Kratovil

OK, back to what I am teaching next week:

The Kaleidoscope Quilt - 10" blocks

 The Kaleidoscope Illusions is a class I taught with the Sewing Expo and the pattern is so versatile. My pattern includes color step-by-step directions and a multi-size Kaleidoscope-Ruler to make up to 12" blocks. We will be working with just 3 different block colorings, but as you can see from the quilt below, you can get a different look when the shading and hue of fabrics changes. This is the class I am teaching on Friday, July 13.

Merry Go Round - 12" blocks

 OOPS! I ACCIDENTALLY FLIP-FLOPPED THE SATURDAY AND SUNDAY CLASSES!

Saturday's Sunday's class is one of 4 quilts I made with the same curved Flying Geese units. The first two quilts were challenging in that all 8 of the FG units are sewn together, leaving a GIANT hole in the center of the quilt. Then we self-face the center circle and sew it on (actually, in that cute dinosaur quilt, I set in the entire circle with a 1/4" seam - whew!)

Toile Garden - featured in new book

 This is the one out of four quilts Martingale chose to put in the book (my photography stinks, but my sewing is awesome!)
I fussy cut the ladies in the toile and centered them for a spectacular statement. There are 4 center blocks, all joined and then the center is appliqued to the hole in the center.

Yakkity-Yak Dinosaurs

This little dinosaur quilt top was so much fun to sew. And I shocked myself my being able to sew that center circle into the Flying Geese ring with a 1/4" seam! It just goes to show you that when your sewing is accurate (and that's why I paper piece some quilts), the pieces actually do go together when you are accurate in cutting your templates. I will eventually get this quilted, but I love to show my students what's happening on the backside of a quilt.

I love to answer the question: What If? That is what took me to the next two quilts (yes, we are still in Saturday's class - students get the option of making the two different ways to treat the center).

My Geese Have the Blues is what happens when the center circle is split and sashing is added. This quilt will be featured as one of 13 quilts in my 2014 Quilt Calendar (as will the Merry Go Round quilt above). I used some fun and bold fabrics for finishing up otherwise boring flying geese units. This also is one of my favorites.

My Geese Have the Blues - 38" x 38"

Fun Time at the Circus

This little quilt to the right with the children's circus animals is the same as My Geese Have the Blues. It needs a border, and it is not quilted yet. Again, I like to leave it that way to show my students how things should look on the back side.

Each of the four units for the quilt centers are 12" finished.

Casablanca Sunrise

Sunday's Saturday's class is Casablanca Sunrise (also in my new book). There are 4 blocks 7" x 7", set on point. The name of that traditional block is Sunrise and the name of the Blank Fabrics Collection is Casablanca, so I wasn't very original. It was fun to use two different yellows for the spokes of that block. I have been piecing away and have one other larger quilt done which I call Milady's Fans (16 blocks, straight set). I squeezed every single inch of fabric from that bold orange and green floral which I bought for $2 a yard at a local quilt shop in their remnant bin. Sure takes on a fabulous look with that block, huh?