Lovely Botanicals—The Academy of Appliqué 2019 Class Offerings

Some of us are fortunate enough to live near friends who share our stitching passion, and we can regularly gather to stitch and share needle stories. Others of us have to work a bit harder to create those opportunities. One perfect place to gather with others who love to appliqué is the annually held Academy of Appliqué, in Williamsburg, Virginia. We are honored to be on the teaching faculty at the Academy; March of 2019 will be our third year as teachers, and we are bubbling with excitement about our classes this year. We hope you will be, too!

The class catalog is now posted, so you can study the class offerings and select your spots. Here are a few photos of what we will be teaching.

Botanical Beauties
Monday–Wednesday, March 4–6, 2019

In our first class, we will stitch zinnias, a lily, sweet peas, and tulips. If you look closely, you can see that the flowers are joined by a butterfly and ladybug. These four blocks were inspired by vintage botanical prints and were created using a variety of materials—wired ribbon, sari silk, bias silk ribbon, ultrasuede and more.  The blocks could be put together in a small quilt or each block could be given to friend who loves that particular flower. Or maybe you add these blocks to an album quilt. There are so many options for these four floral beauties!

Zinnias

  

Details of block: zinnia and lady bug

Lily

Detail: lily bloom

Sweet peas

Detail: Sweet pea blooms

Tulips

Detail of tulip

Lovely Vase

Thursday–Saturday, March 7–9, 2019

Our second class is inspired by a block in an antique Baltimore Album Quilt in the Lovely Lane Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. 

When we first saw this block, we both knew that someday we would re-create it. There was something about it that tugged on both of our hearts. We also knew, however, that it would have our own stamp on it. So we set out to explore different techniques and textures to replicate this lovely vase from Lovely Lane. To read more about the antique quilt, click here to read Lovely Lane.)

Textures include cotton, silk dupioni, wired ribbon, silk ribbon, velvet ribbon, ultrasuede, pearl cotton, wool, floss, gimp, metallic thread, and silk threads, as well as some padded elements.

Detail of rosebuds and aster

Detail of violet and aster

Detail of sunflower

Detail of stumpwork bee

Detail of white rosebuds

Detail of honeysuckle

Detail of vase

We stitched our vase on point, and appliquéd a frame around it. The vase became the center medallion of a quilt, and we used the four small blocks from our first class as corner blocks for the quilt. Appliquéd vines and flowers added the finishing touches to our quilt top, and it is ready to be quilted!

There are so many options here for how you could put your blocks together. It is always fun for us to see how our students finish their blocks. One of our greatest joys is to receive pictures of projects from one of our classes!

Let us show you how much fun we can have manipulating ribbon into beautiful blooms. You, too, can create such lifelike blossoms—and insects, too! While we will teach you a lot of skills, we strive to provide a stress-free and enjoyable learning environment. Our classes have been known to be heard laughing by passers-by down the halls, wondering what fun we are having! 

Registration for the 2019 Academy of Appliqué opens on Labor Day. You won't want to wait—classes fill fast! Last year, our class filled in an hour. So check out the class catalog, choose the perfect class(es) for you, and be poised at your computer at noon on Labor Day, September 3, 2018. And get ready for one of the best weeks of your life—well, one of the best stitching weeks, for sure!

See you next March!

Lovely Botanicals 

©2018 Through the Needle's Eye