1. Throw them a Curve, or Play it Straight by Renae Haddadin
Now, bear in mind that I signed up for my classes last November, nearly 6 months ago. Coupled with the fact that class descriptions can be a little bit vague as to their complete content, I managed to sign up for a class in an area that I am really pretty comfortable. If the description had read "curved cross-hatching, grids" etc, I probably would have passed on it. I had seen several of Renae's competition quilts last year, as well as one of her teckie-talks for YLI threads, and I was easily enticed by her class. She's outgoing, enthusiastic, and energetic. She's much like that part of me that needs to be very exacting, so I see the angles where she's coming from easily. She's a great template quilter, using them to their complete potential.
For some reason, I don't have much quilted on my class sample. I think I must have spent more time gawking at her work. Anywow, we talked about ways to place grids in borders, blocks & sashings so that they are either centered, or on a square grid. I've never used adding-machine tape, and this is a great and cheap tool. Must go and buy some! We also played with simple curved crosshatching.
I did take several pictures of Renae's class samples. In fact, this first one is one I saw last year at MQX in her Thread Talk. The style of quilting is so great. You'll have to go to the 2nd picture to get any details...
Eight different thread colors are used, but these only show in the white areas or on the back (which I did not photograph). I actually think that the colored areas of the quilt are feathered, but you wouldn't know that from the front! The colored cross-hatching is tiny, about 1/8". She cross-hatches using the ruler, which is marked at 1/4" and then eye-balls between 2 lines. From there, the ruler can be used to cross-hatch the rest of the 1/8" divisions. I'd have a mess on my hands doing this for sure!
The outer circle is quilted with spiral rays, which have every-other diamond filled. Each color uses a different filler pattern too. Pretty fun!...
This is a Christmas tree skirt that Renae made. The curved cross-hatching is done in a metallic thread, again at minute 1/8" spacings. I love the rest of the fills, but I suspect that they don't show in the pictures. The feathers around the border have the tiniest pebbling around each feather - she is a definite massochist!
closer in...
Here is Renae's competition quilt - It won 1st I think in the miniature quilts division, measuring barely 16" square. The center is a lace panel, but the white around the border is all done with thread to look lacey.
Pretty amazingly small!
2. Gridwork Fillers by Dawn CavanaughI had heard of how much people liked Dawn's classes, and figured that to learn more fillers would be a good thing. We spent the first couple hours of the class drawing the sample fillers using dry-erase pens on a clear sleeve with a marked grid beneath. Some were a little trickier to commit to memory, but most created a really neat effect. This is part of my class sample, which was done somewhat in haste since there really was not appropriate portioning of drawing and quilting time in this class. I got all but a couple of the fillers stitched out on my sampler. She had the 1/2" grids all premarked for us.
The patterns done on the 30-60 diamond grid were trickier. On some of Dawn's samples, she actually stitched out the grid too. This creates a denser filler, and would allow whatever is around the filler to really pop, like an applique element.
The next pictures are of Dawn's sampler. 
These have all been soaked in water to remove the blue lines, so the batting and fabrics have pulled up a little.
And lastly, the teachers racked up the ribbons at the show. Dawn's quilt received a 2nd place ribbon. It just goes to show that you can have a relatively simple design (15 stars), with knock-out quilting to win!
Here's a closeup - her feathers are lovely and whimsically stitched. I really like the effect of the pebbling.
The patterns done on the 30-60 diamond grid were trickier. On some of Dawn's samples, she actually stitched out the grid too. This creates a denser filler, and would allow whatever is around the filler to really pop, like an applique element.
The next pictures are of Dawn's sampler. 
These have all been soaked in water to remove the blue lines, so the batting and fabrics have pulled up a little.
And lastly, the teachers racked up the ribbons at the show. Dawn's quilt received a 2nd place ribbon. It just goes to show that you can have a relatively simple design (15 stars), with knock-out quilting to win!
Here's a closeup - her feathers are lovely and whimsically stitched. I really like the effect of the pebbling.
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4 comments:
Thank you for sharing. I've had 3 classes with Reane, she is such a fun person. In two weeks I will get to see these quilts. How exciting!!
Margaret, I have never had the opportunity to go to a big show but certainly have enjoyed seeing it thru your eyes
I am loving your MQX posts. Thank you so much for sharing and for the fantastic photos.
Geesh *wipes drool from chin
lol
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