THE FINISH LINE

After using this demo for the teaching of the Liberated Quiltmaking unit

to my 2nd year Intermediate 3-D girls,

I actually finished it.

YES!!

A rare occurrence for me as you probably know by now.

This year's class wanted to learn a Ricky Tim's liberated heart.

I had seen Ricky's heart in a national quilt magazine in the late 1990's,

and played with the design several times in the past.

In the early 2000's I actually took 2 courses with him,

both at the Road to California Quilt Show,

and found him to be a self-taught quilting genius

and so much fun to learn from.

In the second class he was selling his colorful tye-dyed fabrics,

so I bought several pieces and taught his heart pattern to my quilting group.

I showed these to my youngsters and they wanted to try it as well.

This year I have 2 groups of Intermediate 3-D kids,

and the 2nd group wanted to learn Gwen Marston's Liberated Houses and Trees.

In the process I also taught both groups Strip Pieced Borders, 

Hand Turned Applique,

Machine & Hand Quilting,

and Hand Tyed Quilting Knots.

I can't wait to show you their results.

They are all so very different.

As always I dedicate these quilts to my current group of seniors who I adore!

It's crazy,

I have at least 10 or more of these demos,

(each year a completely different design),

that I haven't finished.

My to-do list when I retire is getting bigger and bigger.

Ha!

The Laarnie and Reis Show

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

LIBERATED QUILTMAKING

featuring juniors Laarnie Barcelon and Reis Misaka

In the Intermediate class the students learn how to use a sewing machine, then go onto making an Art Quilt.  We use Professional Quiltmaker Gwen Marston's book "Liberated Quiltmaking" to work from which basically means using no templates, just free form cutting our edges.  This year we also worked out of Professional Quiltmaker Ricky Tims book "Convergence Quiltmaking".  

As always the quilts turned out delightful, creative and so unique.

First I'd like to show off Reis' extraordinary piece with his design based on Japanese calendar cards that he brought in to reference. 

He handstitched one for each month of the year, and then appliqued them to his liberated foundation.  

Talk about focused and time consuming. 

Here is a close-up below so you can see his attention to detail.

Truly amazing!

Laarnie was really inspired by Ricky Tim's work which is also based on free form cutting, but also on optical illusions.   If you look closely you will see a lot of tricky woven strips running thru the center area. 

Both kids worked from donated fabrics that they had to color co-ordinate for visual flow.

They also learned to machine quilt thru all 3 layers, and to applique a signed and dated label to the backside.

The final step being learning how to make and put on a binding edge, just like the pros.

Fantastic job you two! 

What To Do?

With these lovely striped fabrics that were donated.  I've sewn them together in a pleasing arrangement, but they are so similar that I think I will make two separate quilts rather then combine them.  

I've got Ricky Tims' book on Convergence Quiltmaking where he keeps slicing and reassembling.

Perhaps.  A fun exercise I'm looking forward to.

Any other ideas??

Professional Quilt Artiist - Ricky Tims

One of my all-time favorite quilts that I've purchased is this one by international quilt artist Ricky Tims. It hangs in my home right in the entrance hall so that when you walk in the front door it's one of the first pieces of art that you see. Love the vibrant colors that he hand dyes into his cloth and check out the close up of his free motion quilting stitches. He is truly remarkable in my eyes. I've taken two classes with him over the years and he is so much fun. He is completely self taught and teaches innovative approaches to curves and fabric selections. He also sings to his students as he demonstrates. If you ever get a chance to take one of his workshops I highly recommend them.

Liberated Quiltmaking - Student Art

Several years ago I took the most wonderful workshop with nationally known quilt artist Gwen Marston and learned how to make an art quilt without any patterns and to just work spontaneously and go for it from my recycled fabric stash. It was so much fun that I teach quilt making this way to my 2nd year 3-D students. First I teach them to sew on a sewing machine then we move right into this assignment. The top piece was done by 8th grader Emmerline Kim, and the piece below was created by senior Caroline Ma who is headed off to art school in the fall. It's an exceptional design and was made with hand dyed fabric produced by world renown quilt artist Ricky Tims, along with other misc. fabrics.

Strip Tease #1

This piece was made in my 2nd Ricky Tim's workshop, and was so much fun that I made 2 more. Ricky Tims (http://www.rickytims.com/) produced this handdyed fabric, and we were able to buy it from him at his workshop. What I love about his fabrics are there are no two alike.

Tims Times Two

This is the quilt that I made at my 1st Ricky Tims workshop, and it's one of my personal favorites within my collection. If you've never taken a workshop with Ricky it is a must. He is such a kick, so playful and fun. Plus he sings while he demonstrates his sewing techniques!