I just love getting to teach at the
Cedar Chest Quilter's Guild Retreat because it's home ;) I can't tell you how much less my brain has to think when it comes time to pack and I know that if I forget something, I can run home in 5 minutes and grab it, tee hee hee ;) But seriously, it is so wonderful to be able to teach classes here in Cedar!!! I love that I get to see friends that I see all around town through the year as well as friends that aren't from around here but that I have gotten to know over the last 8 years of teaching at this retreat (one of these years they are going to decide they are bored of me ;)
The first class I taught was my
End of the Rainbow pattern from my
Irish Chain Quilts book ;) This is always a fun class to teach!!! There are just so many different ways to really get into improvisational piecing, and I love seeing how excited everyone gets when it clicks that they really don't have to have perfect 1/4" seams :) The fabric starts flying and everyone starts laughing and having a great time ;) These ladies were just amazing and they really got a lot accomplished in class. So fantastic!!
And here is a closer look at each of their blocks. I just love seeing all of the different fabrics everyone chooses to use in their blocks. Some used big pieces and some used tiny scraps, and some even decided to go with non-crazy patch opting for regular pieced blocks, which are just going to be so fun as well !!! And I just love seeing what color everyone decides to start with. (And sorry about the lighting on some of these, the classroom was small and we didn't have a lot of room to move around so we just took pictures where we were sewing ;)
The next evening I taught my brand new
Pave the Way Pattern which I shared on
Friday. (it's still on sale for a few more days :) And this was such a fun class!!! I am always a little nervous the first time I teach a class because although I check my patterns over and over, if a mistake happens to slip through, it is normally a class where it is pointed out to me. But yippee, not an error could be found, and everyone did such a great job!!! And there was some serious block making going on, which is double impressive as this was an evening class which always is a bit harder to get a lot done as we tend to get tired, but ya, they cranked it out ;)
And I was so excited to see all of the different fabrics that everyone choose for the blocks!!! Especially where this was the first time with this pattern. It never ceases to amaze me how much it changes things up just to change the fabric that is being used. And I just love that this quilt uses white in the design so everyone tends to choose another fun color for the background, which was so much fun to see!!
And last but not least, one of my favorite things about the Cedar retreat is they always have a Show and Tell night where students can show off their finished quilts from previous years. And this year, there were quite a few finishes shared!!! Sadly, I had to get one of my kiddo's to an appointment right at the start of this evening and ended up in the very back, so sorry some of these pictures are a little blurry, but you get the general idea of these gorgeous finishes!!! There were 2 Moroccan Lullaby quilts from last years class as well as 2 Corkscrew quilt finishes from last years class. And then the beautiful Petal Pop quilt from 2 years ago and the In Your Neighborhood quilt from 3 or 4 years ago, I can't quite remember ;) All just beautiful finishes!!! I can't tell you how excited it is to see these started in class, and then for them to come back the next year or so and get to see them all done ;) It's just the absolute best!!!! (FYI, all these patterns are available in my
Etsy Shop if you see one you want to make :)
And one final finish. Remember
back here when I mentioned how excited I was to see a student use Navy Grunge (I love Grunge!!!) in the background of her End of the Rainbow quilt . . . Well Loriann finished, and it is absolutely amazing!!! I just love how the happy bright rainbow colors just pop on that Navy. Such a beautiful finish and I am so glad I got to see it all done ;)
And what a wonderful week this retreat was!!! I know I say it every time, but I truly just love being able to teach!!! It is so wonderful to get to share my love for this amazing industry and the wonderful way it allows each of us to create in our own way ;) I can't wait for next year!!!
And if you are in the Utah Area, the
Panguitch Quilt Walk just opened their registration and I will be teaching two classes there in June ;)
I hope you all have a very Happy Quilting Day!!!
trying to build up my free motion quilting feather confidence and practicing on some little pieces. I just love the way feathers look in a project, and when it came time to quilt this one, I knew feather's would be perfect. But the design called for more of an all over Feather, and that's when I remembered . . .
