Quilting Is Good For Us, part 2

There's more about quilting being good for us here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/8573211/Unravelling-secrets-in-crafty-stitchwork.html

I hope that made you smile.  Now back to my workshop with Gail Lawther...

We arrived on Sunday and Gail got us working almost immediately.  We chose either the Mount Fuji picture or a lovely Japanese boat on a lily pond for our project and she gave us the other pattern to take home so that we could have a pair of quiltlets eventually.  We started by piecing the picture with an easy one step reverse applique method and then applied bias tape to give the stained glass effect to our quilts.  This is Gail holding up my quilt before I'd got started with the bias tape and she gave me the ultimate compliment, she said she liked my version better than hers!  Wow, wow, wow, I did a happy dance I can tell you.

While we worked Gail constantly moved around the group of 15 ladies, helping and advising where necessary and in the case of this photo below getting a little frustrated with one sewing machine!  It happens to us all.

We did stop for lunch but felt as if we worked flat out all day.  We worked at our our pace with Gail calling us together for mini teach-ins on various aspects of the project.  One of these was how to apply the bias tape and then sew it into place using a twin needle.  What a fantastic technique.  It works really well and gives a slightly raised effect, like a piece of trapunto work, very nice.  In fact I think I learned more techniques in this workshop than in any other single workshop I've attended and I was shattered at the end of the day!

This is my friend Ros with her quilt, as you can see she chose the pattern with the boat and lily pads.  Didn't she get a fantastic piece of fabric for her sky?

Finally, here we all are with our almost finished quilts.  For most people finishing will require adding folded fabric flowers (we learned four different styles during the day) and some handquilting and then applying the backing fabric and stitching the binding, not many hours work at all.  I love it when I'm able to make good progress during a workshop, so much better than ending up with another UFO!
By the way, some of the Kiwi quilters who worked with Gail during her visits to New Zealand and in particular to Symposium in Queenstown earlier this year asked me to pass on their greetings which I did, I have to tell you she was very chuffed!
To finish here is the glorious photo of Mount Fuji that inspired my fabric choices for this quilt.