Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

NW Quilters :: Improv in Solids and Liberated Baskets

My time in Portland at the NW Quilters Guild last week was great fun and a wonderful introduction to the world of a traveling teacher!  The lecture went great and the 2.5 days of class were lots of fun.  I hope to do it again soon.  The first photos are from the improv class.  Very striking pieces, don't you think?  Most of the students hadn't worked improvisationally before, but they certainly caught on fast!  The improv class was 1.5 days, but I think it would have worked well in a longer format.  We are seeing a lot of potential here, but I'd love to see them even further along.  They did tell me that the quilts from these workshops will be featured in their quilt show next year (May 1 & 2, Portland Expo Center).

Above: This student made the print blocks with scraps as she went along, each seam was a leader or ender.  Great idea!Above, don't you think that stripe looks great in this piece!

Above:  This student made the block on the top right without planning it.  We all fell in love with it (we named it the railroad block) and she demoed it so we could all give it a try.  We discovered that value and placement of the thinner strips vs thicker strips makes a difference.  

Above:  I wish I'd gotten a better photo of that middle quilt, Tam did such a fantastic job!  Below is my teaching sample mixed with some other parts I found in the scrap bin.  The Liberated Baskets class was on the last day.  This was a smaller class, but no less fun.  I was so happy to see the students try all sorts of different baskets.  This photo includes baskets from everyone, including me.  I look forward to seeing these done as well.  I'll have to put their quilt show on my calendar!

Sewing Baskets

This eye-popping quilt is another one that I have been handquilting this summer.  I was so pleased to stick with it and get it finished in a reasonable amount of time.  You may remember that these blocks were made in the Liberated Basket class I taught last April.  My main goal was to show several different styles of baskets.This one with the interior triangles came about when I demonstrated the triangles and then wanted to come up with a way to use them.  That's one of my favorites!The other challenge I made for myself was that I would use only these 5 fabrics.  I could have used three (the print, the green and the red), but it was hard to stick with only one red.  You know I love scrappy, so this is very different for me.The sewing print was such fun to work with!  It's something I had stashed away several years ago with no plan.  This was the perfect use for it.

Liberated Baskets

I had so much fun teaching liberated baskets last Friday!  I had only two students, so they got extra attention and I got time to sew too.  I picked a very limited palette (for me) and used the black and white feature on my camera to check the value.

I got a chance to try some basket shapes that I've never made before.  Isn't this print a hoot?  It's an old one that I had a 1/2 yard of.  It's perfect for this.

This one was fun to do.  My students requested a lesson on spiky triangles, so I used my demo pieces to make this basket.  I also thought I'd add some stems for flowers and showed them that you can get the block together and do the handles later if you want to hand applique.

These are the two fabulous pieces that Susan (above) and Sandie (below) are working on.  Susan brought some great Hawaiian prints she picked up on Maui.  Love it!  Sandie came with a huge stack of blocks she made during a class with Gwen Marston and Freddie Moran.  I helped her get them organized and then she started making baskets to fill it in.  Wonderful!  

My next class is Modern Improv on May 10th at QuiltWorks. I'd love to have you join me!

Quilts for WA

When I heard about the call for quilts for the victims and first responders of the Oso, Washington landslide, I knew I could come up with something to send.  I also asked if any other locals wanted to join me.  Luckily, my good friend Sarah was able to help out.  This gorgeous modern spiderweb is hers and, oh my, you don't know how tempted I am to keep it!  Isn't it fabulous?  Sarah is an amazing knitter, but she has taken up quilting in a big way this year and made enormous strides.  She's a member of the Central Oregon Modern Quilt Guild too.

I did get it in the box though, so no need to worry about a quilter gone to the dark side.  The other two are mine.  

This basket quilt was made from scraps several years ago, quilted professionally last year and finally bound to send off today.  

This twister baby quilt was destined for Washington from the start.  The blue border fabric and the backing were given to me by a neighbor who knows I quilt and asked if I could use it.  That was two days before the landslide.  I knew immediately it needed to be in a baby quilt for this project.  The rest of the fabric was in my stash and it was quickly put together.  This neighbor moved here from WA so it seemed especially appropriate.

The quilts are all boxed up and will be dropped off at the PO today.  

Quilts, at long last!

I just realized that there have been virtually no photos of quilts on this quilting blog in months!  Wow, how did that happen?  Travel and the other concerns of daily life have made things topsy turvy.  To rectify the situation, I thought I'd show a couple of finishes from late last year.  These are both shop samples for classes I'll be teaching in March.  The first is Boho Baskets, which was made as a sample for the Liberated Baskets class I'm teaching on March 1 at QuiltWorks in Bend.  This is a fun class!  Baskets are a wonderful way to use large scale and novelty prints and you can highlight each one.  The handles are where the action is and I'll teach a quick and easy way to  make them.  The triangles (made three ways) are a bonus for those who have time in class.

High Country Winter was made as the sample for the Modern Improv class I'm teaching on March 21 at QuiltWorks.  This is also a fun and sometimes mindblowing class as students learn to trust their instincts, use fabric in unexpected ways and compose spontaneously.  If you'd like to join me in either (or both) of these classes, please see the QuiltWorks website for all the details.

Fun with Strings and Scraps

The Girlfriends top is done!  I finished the last border with houses, baskets and stars made with scraps of hot pinks and reds on a green background.

That was fun and I even have a quilter lined up to take this one, so it will be done for the show. It's about 55" square.  I never had a plan for this one, so I wasn't sure how big it would be, but this is good for the show since a lot of my newer work is on the small side.  Meanwhile I have a few pieces that need some finishing.  Those are tops on my list of Things to Do.  More soon!

Birds, Baskets and Blooms

Finally finished this top that I'm embarrassed to say I started 3 or 4 years ago.  It was a retreat with Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran. What fun that was!  This quilt was nearly done.  I had made the bottom border and didn't like it.  All it needed was a little bit of unsewing and resewing and it was done.  Now, I will prep the backing for the quilter to take it over.  

15 Handles

When I pulled some old UFO's for the guild retreat a few weeks ago, 15 Handles got taken, but not worked on.  When I got home I decided to get down to it and finish the thing!  This required making many many string sets.  In fact, I sewed for days and days and really got tired of the whole thing.  I made so many string sets, I had enough to make 5 columns of strings for the backing and still have a ton left over.  The problem was that I kept changing my mind about what colors should be in the mix.  I started with just blues and greens, but by the end, I had added purples, reds and pinks too, just to jazz it up.  I also kept finding old scraps to use!  Sometimes it feels like I'm drowning in scraps and just need to use them up before I can move on.  So I sewed and cut and cut and sewed until I had strings to reach from here to California.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Take a gander at the baskets as they were to begin with.

Scrappy baskets, one with a handle missing because I forgot it. Hence, the 15 Handles.  Oh, and that's a nice picture Ryan made for me adding to the general ambiance of the studio.  (It's a Green Tree Python!)

I debated on whether I should just add the string border or put in a narrow inner border.  The blue narrow border won out.

After what seems like forever, the top is done and so is the back which I forgot to get a photo of.  It has 5 columns of strings.  I still have a huge stack of strings.  Enough to make another quilt for Community Quilts when I get some free time.  This one will be quilted by a guild friend of mine.  The thought of pushing this thing through my machine gives me the willies!  I have already moved onto some other projects. More about them this week!