Katharine Guerrier Workshop

Both Friday and Saturday's fantastic, fun workshops were based on quilts and methods in this colourful and very inspiring book. Of course I have owned my copy for years and... although it's a regular 'eye candy' read for me (by that I mean, I love looking at the pictures! tee hee), I've never actually made any of the quilts or projects from it... sound familiar? To be honest, it's not the only book I have JUST for the pictures... now if you're going to tell me you have made a quilt from every book you ever bought.. I will be refusing to believe you, I'm thinking that's just not normal for a quilter! ha ha ha.. back to the workshop... We gathered round a central table to get all the tips, how to's and what to avoid's from Katharine and off we scuttled to our work areas...

.... where the volume button must have been knocked into the 'up louder' position... like the kiddies do at play school! ooooo we were so 'into it' you know, we had colour choices and size choices and placement choices....
Gwyneth (not My Mum, she has two n's) had been gifted her workshop day for a birthday present.. what a most wonderful gift, I must remember that one.. she had her very own slave for the day (her sister, our Jenny) helping her advance with her cutting, piecing, ironing.. unpicking etc... all part of the gift.. she completed all of these blue theme blocks...

I took loads of photos of the many blocks the ladies had made when we went round at the end of the day for "walk about" .. I like the idea that no-one can put their work away until we have all inspected it, that way you don't miss anything as you concentrate on your own stuff... this one was very much 'up my street', I love the colours and fabrics that this lady was using. There were lots of combinations.. some very bright, some more controlled...

... lots of ladies used used batiks and hand dyed fabrics, you can't go wrong with them really as they all seem to play well together, see the spinning pin wheel blocks in this picture, set with wonky edges... I didn't get that far, I had to look after my Table Top Shop, wadding still in the van.. ha ha ha but it's ok.. remember I have my very own, now signed by the lovely Katharine herself, book to work from.

Margaret was kind enough to have Katharine stay at her house overnight... (for this we thank her muchly) so, in line of duty, she had to treat herself to both workshops and a bottle of wine (of course the wine was to share with Katharine over dinner.. not at the workshop, ha ha ha) These are the fruits of Margaret's fun stitchy days, she did a lot of stitching eh... with all the tips in the book, these blocks could actually be incorporated into the same quilt...

Katherine allowed us, on both days, to take pictures of her samples for later inspiration.. very kind of her as some teachers are not so accommodating. Don't you love the way she adds a little row of half square triangles to the one side of a block... I do.. I will have some of those bits in my quilt... the one I WILL make starting from yesterday...

...with the blocks I made at the workshop... I expect you are going to say "how dull" my colours are, not that I throw any importance to what other people think ha ha ha... I only made these few block yesterday, wait until you see the other fabrics that I will be 'chucking' in there.. I'm sooooo excited about this project...
See that centre block... the wonky star... I had to guard it with my life yesterday during the workshop!!! I kid you not!... Katharine had her eye on it all day... after holding it up to show us the next stage, she noticed that it was too big... she wanted to trim it down!!!! holey moley...panic set in... oooooer, however, she didn't actually go through with it... could have been something to do with my lower lip trembling and quivering like an upset toddler might have encouraged her to change her mind... but she watched it, like a hawk... I had to keep hiding it when I saw her aproaching my table... oooooh the stress I suffered... turns out though, she was absolutely right ... I chopped 2" off it this morning ha ha ha