Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Block Party with Quiltmaker Recap

A few weeks ago I traveled to Portland, to teach at Block Party with Quiltmaker Magazine.


After checking the weather I packed lots of layers!

We spotted a double rainbow during dinner the first night!

Bonnie Hunter kicked things off with a lecture about her method of keeping and organizing scraps.

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Thursday was a workshop on my Hex N More Ruler.


I started off class by revealing Snack Time to the class at the same time that I revealed it to all of you on my blog

We went over how to use the Hex N More ruler and the 4 shapes.

Then students got to work on making 2 sample blocks inspired by blocks from Toes in the Sand. This gave them a chance to practice cutting and piecing all 4 shapes.

Student Blocks!

During class we cut a lot of fabric & had a lot of scraps. We decided to make a gift bag of scraps for Bonnie Hunter, the scrap Queen!

At the end of class we took a field trip to Bonnie's classroom and presented her with the gift bag!

The Class

Jill had already made Jawbreaker and brought it to show. It was hard to not steal it from her!!

Students showing off their work at Show & Tell. During the second part of class students began working on a quilt with the ruler. You can see the start of Northern Lights here.


...and the start of Lotus blocks here.

Denise finished her Science Fair quilt top on Friday and brought it back to show us on Saturday!

She used Authentic which was Sweetwater's first fabric line. Now I wish I still had some of this line to use!!

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Friday was Three in a Box. We had a small, but mighty class of 5 students.
Three in a Box - JBQ 121


As students began to finish their blocks we put them on my design wall for display.

Chain piecing makes for quick construction.

We outgrew the design wall and started "growing" out quilt out on the floor.

...and growing

We took a break to admire the beautiful rainbow outside.

Unfortunately opening the doors behind the design wall allowed the wind to knock it down!

We recovered and continued to "grow" our quilt.

By the end of the day we had 47 blocks done... and I couldn't get them in one photo!



Blocks at show & tell.

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Saturday brought a packed house for Boxed In. Boxed in was originally a block I designed for the second volume of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Issue. I then turned it into a quilt and included it in my book, Skip the Borders.


I gave students the option of bringing more than 2 "sashing" fabric options to class. This way we could "audition" the fabrics and pick which two worked best together. 

We used digital cameras & cell phones to capture pictures and help us decide. Here are a bunch of the "auditions" from class.














Once students had decided on sashing fabrics they started making blocks.




Our collection of blocks grew throughout the day.





Since class Christine has finished her quilt top!

It was a great class & a great event.


If you finish your projects from class... or if you have made any of my patterns please post photos in our Flickr Show & Tell group.




© Blog post written by Julie Herman
© Photos by Julie Herman, Quiltmaker Magazine & Students.
For more information visit http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/

10 comments:

mascanlon said...

Fun post! I love seeing all these quilts. And lucky me, I have some Authentic stash....maybe I have figured out what to make with it!

Karee said...

yeah! always motivating and instructive to see other quilts and those sashing options.
come to the great southwest, aka NM!

Anna said...

Great photos! Looks like it was fun!

Anonymous said...

With that last quilt, I love the scrappy look of all of them together! Thanks for sharing your week.

Scrapbean said...

Julie - please come to Austin! We missed you not being at QuiltCon. How can we make that happen!?

SewCalGal said...

Looks like an absolutely fantastic time. Beautiful quilts and rainbows too.

SewCalGal
www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

Aliceart said...

Thank you for this lovely post full of so many beautiful photos. It is very inspiring!

VickiT said...

OH what fun you all had. I love seeing those quilts and blocks. All are so pretty with the light behind them too.

I MISS you posting to your blog Julie. :(

I wanted to ask if you are aware that your Hex N More and patterns/books are being shown by Husqvarna/Viking newsletters. And, I was thrilled to see during one of my recent trips to my Viking store your Hex N More and a book or two and some of your patterns too. YAY. YUP! I snatched them up and was thrilled that I could get them there since I can use my credit card if I don't have the money to buy them right that minutes. :) I went back the other day and got the Candy Dish pattern too.

Dresden Quilter said...

I love seeing the patterns in so may different colours! It looks like you had so much fun.

pricillaprecise said...

I love the way you laid out the blocks that the students made into those long strips. Very effective and eye-catching was the first four blocks overlaid onto your quilt - those bright blocks with muted blocks surrounding makes for a whole new take on a fabulous quilt. Margaret