Need a quick fabric project? Try gluing a collage, rather than stitching it! It's easy and fun. And when you finish your composition you're done. No need to quilt it, bind it, or sew on a sleeve! A fabulous alternative when you need a change of pace. (And the results are fantastic too!)

You'll have a chance to learn this technique when the next Sticky Fingers class starts on September 24th.

In an earlier class, Kathy Edwards created Sticky Spiral, above. This was her own design. Wasn't she creative?

Full class details.

My new quilt, Snapdragons, was inspired by a photo I took while on vacation in Savannah, GA.

I loved my photos so much that I invited blog readers to join me in creating artwork inspired by them. Several participated and I've added photos of their pieces to my blog, along with lots of information about the construction of this quilt.

See a larger view of this quilt, along with a detail shot.

Read the blog posts about this quilt: First post - with inspiration photos, or Directory of all related posts.

As always, I'm very impressed with the students in my current online class, Design Your Own Nature Quilt. This class requires the students to work outside their comfort zones, as they draw inspiration from their own photo, create a design, and then construct it in fabric. But, there's been no whining! Instead, they muster their creative courage and forge ahead. With the class begining to wind down, I'm seeing many wonderful quilts in progress, and I can't wait to see the finished results!

My Year-Round Garden, at right, is Cheryl Gebhart's finished quilt from the class. She worked very loosely from her photo, using a wide variety of fabrics and colors. As a result her finished quilt is MUCH more interesting than her original photo!

This must be the summer for flower challenges, because I recently participated in another one. This one was with by my local group, Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists.

Each participant made a quilt top, inspired by the same photo of a hot pink flower. We could interpret it as loosely as we liked, as long as the proportions were similar to those of the photo. Then, all the tops were sliced in half both vertically and horizontally, so that four quandrants were created. Finally, we randomly distriubted the sections, with instructions to put them back together in a flower-like arrangement. We were allowed to alter our pieces in any fashion. Completed pieces are to finished to the same size, and they'll be displayed at our upcoming exhibit.

Mine is shown above, called Flower POW-er. You can see the inspiration photo, my original quilt top, still intact, and more on my blog. (Posts start on August 12th.)

This group of women is extremely creative, so I can only imagine what some of them will do with their pieces. I expect mine to be tame compared to some of the others!

- New addition to the Sticky Fingers Gallery
- New addition to the Double Reverse Applique Gallery
- New addition to the Design Your Own Nature Quilt Gallery
- Perfectly Flat Quilts: Blocking Tutorial