Troubles

Hi Everyone,

I know that it has been a while since I posted and if you think the title of this post is an explanation--rest assured, it isn't.  The only "Troubles" I've seen lately are Kansas Troubles brought to us by Lynne Hagmeier.  She was just here in Fort Wayne at our Appleseed Quilters Guild.  I'm always thrilled to be able to learn from a national instructor, but to also have one of Moda's long-time fabric designers is a thrill.

She taught classes on Monday night and Tuesday morning and then presented her trunk show at the guild meeting on Tuesday night.  I took the Monday class and saw the trunk show.  Let me tell you, if you ever get a chance to see her, jump at it!  She is charming, witty, and fun.  Not only that, but she is a freaking genious with pre-cuts!  I'm always fascinated to hear from successful quilt businesspeople--how did they get started?  What is their approach?  And so forth.

During her trunk show, she shares her story and it's really interesting to learn about how she began selling quilts, then patterns, and then getting to design fabric.  She shared about how several years ago she was doing a quilt cruise.  About a month before leaving, the organizer contacted her and said that there was limited space for 75 people so could she precut everyone's project that she was teaching!  In trying to make this task easy, she began utilitizing the precuts in a "layered" technique--where say a charm square is centered on top of a layer cake square and then stitched an 1/8th inch all around the edges.  It leave a raw edge, but after washing, as long as the edge was pinked (or is cut on the bias) it leaves a pleasing primitive edge.

If you want to see for yourself, Lynne filmed a few tutorials over at Missouri Star Quilt Company with Jenny.  Here is one.  (If for some reason the link doesn't work for you, just go to Youtube and search for Missiouri Star Lynne Hagmeier.

Anyway, how about some photos?

 This was from my class.  Lynne spent the first several minutes talking about her technique and how we should proceed and then we all got to work.  She circled the room answering any questions and otherwise chatting with everyone.  It was one of the funnest classes I've taken because the project was pretty easy and instead of stressing or stuggling or fussing, we could just chat.  I also got to know the lady sitting across from me, another Lynne.  I still don't know many members of the guild so it is great to meet more.

I took the Seedlings class.

No, it isn't curved piecing!  It is using Lynne's layered method.  I'm not finished with mine yet, but I did get pretty far in the class.

In case Lynne's palatte isn't colors you like, you can easily use her techniques with any other Moda precuts.  She had a modern example, but I didn't get a picture of it, but it was awesome, too.

These are photos from the trunk show.

I hope you have a great day!
JoAnne