Road To California 2011 - Day Three

O. M. G....if you ever get a chance to take a class from David Taylor..DO IT!!! He is one of the best quilt teachers I have ever had...he is totally funny.. has figured out how to make award winning, very expensive quilts...and he is not afraid of sharing his techniques..

In the morning, we learned how he makes his patterns, prepared a tracing of the pattern we chose to do (either his penguin or hummingbird - I chose the hummingbird...) and made a freezer paper tracing of the pattern..cut those apart and ironed to the fabric (provided in the kit, thank goodness!) Then we learned how he 'buries' the points so that he does not need to make sharp points (except if they are on the outside edge like the point of the hummingbird's beak..)..and learned how he does the starching

During lunch..he was demo'ing the HandiQuilter Sweet 16...its the sit-down table model that HandiQuilter makes..I sat and watched him quilt for around half an hour!

After lunch, he broke us up into small groups and we gathered around his table to learn how he does applique..its a pretty neat technique..very close to how Ami Simms does her applique..only his pieces are prepared vs Ami's where the pattern is drawn on both pieces. He explained how he does the quilting using Sulky's Blendables threads..and how he changes colors...and buries the knots as he goes..and how he does binding..with a layer of polyester twill tape that keeps the edge from ever stretching!

I don't really have anything to 'show' for today as I only got 3 pieces of a 50 piece pattern sewed down!! So I will leave you with the teacher's version of the pattern: