Getting Ready for the Block Party!

I am taking classes next week in Portland put on by Quiltmaker magazine. They have had one set of classes on the east coast in Wilmington, Delaware and then the second set of classes is in Portland, Oregon. The classes are taught by various quilt designers. The Block Party starts Wednesday, March 20th in the evening, but I won't be there until Thursday morning since I am driving down after work. I am taking two classes from Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts and one class from Gudrun Erla of GE Designs. Julie used to live in Philadelphia and last year moved with her parents to California to be closer to her brother and his family. Gudrun was born and raised in Iceland and moved in 2003 to Minnesota. As of Wednesday I got the last of the material cut for classes.

Below is the pattern and material for the Strip to Be Square class by Gudrun Erla.

My background with be a mottled blue and the squares are strips from Cuzco by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics.









I am taking two classes from Julie Herman.
The first class has to do with using a new ruler she has designed to cut geometric designs of various shapes and sizes. We will get a class kit for that one.

The second class is from her book "Skip the Borders" and the quilt is called Boxed In.

 
I am using Moda fabric called Enchanted Garden by Sentimental Studios. We need two fabrics for the sashing but have to bring at least four fabrics and Julie will teach us how different contrasting fabrics change the entire appearance of the quilt.

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The down side of taking next Thursday and Friday off from work is that I will get drastically behind and my piles of paper will just get bigger ~