Catching up on Skill Builder's BOM

Yesterday, I got caught up on my Skill Builder's BOM.  Em Dash Block and  The Mood were last month's blocks.  I quilted The Mood 
last month, but didn't get Em Dash finished until last week.   Both are done with free motion quilting.

Block 5 & 6 were given to us on March 21st.  I finished the Woven Star and the Woven Chevron blocks yesterday.  We will get quilting examples on April 4th.

The Girl with the Pearl Earring

The Girl with the Pearl Earring - from a class by Lola Jenkins
I am really pleased with my results, not because I did a particularly fantastic job with it, but because I was able to get it done at all.  First I arrived at Monday's class 4 hours late.  Yes, that was correct.  I had a neurologist visit and had made arrangements for being late, but no idea I would be this late.  Lola just took it in stride and got me started.

I chose a lovely colored batik for my project.  I transfered my design and started free-motion quilting away. (Oh, I'm good!)  My machine decided to cause all kinds of trouble.  I quilted quite a bit and stopped to check out the back stitches.  When I pulled the bottom thread, all of my work came unstitched and I was left holding a long curling wad of black thread.  After many attempts to correct this, a friend let me use her machine.  (Yeah!)  I was able to get the girl finished in black and start on the coloring.  My first idea was to use free-motion vines in a shimmering white for the background, but it just didn't do a thing for the quilt.  Lola suggested large diamonds.

So yesterday, I use superior variegated thread 808 to do small meandering in the background.  I also recolored the girl using ink intense pencils to make her much darker.  My machine is working fine -just used a different bobbin and another brand of thread.

Here are my results.  I will still have to decide on a boarder technique.

  

Thread Art - Lola Jenkins

As mentioned in previous post, the thread art class by Lola Jenkins was terrific. 

 I am going to post some pictures  of what other ladies in the class were working on. 

 Several people worked on very light backgrounds.

A few others chose bright colors like yellow and orange.

 I think they all did a wonderful job.   A few people did something besides the Girl with the Pearl Earring.  My camera was out of memory when I arrived at the class and deleting was taking forever   so these are the only photos of other students' work.

Lola Jenkins

Yesterday I was privileged to b able to take a class with Lola Jenkins.  She is a talented artist and teacher.  She spoke Saturday at our Quilter's Day Out in Lexington, KY.  Then Sunday and Monday she offered two of her classes.  Lola is a vey interesting, funny and motivational speaker.  If you have a chance to take one of her classes, I highly recommend it.  She is also offering some of her thread art classes online at Craftsy.

Later, I will post some student examples from the class I took.

Getting ready to teach my 1st free-motion class

 Lately, I've been busy with family and trying to complete a few UFO's.  My sewing room is approaching critical.  I need to put away lots of fabric and scraps, but I am using them for all the current projects. (Good excuse anyway ... except my scissors and favorite rotary have been swallowed up in the chaos.)

I have been working on the skill builder quilt by Pile of Fabrics and Leah Day's goddess quilt.  These have been very good for sharpening my free-motion quilt skills.   I have created handouts and a quilted book of some of my free-motion stitches for the class I will teach for Sassy Stitchers today.  Here are a few pictures of my quilted book.