Sunday, June 2, 2013

Wagon Wheels

I took a wonderful class last Saturday with Sandy Klop of American Jane! A more delightful speaker/teacher you'll never meet! I know you've all seen her charming and fun designs full of nostalgic 50s and 60s kids and animals with the bright colors of that day reproduced.

Sandy spoke to our guild the night before the class giving us the story of her journey of becoming the beloved quilter she is today. She showed probably 40 of her colorful quilts--EACH and EVERY ONE of which I LOVED!! Take a look at her blog and the American Jane pattern and book page.

Anyway, the pattern we made was Wagon Wheels, a 15" block that's a mostly paper-pieced design. This photo shows her fabrics but I had this Fat Eighth bundle of Barbara Brackman's "Metropolitan Fair" line (which I fell in love with several months ago) and felt this pattern was perfect for it. I also changed it to be totally scrappy (my blocks are below) which I really like.There are 57 pieces in each block and curved piecing so I was only able to make 2 1/2 blocks in the class. But I continued for another couple of hours when I got home and ended up with 4. I plan to make 9 total.



I'm off on a 3-day quilting retreat to the Mt. Shasta area so will have time to make more of these blocks. I'm also bringing 4 other projects along so I can bounce around as the mood strikes. Should have a lot to show at next week's Design Wall Monday!