Wonderful Williamsburg

Last week, we enjoyed a fantastic time in Williamsburg, Virginia. We spent the first half of the day on Sunday visiting the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton before we headed back to Kingsmill Resort to set up our classroom for the Academy of Appliqué. More will follow from the Quilt Festival in the near future. Please enjoy some of the highlights of the classes we taught last week.

Academy of Appliqué

Our classroom for the Woodland Reverie class, all set up and ready for the next day

  

Ribbons, patterns, and other necessary notions were displayed on the sale tables.

Patterns are marked and appliqué begins.

Demo time

Back-basting appliqué of leaves or mushroom stems: several people around the room expressed that "Ah-hah" at having found a new method of appliqué they enjoyed.

Nest building around the room—what a perfect set-up!

Mushroom stems are appliquéd, caps are basted, and wreath-weaving has begun.

Rosemarie N stopped by to show us the Lovely Vase she finished from last year's class.
Such stunning work!!

Some add eggs to nests, while others begin making dogwood flowers.

"Wow, what a great nest!" The encouragement around the room is infectious.

"This is my very first flower!" That smile lit up the room.

Making pussy willows

Wreath-weaving and split leaves

More nests

Great progress!

Everyone was thrilled with all we accomplished in our session. This class was filled with happy stitchers who cheered for each other and shared tips and tricks. We all learned a lot—including the teachers. We even started a Woodland Reverie group. Thank you, ladies, for such a fabulous class!

On Wednesday, we gave a short talk during lunch.
Photo credit here goes to Nancy Nehez.

Colonial Piecemakers Quilt Guild

The last two days of our week were spent with the stitchers of Colonial Piecemakers Quilt Guild, also in Williamsburg. On Friday, we taught our Marcia's Flowers workshop, wool appliqué with embroidery embellishment. We had a big class, filled with ladies who were eager to try a new skill; for many of them, appliqué—especially with wool—was a new tool to add to their collection of techniques. Some found a new love, and some weren't yet so sure, but all gave it a fair shot. This was the first pattern we wrote, and one thing that we learned was that we needed to update a few things and reprint it, which is a job almost finished already. 😊

 

We spent the morning cutting out templates and wool pieces, and then we enjoyed a delicious lunch of soups, salad, sandwiches, and chocolate. Quilters sure do eat well!

We arranged the wool pieces on the background and then fused them in place with an iron. Then we appliquéd the pieces in place so that we could learn the embroidery stitches the next day.

On Saturday, we gave a lecture for the guild. This is one active organization; we were most impressed with the programs, community involvement, and friendliness of these quilters. During Show & Tell, some of the ladies from our class shared their blocks. After the meeting and a quick lunch, we got to work on embellishing our flowers. We learned a lot of stitches and made a good dent in our embellishing. It was so much fun that we both forgot all about taking pictures. After our class ended, everyone helped us to pack up and carry things to our car. What a lovely bunch they are!

On Sunday, we traveled back to Maryland. The day was beautiful, but the traffic on I-95 was pretty much a parking lot, so we jumped off and took back roads. We ended up driving through the Manassas Battlefield and seeing some much prettier scenery than highway driving would have afforded us. And then there was inventory...

To all of those new friends that we met last week, and to those who we have known for years, thank you for another wonderful week in Williamsburg. Our stitching friends are the best! We look forward to our paths crossing again someday.

Welcome to Germany: Quilter's Style

The sum total of my stitching choices while I wait
for my sewing room to arrive.

As we told you in our post "Going Global," I (Kara) have moved to Germany! We found out that we would be moving here last October—two days before Teri and I left for Quilt Market in Houston. I waited to tell Teri that it was official until we had arrived at our hotel, and she was sitting down with coffee in hand (wine would have been better, but it was only ten in the morning). She took the news well, and we proceeded to enjoy all the wonder that is Quilt Market and Quilt Festival. I was told so many times in that week, "You had better stock up on fabric, because it is so expensive in Europe." So for that week and up until we left, I took those words as a personal challenge and built up my stash. My stash is currently on a boat, working its way to me, and unfortunately, I don't expect to see it until the beginning of August. I did pack my Academy of Appliqué 2018 block, a crazy quilt project, and an English paper piecing project, but that is all the "quilty" stuff I have.

We have been living in a hotel for about three weeks now, and while stitching on the above projects is fun, I was definitely craving some quilter companionship. Thankfully, the Black Forest Quilt Guild had their monthly meeting the last Friday in June. My new friends—Birgit, Lisa, and Becky (thank you Facebook)—let me know the place and time and off I went to the meeting, driving by myself for the first time.

The guild meeting is held monthly in a community center very near our hotel. I was a bit early, but I was warmly greeted by those who were there. The guild, almost 20 years old, is made up of ID card holders (military and civilian) from the Stuttgart area, as well as residents of the greater Stuttgart area. 

A view of the library table

A beautiful hall to host the guild meeting

The guild began with a little business first, and then a lovely program about traveling with various quilt projects. The speaker brought quite a few handy items—such as bags, tools, patterns for bags, and many tips and tricks. 

The speaker (on the right) sharing some of her quilting travel trips.
Because this is a German/American guild, both languages are represented,
so this presentation was given in English and interpreted in German.

Then some of the members showed their favorite quilt projects for travel. One project that someone brought was a quilt done in the Japanese fabric folding method, atarashii. I had never seen this method before, and it is a bit difficult to find much about it on the web, but it is beautiful and very portable. You can see some tutorials here and here, but you must use Google translate, unless you are fluent in German. I was fascinated by this method and can't wait to give it a try.

I love the color choices!

Demonstrating some of the prep work.

Sharing this method's portability.

Each piece is quilted individually, so there is no need for quilting once
all the pieces are connected.

After the presentation and a break, it was time for Show and Tell. The quilts that members showed varied in size, style, and method, but they were all wonderful. I didn't get pictures of all but here are a few. Note: While the hall was beautiful, the lighting was not the best for taking pictures.

As part of the travel theme, members were asked to bring quilts,
 if they had them, about travel. 

This quilt with mini campers was adorable.

Many of the places visited during this quilter's time in Germany,
are represented in this quilt.

This quilt represents a visit to the northern part of the U.S.

Another gorgeous quilt highlighting places that were visited. 

This beautiful quilt was made from different shirtings.

A T-shirt quilt made for her husband.

This quilt was made for a close friend. Wouldn't you be thrilled to receive this?!

My new friend Birgit and a child's quilt she made.

She cut out and quilted some of the individual
panels to create a memory game.

The green in this quilt started life as a tablecloth.

A sweet child's quilt, lovingly made.

This quilt is stunning in person!!

A patchwork garden

A beautifully done Bonnie Hunter pattern.

This guild does two different block of the month projects each month. Those who want to participate, make the block for that month—either modern or traditional—and then they have a chance to win all the blocks. 

The traditional June BOM.

The modern June BOM.

Someday, when my ship comes in (meaning the boat that is carrying my sewing machine), I will definitely take part in these fun blocks and all the other exciting activities this guild offers. They even let you ask for a block to be made by fellow members, to commemorate a birthday, farewell, or other special event. One lady asked for a birthday block, and passed out materials and guidelines for the block. I will share more on that in another post.

The Black Forest Quilt Guild has been one of the most welcoming guilds that I have been privileged to attend. It proves my theory that quilters are some of the nicest people, no matter where you are in the world. I am looking forward to jumping right in with both feet and a sewing needle! Hopefully you have enjoyed reading about a guild on this side of the world, and if you have a special story about your guild, please let us know!