Last week I taught at Clark County Quilters in Vancouver, WA. This is a large and active group and over 200 attended my lecture. I always enjoy seeing what each student brings to class. Everyone has different fabrics and visions for their quilts. In the Kaleidoscope Puzzle class, they have the opportunity to experiment and make their own designs from the assortment of kites and wedges they cut. See my video page for a demo of this technique.

Here are my samples displayed in the classroom. Students can use these patterns for inspiration or create their own. It’s fun watching the designs develop as the pieces are laid out.

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Students are also inspired by looking at each others’ work and I encourage them to walk around the room to see what is going on, compare notes and make suggestions to one another. It’s also good to stand back and view the design from a distance. Value is really important in this technique and the placement of the lights and darks make a big difference to the composition. I always recommend taking a proper lunch break so that students come back with a fresh eye for their work. As you can see, we had a good variety of fabrics and designs including scrappy and asymmetrical as well as the symmetrical.

Last month I had an excellent trip to TX to teach at the Rio Grande Valley Quilt Guild and the Midland Quilt Guild. The Rio Grande group has a huge influx of winter members who flee the northern climes for the warmth of TX. My Gateway to Mongolia class was oversubscribed so they asked me to teach it two days in a row to accommodate the extra students. The classes were prior to the guild meeting and several of the ladies finished the large center Olzii block in time for Show and Tell. It was wonderful to see a whole stage full!

We had a spacious church hall in Weslaco for the workshops. I love seeing all the different fabrics my students bring to class and the emerging variety of blocks. The block looks odd during the piecing, but as soon as the background setting triangles are added, it comes to life. There were some nice color transitions as shown with the green to turquoise example. The blue with red outer edges worked well because the value gradation was maintained. The pink and purple on the lime green background glowed. In the bottom left example only three fabrics instead of the usual five were used. There is just one fabric in place of the gradation of three which still produced a handsome looking block.