Monday Memories #13

I sat down to do this post but first I trawled through my files of pictures from classes through the years to remind myself of which projects were done when........an hour or so later I have accomplished a great deal of "housekeeping" and have tidied up quite a lot of files. Not before time.I also had a very anxious few minutes where I thought I'd been over zealous and lost some, but all is well - phew.

Things were still quite new with my classes in 2005 into 2006 and I was really pleased at how many ladies chose to return year on year. Coupled with new beginners, this gave me a logistical problem trying to accommodate everyone - good problem to have.

So around about 2006 all my classes became fortnightly (every two weeks) and things sort of worked out and fell into a bit of a pattern.

I tend to plan a quilt project one year with smaller projects the next whilst maintaining the same beginners' course each year.

In 2006 I introduced Trees in the Valley -

This was a fun project made up of 6" blocks in vertical rows of 6 blocks. Some chose to make just two block panels, some 6 x 6 and Nan made four single panels, each depicting one season - it was very special.

This photo doesn't do it justice but hopefully gives you the general idea.

As a self confessed control freak, I hope I manage to encourage a little self expression each year. There is no problem making the project exactly as my sample, but there is always scope for a little individuality.

 This was Christine's take on the project, inspired by her love of the local countryside.

 And Carcassone provided the inspiration for this one, by Lynn.

Wynn chose to depict local salt houses. Lots of clever ladies in my classes, I often feel like a bit of a fraud.

In 2006 my Sewing Bee pals and I decided to go on a course of our own and we attended one Saturday a month for 5months with Pat Archibald.. I am a total Pat groupie and think her work is fantastic. If you have time, do visit her website to view some of her wonderful work. Our course was "A Creative Journey" and she led us through the different elements of design, completing exercises and small pieces of work before producing a covered scrapbook of all our work. The subject matter was a significant place of our own choosing, somewhere we had visited and I chose Queensland. I think we all found the course quite challenging, very satisfying too, and sometimes surprisingly emotional!.This is one of my inspirational pics, of Brisbane.

Next time I shall reveal why I decided to run a Mystery Quilt............