Jamestown Landing Day in Hershey PA!

Troopers, everyone!

There was not a slacker in the bunch as we spent the morning working on the alternate string blocks and went full force into the afternoon session of working on half square triangles using the Easy Angle ruler!

Of course, if someone has another favorite method they are welcome to use it.

What matters is that your units measure the size they are supposed to measure before they are sewn into the block.

And get those dog ears trimmed off of there!

Do you check your unit size after sewing a seam?  Try it.  It might surprise you.  If it is too small, your seam allowance has got to skinny down a bit.  If your units are too big and you are constantly sliver trimming down….fatten that seam up just a hair.  Do whatever it is you need to do to save yourself valuable time – and headaches along the way.

Jamestown landing has 840 half square triangles.  ((But who’s counting?!?)) Do you REALLY want to sew big and sliver trim down 840 units?

People always ask me how I get so much done….not  having to spend hours sliver trimming is one of those helps that means more productivity for me.

As a special treat, a former student from my visit in April brought her completed Jamestown Landing top to share, and let us borrow it during class time as inspiration on a different color way…take a look at this:

Red Background!

Close up!

This became a bit of a design wall project, as some red/blue half square triangles were required along with blue/white units to make the red string path continuous….what a neat effect!

Jamestown Landing in blue/neutral

((Okay, this looks really boring to me now! LOL!))

Of course, Jamestown Landing is featured in my book String Fling, and you can order a signed copy from me HERE.

Great fun slide show of student activity – it was a really nice day ---if you can’t view the slide show on your mobile device, click the image below to be taken directly to the photo album.

Jamestown Landing, Hershey, PA 2013

Day Four is about to begin -- and it's POUNDING RAIN outside!  And -- guess where my display quilt is? IN MY CAR!  I put it there after Show and Tell last night because I didn't have the key to unlock my class room on me....thinking I would just pick it up on the way to class.

Guess who is about to get drenched?!

It's only water -- I won't melt ---and we will wrap up Quilt Odyssey 2013 with a bang...


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Jamestown Landing in Jamestown, NY!

You’d never guess that this humble little fire station, looking all peaceful and serene on the outside – was hosting a wild bunch of 33 women with 33 machines, fabric, irons, paraphernalia and having a raging good time in Jamestown, NY!

And yes, that might look like MY Shamu, but that is Jean’s van – we drive the same one!

Quilters need big vehicles – I won’t trade my Shamu for ANYTHING!

But back inside this building – we had ample space upstairs for everyone AND all of their stuff, and room to move….

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A Jamestown Landing Double Double!

Two days of back to back Jamestown Landing means a whole lot of neutral strings in So Cal!

With the beautiful California sun shining outside the large windows of our wonderful workroom space, we came, we sewed, we laughed, we chatted, we made new friends who had traveled in from San Francisco and from Arizona and beyond!

When I was contacted with the inquiry of adding a second workshop day because the first one was already full with a long waiting list, I asked what they would like me to teach the second day.  “Two days of Jamestown Landing!” was the reply, so everyone had a chance.

That made it easy for me, and I readily agreed.  Jamestown Landing is one of my favorite workshops to teach.  What’s not to like about string blocks and half square triangles?

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Jamestown Landing, All Day Long!

I love quilts with repetition in the units --- LOADS of repetition.

The units themselves aren’t hard, but it does take a lot of time to build enough units to start seeing the desired effect when the repeated units are placed, twisted, turned to form a pattern.

We spent the morning having a great time with the string blocks…….swapped, traded, told stories and laughter about the fabric and how long it has lingered as part of the stash – it was amazing how many pieces had connections to items made for children……who are now adults, and here is the fabric looking as new as the day it came off the bolt in 1990 something!

We moved on to half square triangles in the afternoon, turning them into broken dishes units and playing with layouts.

Here is a picture of my Jamestown Landing quilt:

Jamestown Landing is featured in my book String Fling.

Take a peek at what we got up to:

		Jamestown Landing, Bloomington IN 2013 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Busy day ahead today.  First off is moving all of my stuff out of the hotel room before class this morning ---After class today the teachers will be shuttled closer to the indianapolis airport for our flights out on Sunday morning.  We will stay in a place that has hotel shuttle and go our own ways --- That is of course AFTER being sure to set our clocks forward ahead an hour tonight!

My feelings exactly!

