Dresden Plate Delight

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in How-tos and Ideas, Trunk Shows

I had a great group of students for a “Let’s Play Drezzup” workshop in Indiana earlier this summer. And I had a new experience with the GPS on my iPhone when it got me totally lost and I was very late for the class I was teaching. I was mortified but the quilters were so nice about it and our day together was terrific after that.

You never know what kind of fabrics people will bring, but the surprises are often wonderful. This quilter had fabrics from her mother’s stash! Aren’t those vintage prints amazing?

Scrap Quilts in Indiana

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, Trunk Shows

At the very beginning of summer, I drove to Lafayette, Indiana to share a trunk show of scrap quilts and teach a class on Dresden Plate. It was delightful! One of the quilters in the class emailed with big news last week, and it reminded me to blog about the Common Threads Quilt Guild.

This cool old barn was in the same parking lot as their meeting place in Lafayette, at a spot called Jenk’s Rest. I love old cupolas and someday I’m going to have one in my yard.

Petit Patchwork Autumn Retreat

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, Quilt Lifestyle

You’re invited!

Autumn Retreat: “Petit Patchwork”

co-hosted by Stash Bandit and Wagner’s Quilts & Conversation

September 13 to 15, 2018 in Arapahoe, Nebraska

I’d love for you to join me for a skill-building extravaganza during three days of quilting, laughter, great food, fun and relaxation! Here’s the little quilt we’ll be using to beef up our toolbox of quilting tricks.

Petit Patchwork, designed and made by Diane Harris

It’s about 36″ x 40″. The blocks are from 2″ to 8″. The techniques we’ll be learning include Dresden Plate, fusible applique, stitch-and-flip with accuracy, options for making HSTs, mitering, paper foundation piecing (optional), how to create scalloped borders for any size quilt, serpentine stitch quilting and binding curves and scallops. Doesn’t that sound like fun?!

It will be a busy three days. Wagner’s is planning delicious food in abundance, and you can treat yourself to a massage on site if you wish.

New quilting friends and uninterrupted sewing time at one of the most beautiful times of the year! We’ll take short walk-breaks, weather permitting. Arapahoe is a lovely little town, a perfect example of life in rural America.

Get ideas for improving your machine quilting. Learn my easy mock-hand binding by machine. Gather gusto for labeling your quilts with a finishing flourish! All included in the retreat price of $200, which includes meals, three days of instruction and a kit for the quilt in your choice of three color stories: primary (shown), 1930s and Civil War. Lodging is available separately, and you’ll be given details when you call Wagner’s to register at 308-962-8458.

See how friendly and fun they are? From the left are Sarah, Gretchen and Ruth. We’ll all make certain you have a wonderful time. Please join us! Call Wagner’s to register: 308-962-8458.

 

Vintage Sewing Treasures

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, Quilt Lifestyle

A while back I was with quilting buddies in Holdrege and there was a garage sale at the senior citizen’s center. I spied a beat-up brown grocery sack with “50¢” scrawled on the side.

The sack was full of old fabric scraps, and a quick look told me they were mostly small pieces. But for a price like that, I wasn’t about to leave them behind.

One Hundred Small Quilts #5

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, Trunk Shows

One of the sweetest quilts I ever came across is a Sunbonnet Sue baby quilt from the 30’s or 40’s. I’m not usually a fan of silly Sue, but this one was so charming that I couldn’t leave it behind.

I love the rectangular blocks. They’re more interesting than square blocks. And notice that Sue has a friend. Or maybe she’s a twin. There are two Sues on each block. I love the solid colors used for each little girl. They’re so cheerful.

Machine Quilting Inspiration

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas

Over the weekend I saw a lot of machine quilting that challenged me to improve my skills and start working on the tops I have finished. You know how that is? You love to piece them, but your machine quilting is less than perfect and it’s hard to figure out what to quilt on them. So the pile of unquilted tops grows.

Here are some of the quilts that inspired me. They were done by Handi Quilter educators on longarm machines, which I do not have, but that doesn’t matter. It’s entirely possible to quilt beautifully on a home sewing machine. My quilting doesn’t have to be of show quality to be just fine.

One Hundred Small Quilts #4

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas, Trunk Shows

One of the first programs I developed for quilt guilds is called One Hundred Small Quilts. I’m presenting these quilts in a series of short posts on Stash Bandit.

Luminous Lines by Diane Harris, 2009

Luminous Lines was created for an assignment in an advanced design class I took with Heather Thomas when I lived in Colorado. We were covering different elements of design, one of which is “line.”

Our assignment was to use line (and not much else) to create our design. I had these hand-dyed fabrics from Cherrywood which were all similar in value, so I used those for the background. I had ombré fabrics in similar colors with a splash of yellow, which I used for the appliqued bars.

I enjoyed playing with variegated thread for the quilting. My Bernina has a straight stitch that goes over itself a second time for a stronger line, which is what you see on the left above and on the right below.

For me, it’s often about experimenting to see what works. I do end up taking things out or taking them apart when they don’t work. But if I was never willing to play around to see what would happen, I’d never make any great discoveries.

I finished the edges with a facing instead of a binding. It’s pretty easy to do and it’s a good skill to have in your bag of tricks. I wrote instructions for facing a quilt when I worked for Quiltmaker. They’re useful and they’re free!

I’d love to bring One Hundred Small Quilts to your quilt group. Give me a call or shoot me an email.

Let’s Talk Quilts! 

SaveSave

Strange (Fabric) Bedfellows

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas, Quilt Lifestyle

I taught a class in Shenandoah, Iowa last week, and my hostess treated me to the progress on her guild challenge quilt. It’s remarkable so I wanted to share it with you. She started by drawing these four fabrics randomly, and at first glance, you might think that was disheartening.

Carolyn began with these four seemingly unrelated fabrics.

But Carolyn is nothing if not an adventurer, and she soon found the common element. What do you think it was?

 

My friends, the commonality among the fabrics was orange.

And with that, Carolyn went to town.

 

She made a medallion for the quilt’s center, repeating the fabrics several times to create cohesion.

She made Pinwheels and framed them with triangle-squares.

She added a little of this and a little of that, continuing to repeat the oranges and adding in some deep chocolate brown.

Can you imagine how exciting it was to sew this? It’s the kind of quilt where you make decisions as you go. You don’t worry about the end result while you’re doing it. You just make one decision at a time. The quilt pulls you along.

This is how the quilt looked when I visited at the beginning of April, but she’s not finished yet. More blocks will be added to the top and bottom, but knowing Carolyn, that plan could still change.

It was great fun to hear about her process and to see how well this project is shaping up. I love it. I don’t know if I could have made those four fabrics work this well!

Takeaways for Quilters:

• Something has to tie a scrap quilt together. In this case, it was a variety of orange fabrics.

• Make decisions as you go. No need to visualize the end result. Be along for the ride!

• Stand back to audition fabrics—way back, across the room, with the fabrics on a vertical surface.

• Be brave. It’s only fabric.

Thanks for all the inspiration, Carolyn! I had a wonderful time in Shenandoah.

 

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave