Road To CA - Day 1 - Stained Glass Quilting, Allie Style

My contraption and I headed off to class bright and early Monday morning...unfortunately...the closest way to the doors at the Convention center was thru the parking lot..BAH!! my contraption did not keep up on the rough pavement! I ended up wrenching my back trying to keep the machine upright...and my poor back is still whining...

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Oh well..the class though was SPLENDID! I got to meet Allie Aller...and spent the day learning her Stained Glass Quilting techniques:

Here is a picture of the class and the lovelies created

This is my leaf block (with purple bells)

This is my exercise block for the leaves...looks kind of like Tiffany or vaguely Egyptian to me!

And this is my set of blocks from the morning

I  chose to do my 'leading'  in gold..the lady next to me used a Kaffe Facett print...I think the rest of the class used black.. You actually can use anything for the leading as long as it contrasts...and it does not have to be fabric...it can be ribbon, yarn, embroidery thread (the thicker stuff works better). 

The block with blue fabric was my 'trial' from home..I had a wee strip of stuff with fusible that I cut off the bigger block for the class...I had to find out the answers to several questions! Would my machine like stitching over this stuff - its a bit heavier than normal quilting cotton?... what color thread?... what stitching method was I going to use?  I tested narrow zigzag, wide zigzag, feather stitch, short stitch length, long stitch length, single row of straight and parallel straight... would my iron make marks or discolor the gold fabric and would my little Petite Press iron  get hot enough to do fusible?... turns out I had some gold Glide thread that was just right...my machine handles stitching on it just fine, I settled on the parallel straight stitching and the Petite Press works a treat and did not discolor the fabric! Saved me a bunch of 'experimenting' time in class...

I used my 'redneck turntable cutting mat' - an old lazy-susan rotating shelf that the top layer cracked off...with a small cutting mat on it..I think I am going to mount a real cutting mat piece on it..it works quite well!

I am thinking of adding leaves in the ombre blocks..and making it on-point by adding triangles to the sides..maybe the leaves will come in from the setting triangles..we shall see!

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I used the sidewalks on the trip back to the car..only had a small patch of pavement that I had to deal with..my back was on fire by then..