I love that it will be LIGHT later! Yay! It’s just going to take a couple days to get on track with it all ---

At lunch time all left over books and class supplies will be boxed up and we will drop them to fedex so they will be out of my hands and on their way home, leaving me only with the two duffel bags, my suitcase and backpack.  It's going to be a very full day!

Off to teach a Texas Braid class!  Have a great Saturday, everyone!

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Jamestown Landing, All Day Long!

Two such simple units…who would think they could make such a dynamic quilt?!

It doesn’t matter that the sewing was easy…..these gals worked so hard!  We had quilts in blues, in reds, in browns, golds….even REAL vintage indigos from around 1900 were being used in this quilt and it was fun to see these units coming together!

We met in a mostly abandoned mall in St Charles, Illinois ---a really NICE mall, with no traffic. 

And one by one by one all of the stores inside have either closed or relocated leaving this empty shell that feels strangely like a ghost town.

Eerie, isn’t it?

Beautiful, yet vacant!

But our Jamestown Landing class, held in a vacant American Eagle store---was FULL to the gills!

Jamestown Landing is found in my book, String Fling.

The best thing about the store front space?  Look at our cutting table:

Tall girls rejoice!!

I’m 5’9” and it’s VERY hard to do rotary cutting on a short table…so this was wonderful!

We spent the morning string piecing away on our background units, and in the afternoon we moved to half square triangles….it takes a lot of units and a lot of VARIETY before the gals could start building their broken dishes units and then turn those into stars with dark star points, and stars with light star points….you could tell we were getting tired and punchy by late afternoon when we couldn’t see how to turn those triangles correctly anymore!

Click the photo below to go to the photo album directly if the slide show won’t play on your mobile device.

Jamestown Landing, St Charles IL 2013

Today is a crazy busy huge day! We start out with a Pineapple Blossom workshop...but this evening is the biggy!  It's the spring banquet for the Prairie Star Quilt Guild...and they have over 200 people coming to the banquet where I am presenting a lecture and trunk show tonight.

It sounds like it's going to be a very fun evening ((It's always good when food is involved!!)) and I'm sure I'll be pooped by tonight!


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Jamestown Landing at VQF 2015!

How much fun can taking a workshop at the Vermont Quilt Festival be?

As fun as you make it!

And I love it when mothers and daughters, or sisters, or long time friends come TOGETHER to make some precious memories.

Take a look at this photo…do you see ME on the cell phone taking this photo?

How funny!

You girls brought so much joy to my day yesterday!

It was a Jamestown Landing day ---and before the class even started, I have a visit from a special friend:

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Jamestown Landing, Medford Style!

 Every once in a blue moon you come across something extremely rare.

This is a 1939 “crinkle finish” featherweight.  Notice that there are NO decals….just 3 striated grooves at the front of the machine bed, and a black crinkle finished face plate – also with the 3 distinctive grooves.

There were very few of these made, and it was fun to spend a bit of time oohing and ahhing over her in class!

Contrary to popular speculation – crinkle finish featherweights were NOT made for the war effort.  Singer made many models with the crinkle finish – 66’s and 99's and 128's…but the crinkle featherweight was more an object of fashion and the style of the day than function as far as the military was concerned.

Long view of the bed!

So fun to see!

I've had a couple of black side featherweights in class over the years…remember this one HERE?  But this is the first time I've seen a crinkle, also known as Godzilla,  face to face!

Yesterday’s class was Jamestown Landing ---always a great time.  I love it when light bulbs go on when explaining things to students, and they soak up the hints and techniques like a thirsty sponge ---I love it when they are having a ball with the string piecing and when their half square triangles turn out perfect on the first try with the Easy Angle ruler ---

There were cheers all around as everyone held up their  first completed blocks.

The variety of colors for the quilts was SO INSPIRING!  Take a look at the slide show below to see what we got up to….Orange, Red, Purple, Green, Blue, Black, Brown, you name it……they were sewing with it!

Click the image below if you can’t view the slide show on your mobile device.  You will be taken directly to the photo album.  But believe me, it’s worth visiting these on the REAL computer big screen to really see what was going on!

Jamestown Landing, Medford OR 2013

This morning we head back to Medford from where I am staying in Grant's Pass for another workshop...this time it's Cathedral Stars. There will be a lot of practice with both the Easy Angle ruler and Tri-Recs....and a whole lot of visiting and laughing and chatting as well as sewing the day away in the company of friends!  
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