Hilary's Classes Day 2

I can hardly believe it is Tuesday already! It was such an intense weekend with 2 full days of classes with Hilary Rice and her trunk show/lecture on Friday night.This is the fabric kit we received for the friday "Easy Peasy Curves" class, hand dyed by Hilary...gorgeous! I love the look of these fabrics, but I don't like the production process, so I think I'll stick with the hand painting that I do enjoy and do more of
 that once the warm sunny weather is here to stay. These are the fabrics I started with to make my curved landscape, which was on my last blog post. I have a lot of work to do on this little piece, so I'll show it to you again in the next week or two (hopefully!).

The second day was an embellishment class called "Imagine and Create". Hilary taught us a long list of techniques including couching, bobbin-stitching, cut-away applique,  using 

sheer overlays, encasement, free machine embroidery, ribbon threadplay, and free machine applique. Some of these things I had tried before, but it was great fun to play with these techniques without a thought(worry!) abou

t how the finished product would turn out. Here is a close up photo of my experiments with sheer overlays and lot of sparkly things encased, and you can see a little of the edges of couched thread.

 I did have a few tension problems, but I must say I enjoye

d torturing my little sewing machine! My regular machine was at Triangle Sewing Machine Spa getting a tune up, so I had to use my little Janome Platinum.  I really put it through the paces with the bobbin stitching, dramatically adjusting the bobbin tension constantly,  and using all kinds of thick thread, but it turned out amazingly well. I was happy with this swirl of bobbin stitched perle cotton.

Here is the "Imagine & Create" class photo...lots of energized, happy quilters with the beginnings of their wonderful art quilts.

Today my brain is still spinning with ideas, techniques and thoughts about refining my ideas about what directions I might like to go in my own quilting journey.  Unfortunately there is no down time for me this week since it is Quilt & Fibre Art Festival and there are so many exciting quilting events to see. Does the fun ever let up!?!?!