More of Karla Alexanders' Designs

Here's my progress on "Argyle".

This is sooooooo much fun!  The curves are really easy-- I'm not kidding! The blocks are all  made and I'm in the process of sewing them together.  I'm going to do a navy blue border.  And here's my big news... I only used one pin for each curved block!  I'm the original "pin queen".  My motto has always been, "If one pin will do... 7 pins are better!".  But Karla challenged me to use her technique of sewing curves without lots of pins.  WOO HOO!  It works!


For my giveaway this month, I offered an extra entry to anyone who sends me a picture of a quilt they made using one of Karla's patterns or books.  Here are a few REALLY pretty photos I've received:

This quilt is Wanda Hanson's "Crooked Squares".  Wanda's blog, Exuberant Color, is one of my favorites.  She has made more amazing quilts than you can shake a rotary cutter at!  Thanks for sharing this one with us, Wanda!

Lisa Marie sent this photo.  She used one of Karla's earlier books for her inspiration.  The blocks were made using Karla's "stack the deck" method... cut.... and then reassembles after another shuffle.  STUNNING, Lisa!  I love the animal prints.  Thanks for sharing and good luck in the pattern giveaway!

Does anyone else have a quilt they made using one of Karla Alexander's books or patterns?  Send them to me and receive an extra entry in the giveaway this month.

Workshop with Karla Alexander

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a workshop with Karla Alexander of Saginaw Street Quilt Company.  The workshop was sponsored by my guild, which does a wonderful job of scheduling creative instructors and inspirational classes.

Karla is an exceptional instructor.  She had great visuals and samples prepared, and she showed us lots of examples of what she was describing.  She knows that we quilters are "visual creatures".

I loved looking at all the samples she brought- and the many full sized quilts that are pictured in her books.  They look great in the books, but they're SOOO much prettier in person!

This one is called, "Argyle".  It's one of the quilts I chose to make.  It was a 2 day workshop, focusing on different techniques each of the days.  We were able to select a different quilt each day.

What amazed me is that we had a large list of options for each of the days.  Karla was able to guide us each through our choices- keeping us all straight and remaining calm- keeping us all on task. 

For the Saturday class, I chose to work on "Funky Curvy Rail".  I selected a variety of green and black prints. 

Karla taught us how to use free form cuts, or use one of her new rulers to cut waves, then stack and shuffle our "decks" of pieces.  This gave us a good shuffling of colors for our scrappy quilts.

She also taught us how to sew the curves without a million pins!  This was a big deal for me.  I'm the original "pin queen".  Do you see the little piece of foam tape beside the strips I'm stitching?  It was used as a guide to keep our seams at 1/4 inch while feeding the curved pieces through.  Worked like a charm!

Here's my progress so far.  Fun, huh?!?

On Sunday, I opted to work on "Argyle".  This is sooooo pretty!  I just love how this quilt is turning out!  And the curves are NOT difficult the way Karla taught us to work with them.

Obviously, we were all working with a lot of different pieces.  Everyone has their own methods of keeping things straight.  I was struck by the organization of one of my fellow guild members.  Isn't she amazing?  She has everything all lined up... all neat and tidy.....

And then there was my pile.






I want to share some photos of friends' quilts.  They were all gorgeous!

Thanks for an educational, inspirational, and FUN weekend, Karla!  Now, to finish my quilts!

More fun....

More about my weekend....

In my last post, I told you how much fun I had on Friday morning in a class with Helene Knott and her wonderful Garden Patch Cats.  But the fun didn't stop there... oh, no!  On Friday afternoon,  after a yummy lunch with my friend, Sandy, I took a class with Karla Alexander, who took us through the steps to make a table runner from her new book, Color Shuffle.  I don't have the book on my website yet, but I will soon.  I do have a few copies- they just aren't loaded on the site yet.  And I have plenty more coming.  As with all books on my website, Color Shuffle will be 25% off all the time.  Shoot me an email if you want to pre-order a copy.

Here's the quilt that was photographed for the book cover.  It's even more wonderful in person!

And a closeup....

Here's Karla holding another quilt from the book....

And a close-up...

And another...

And a close-up....

Look closely at the above photo.... it's a 4 patch.  SOOOOO simple!  She stacks fabrics, slashes them on a slant, then rearranges them.  Great effect!

Now we get to MY project.....  First the pile of pieces (will it ever look as great as Karla's????)

She promises it will...... so I slashed and sewed and slashed and sewed....

And.....

VOILA!!  It was fun, fun, FUN!  Here I am (on the left) with Karla (on the right) holding my first 2 blocks.  I look happy.... she looks tired.  LOL. Karla is an exceptionally good teacher.  She really watches her students- not hovering, but being available when there are questions.  And the last picture is how the blocks look together.  The finished table runner will have 12 blocks.  It's going to look great on my dining room table.  Now how did she know these are "my colors"?   :-)