A Weekend of Inspiration

It is now already two days into the week, and I am still digesting all the information I collected over the weekend.  I took a two-day class with Elly Sienkiewicz at my local quilt shop, Traditional Pastimes.  And oh what a wonderful weekend it was!

Elly was a delight to meet and a quilting-world treasure for sure.  Her calm voice, shock of perfectly coiffed black hair, her gentle leading, entertaining stories, and interesting take on so many things we find common in the quilting world, made the entire weekend a success.  Elly, her teachings, and research are staples in the Baltimore Album world.  She gave us so many stories of historical reference as well as the reasoning behind the building of each block that I think I may actually have to go back and read some of the items I wrote down and peruse the book once more.

There were three different projects to choose from.  One was a one-day class and the other two were two-day classes.  All three were divine in their original blocks and true inspirations to those of us trying to re-create them.   These next three pictures show the original blocks found in the quilt we were learning from (first photo above).

I chose to do the block with the vase in it. 

The ring would not have been that much of a challenge for me...

...And the basket was likely going to be too much.  I do wish that some of the techniques could have been passed between classes since the assembly of the basket looked quite interesting.

We had the choice of making the block in any size we wanted.  Thank goodness!  The original was an 8" block.  The sample for the class was done at 12".  Much more manageable!  This photo (above) is the sample block.

I am hoping to make a few posts out of this wondrous weekend.  This is just the beginning.  Some of the ideas are definitely worth sharing, if you haven't already found them yourself in one of her 20 books or on a DVD of her teachings, come back and see what they are!  I was amazed at how something so simple could change the way things work so easily - like how to thread a needle!  And I thought I already knew how to do such a simple task!

You can find Elly's books on Amazon and often at your local quilt shop.  She even has a new book coming out very soon (sometime in October I think) called "Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts".  Hand applique may not be for everyone, but I assure you, there are tricks for everyone from what I learned about hand applique!

Until the next Elly Interlude...

Happy Quilting!