Breaking the Quilting Lull

Well, here in Toronto we are still in a deep freeze with no end in sight and I have been feeling the freeze in both my quilting and blog entries. What helped me to get moving again was a workshop offered by Helen Garland and her mother Barbara Garland. I have attended a lot of workshops but I can honestly say that I have never attended one so well prepared, well-paced and warmly supported.

 

Helen Garland is the Vice-President of Yorkshire Rose Quilters Guild of Toronto and a fan of Ruth McDowell’s Technique and Method. Her goal was to demystify Ruth’s method by condensing her techniques into a six hour workshop. The emphasis was on the designing end of the process which included: transferring our chosen images into a workable drawing; finding section lines; working within major section lines to define or capture the essence of the image; and detailing what to do once the design is complete so that it becomes an art quilt.

Here are some of the quilts produced by Helen and her mother using this process.

 

 

 

 

Helen provided the workshop participants several handouts for using later in practicing different types of seam joining.

 

 

I was challenged by this technique but followed through the design process with my chosen picture taken of a lotus bud in the large pond in Ueno Park, Tokyo.

 

I am not sure when I will complete this quilt because the process has broken through my quilting lull and I am now working with some of the wonderful fabrics I brought back from trip to Japan. Stay tuned for “Cats Will Be Cats”.