More independence at Empty Spools

I’ll pick up where I left off yesterday. Suzie was also foundation paper piecing. She stayed focused on these lovely blue blocks. 


April came with the large star blocks made. She got them set together and began work on the Ohio Star border. 


Haley came with our Piecing book and fabric, ready to make Weave A Rainbow. She made great progress and her quilt is going to be a stunner!


Michelle was very focused all week long and got a lot of the units made on her foundation paper piecing project. 


Ida came with a vision to make crazy quilt hexagons that will be heavily embellished. She left ready to begin the hand sewing. 


My job through all of this was to make suggestions, solve problems, be encouraging, and learn from my students. I always come away from a class having learned something. Classes are a win-win for everyone. Thank you, students everywhere!

Why an independent study class?

An independent study gives you time and space to work on your own thing in a creative environment. And, in my class, you get help if/when you want it. 

I had 11 women last week all working on something different. Some were more relaxed (it was a vacation, after all), others sewed relentlessly. It was great!

Jean honed her applique skills. 



And taught herself to sew a diamond block, with y-seams, using our Piecing book. 


Margaret focused on a quilt that she is making for a guild challenge. She nailed the mitered corners and the perle cotton applique stitches. 


Yolanda completed so many things that I sort of lost count. I especially liked this top that is the result of a log cabin block exchange. 


Susan was also knocking down the projects. She has a system for keeping up with her piecing that is very efficient. I was impressed. 


Marie sewed on a foundation paper piecing project and left with her arcs nearly finished. 


Louise made the foundation paper pieced blocks all week and worked right up to the last minute to get them ready to together. 


I kind of like the quilt turned sideways. 


I’ll post more tomorrow, promise :-). 

The Chattahoochee Evening Stars…

I spent two lovely days with the Chattahoochee Evening Stars quilt guild. They are as lively as their name suggests! At the lecture last night, these ladies from my class showed the progress they had made on the class block from the day before…

NorthPoleClass-ChattahoocheeES

The whole class did excellent work and had a good time. I love seeing quilters smile :-).

Rocky Mountain highhhhhhh….

I had a completely wonderful time at the Colorado Quilting Council fall retreat. Many quilters (including me) enjoyed spectacular views of the Black Forest from the The Hideaway. The ladies were enthusiastic and excellent company, the place is great, the food is good. If you have an opportunity to go to this retreat, you should!

I taught Pickup Sticks, a pieced quilt from The Quilters Practical Guide To Color. It is both an easy and tricky quilt design. Once you get it, it’s really easy… but getting it takes concentration. Everyone in the room was up for the challenge and made progress. I didn’t take enough photos, but you can see that what was going on in the classroom.

I also taught an applique class. I don’t have time in an applique class to take pictures so you just have to imagine the fun :-).

We were above 7,000 feet. By the 3rd day I could really tell that I had to breath a whole lot more than I do at home. Morning walks were out of the question. I like air in my air! I got home this morning and I can say the Sherman, TX, may not have scenic mountains and dry, crisp air, but it has a lot more oxygen. Yay, oxygen!