Archive | September, 2021

In the second half of our Floral Improv class the students added stems and leaves to their compositions. First, we discussed how much each student wanted her foliage to show up. A little or a lot? This dictated her fabric choice. You’ll see very different preferences in these photos. (These photos were all taken at the end of our six hour class.)

Karen’s quilt: low contrast stems, but high contrast leaves

Linda chose low contrast leaves and stems

This maker chose low contrast foliage. However, I’m not sure if this made by Debi or Faye, since they were sharing an iPad. Help me out, ladies.

And here’s the other one made by either Debi or Faye. Here, the foliage is fairly high contrast, but not enough to over power the flowers.

Kara’s choice

Mary Ellen really wanted to show off beautiful curving stems so she made them high contrast. She wisely omitted the leaves, since she already had enough going on.

Kate selected a VERY low contrast fabric for stems and leaves. However, she’ll add contrasting stitching for definition. You can see a leaf on the left where she’s already started.

Finally, the students learned how to add definition to their poppies with contrasting stitching. It makes a huge difference!

See Marsha’s poppies bottom left.

Deb got all her poppies stitched in class and they really came to life!

With 17 students, this class was almost full. That gave us plenty of energy, but we still covered A LOT of ground! I had a wonderful day with these ladies!

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Learn more about this class.

The Tidewater Quilters, of Hampton Roads, VA, did a GREAT job in our Zoom Floral Improv class, back in August. As you’ll see from these photos taken at the end of our six hour class, they made a LOT of progress!

First, they learned how to make daisies without a pattern – both circular and oval versions.

Debby’s quilt

Karin’s quilt

Next, they learned to make poppies without a pattern.

Nancy’s quilt.

Deborah’s quilt

Then, I taught them a little about design and composition and they spent some time arranging their flowers. (No stems or leaves yet.)

Lee with her quilt

Susan with her quilt

Pat with her quilt

Charlene’s quilt

Didn’t they do a great job? This is only half the class. In part two I’ll show you more pictures and tell you what we covered in the latter half of the class.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. Floral Improv is a good class for traditional quilters who want to try something a little different. Read here to see if it’s a good fit for your guild.