Final Swamp Fox Quilter's Workday 2011 - The Regis Effect

This Thursday my tenure as Workday Chairperson for Swamp Fox Quilters ended. It has been a wonderful year and many members of the guild generously gave of their time, effort and shared materials to teach and demonstrate quilting techniques for the workday. We often had multiple activities going on after our demonstrations. I can't thank them enough because without them Workday would not have been successful. These members included Francis Kelly & Hari Sue Cockfield (together for Marvelous Miters) , Karen Kirkland, (Trapunto ) Graham Baker ( Crochet and Beading Techniques, Rita Studdard ( Fabulous Fractures) Sara Simon ( Strip Quilting) and Rita Tompkins (Origami Flowers, Invisible Applique, Woven Quilt Background, Creative Cloth Doll Making) and Rita Tompkins and Donna Chapman for Little Dresses For Africa. Karen Kirkland said quilters started getting nervous around me because I was asking everyone if they wanted to do a Workday.

Here's Karen doing her demonstrations for workday.

     And lastly to all the members of the guild that generously devoted their time to the charity projects this year: Citizen Sam Quilts, Pillowcases, and other guild projects  you did during Workday this year. Members like Jim Fahey, Shirley Fahey and Francis Kelley who sewed tried just about every technique that was demonstrated.

         The November Swamp Fox Quilter's demonstration was Exploring Machine Trapunto given by Karen Kirkland based on Hari Walner's book. Karen did a wonderful explanation of this facinating technique.

This book is available in the Swamp Fox Library hopefully on the Third Shelf.
You can get a very good used copy of it on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Machine-Trapunto-New-Dimensions/dp/1571200436/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321744088&sr=1-1-spell#_

I found a website called Quilting Classes on Demand and there were articles and pictures of Hari Walner quilts, books and courses on it. http://www.thequiltingschool.com/component/content/article/198-walner.html

Everyone was very interested and took
lots of notes.

These are the basic steps that Karen taught us.

 1. Trace the pattern on the fabric block  using a water soluble pen (Blue Marking Pen).  Karen used white fabric for her award winning quilt Sunshine On My Shoulders.

 2. Pin high loft batting to the back of the fabric block. There is no backing.

3. Sew the design with water soluble thread - available from YLI on the internet.

Lorene Arnette is doing her best imitation of Vanna showing the wash away thread.

4. Cut away the excess batting from the back of the block from where you don't want it to be puffy. The block is two layers, the top fabric and the high loft batting.

The picture is colored blue to make it easier to see.
Trim the excess batting from the edge of the design and inside the petals.

5. Assemble the entire quilt blocks. Build the quilt sandwich, - you can spray baste and use pins.
Regular Back
High loft batting
Top (the trapunto block is two layers - High Loft Batting and top)
6. Quilt the entire top.  You can sew either directly on top of the blue line which has the water soluble thread stitiched in or outside that line. Using stipling will make the trapunto design stand out.

7. Soak or wash your quilted quilt top to dissolve away the water soluble thread and the blue marking pen marks.

Lorene then showed us blocks from comfort quilts she is making for Breast Cancer survivors and friends. The quilt blocks are cut with scissors and the effect is like a rag quilt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6gnH4MyFWeY#t=84s

I love Lorene's stories, she always makes us laugh.

Akemi shared the rest of the pictures for this blog. Thank you Akemi for your generosity,

Karen and I then helped another new member Latrelle Fowler learn how to make a pillowcase dress.  Please notice my pointed finger, this is the only time that Karen would have allowed me to tell her what to do. Notice we are both laughing.

We are trying to figure out which way the fish are swimming. Latrelle almost finished her first dress in less then an hour with a little help from her quilting friends.

Martha Herbert taught her how to use a rotary cutter effectively and even shared her eyeglasses as well.

Patsy Williamson one of our newest members brought two dress to share for Little Dresses for Africa. There were so sweet.

The third part of our workshop was working on the pillowcases for the Swamp Fox Quilters' Christmas Project.

Beth Twidell was organizing all of the quilters working on the pillowcases.

This is Daisy's favorite job. She ironed most of the pillowcases as her contribution to the sewing of the pillowcases.

These are some sampling of the pillowcases that the quilters finished.

Happy Holidays and Good Quilting to All.