Students, shoes, finishes and Medicare

Written by Diane Harris on February 12, 2025. Posted in Blog, Classes, How-tos and Ideas, Inspiration, Quilt Lifestyle

My students in a number of Stash Bandit classes did great work in January.

I appreciate it when quilters are willing to try something new. Here is some of their work.

Asterisk is a design by Karen Griska that I teach with her permission. It’s such a great block that looks hard but sews easy. It doesn’t get any better than that!

I recently finished this version but then I had to leave it home because I ran out of space.

Log Jam is a fast make and lots of people really had fun with it on this trip. The pattern is ready and will be on my website soon.

It can be a challenge to pick fabrics

for a quilt before you have the pattern, even when you have a supply list. These students had all kinds of color recipes, themes and experiments.

These first brightly colored batik blocks eventually turned into a finished top.

Alanna was a prolific maker on this trip, completing something like 17 projects. She owns a business and has a large family, so she is really serious about accomplishing a LOT when she travels for quilting.

Trish and I became fast friends. She was in the Asterisk class and the Log Jam class, too. She skillfully combined the two into this finished quilt top. It was beautiful and so creatively done. That really made my day!

One day Pam went to show me something on her phone, and I noticed that she had one of my Tango quilts as her wallpaper! We had a good laugh over it! I meet the nicest people in these classes. It really restores my faith in humanity.

Pat is showing off a wonky star she made in Intro to Improv. She was also a driven maker, completing all sorts of things with aplomb.

The machines were all Bernina and Bernette models

provided by Aaron’s Sew & Vac in Fruitland Park, Florida. Aaron himself provided machine support and was a top tier pro in every way. I can’t say enough nice things about him and his service.

Tango was another workshop offered toward the end of the trip. The one above used darks for the background, when usually people choose lights. I thought it was really pretty.

This is the first Tango I made quite a few years back. I still like it a lot. But the one below is also high on my list, made in fabrics by Kathy Doughty. It’s not yet been quilted partly because it’s easier to travel with tops.

One gal made a Christmas version of Tango.

In this layout she was considering whether to put all of the white blocks around the outside edges. We didn’t really have a design wall but we had a huge chunk of batting that Aaron let us use instead and it worked great.

I guided a UFO class one day

and one of the Canadian quilters (there were so many!) brought these tumbling block units made in Halloween fabrics. Now I might have to make one.

Debbie Maddy was also teaching on this trip and she taught Labyrinth, above.

I fell in love with the border print. Isn’t it fabulous?!

Debbie also taught this Evening Star design and lots of people finished their tops.

Dana Woodard

The other teachers on the trip, hosted by World of Quilts Travel, were Ilaria Padovani and Dana Woodard.

Ilaria is like a little ray of sunshine everywhere she goes. She works for Kaffe Fassett, making the quilts for his books and coordinating day to day operations. She’s a force, in the most delightful way.

Dana owns and operates Wildfire Designs Alaska. Her students fused beautiful wildlife, ocean and nature scenes of all kinds.

In one class, I was delighted to meet Dee who shared my husband’s alma mater, Doane University here in Nebraska. It really is a small world.

I had to shoot this sewing machine in a display on the ship, with a record album under its needle. ???

My roommate and I made a toast to good times with great people on the last night of our voyage. We have been friends for 25 years.

I didn’t get to the shoes, the finished quilts or the Medicare, but I’ll save those for another day. Thank you for reading!

Quilt on,

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Tags: asterisk, classes, fabric savvy, how-tos, log jam, make extraordinary scrap quilts, quilt design, scrap quilts, tango, travel, world of quilts travel