What a Week !

This was the end-of-the-week student display 

for last week's quilting class at

John C. Campbell Folk School.

(this is roughly 1/3 of their total work)

I had four eager and able students

who jumped into making scrappy strata

with enthusiasm and laughter.

It was such fun to watch them grow their skills

and gain confidence working with color.

And we spent Tuesday evening visiting 

Bless My Stitches 

(Murphy NC's LQS)

in order for the students to update their choices

for corner and optional sashing fabrics.

(BIG thanks to DH for driving the school's borrowed Suburban)

L. plans to make a queen size quilt 

using these (and many more)

scrappy kaleidoscope blocks.

She will add soft blue sashing between the blocks

when it comes time to lay out her quilt top.

S. had 8 of her block centers completed

and strata made for the remaining four blocks

by the end of our week in the mountains.

(one was on the cutting table when this photo was taken)

The calligraphy print will be used for her block corners.

K. used a mix of vintage fabric, 

yardage from her late mother's stash,

and fabrics from a number of estate sales

to piece her kaleidoscope blocks.

She added the mottled gray print to one block

as a test to be sure she understood the process.

She has sewn for years but this will be

her first-ever quilt top.

D. worked with bright colors and completed these block centers

plus 3 more that were not on the wall when I took the photo.

She plans to use the bright on black print 

to corner all of her blocks.

(love the spinning design the print creates)

Fun to see how they found four new ways 

to interpret my inspiration quilt.

While they stitched and pressed, 

I did some intermittent scrappy sewing of my own.

This is the companion block to the one I made

for the Instructors' display case at JCCFS.

I'll use the same backing with blue binding.

Once quilted and finished, 

these will be used as mats on our round end tables.

L. passed all of her strata end cuts and leftovers to me.

I plan to use them to make a wall size version of

Moments in Time using background greens instead of blues.

Leftover strata from making the two sample blocks

and other step outs for the class was cut into wedges.

This set will become a long reversible runner.

This group is sewn together 

ready to become a wall quilt.  

(the Ghastlies from Bless My Stitches 

will be used for the backing) 

And the smallest leftover bits of strata

were crumb pieced into three long strips.

One is 6" wide, 

one is 7.5" wide,

and the third is 8" wide.

I have a coins-related plan for these

 after combining them with two other pending projects.

We'll see how it evolves.

* * *

And while we were busy in the quilting studio,

DH was busy in his class - click here to see what he made.

Quiltdivajulie