Sewflake Design by Jan
Feb 17th, 2010 | Category: Student GalleryThere are many rewards in teaching quilting workshops, and one of the best is receiving photographs of a student’s finished work. I don’t usually get to see the final result in class so it gives me great pleasure to see a completed project afterwards.
This is particularly true about my Papercut Appliqué workshop. Based on my book Sewflakes: Papercut Appliqué Quilts, students learn how to design their own one-of-a-kind snowflake-style designs. The results are always different, amazing, and beautiful! I love teaching this class.
Sometimes, a student arrives to class with a clear idea of what they hope to accomplish. Such was the case with Jan, who took the workshop at the Quilts in the Gardens show in Burlington ON last year. She was in the process of making a quilt for her daughter’s upcoming wedding and wanted to design a co-ordinating wallhanging for her future son-in-law.
She was working with African fabrics and a safari theme, and knew that she wanted to incorporate elephants into her sewflake design. She even came to class with pictures of elephants! I remember debating with her what would work best in the center of her design and was delighted to see what she came up with. I was also most impressed with the way she made the elephants three-dimensional and with the embellishments that bring the animals to life.
Congratulations, Jan, on your stunning design. Your daughter and son-in-law must have been thrilled to receive such beautiful gifts from your heart and your hands.
Sis #2 checking in. I’m equally as proud of our youngest sister as Barb is. While the pictures are great, the real wall hanging is truly magnificent. The lucky couple are very proud to own it. It’s great to be able to share a hobby and the 3 of us take every opportunity to get together to quilt or talk about quilting. We’re presently in a Round Robin group with 3 friends and having a ball. We just passed along our work for Stage #3.
Truly amazing design which I have seen and experienced closely. Jan has done a phenomenal job! I am very proud of my sister…what a gift for a very special couple!
Thank you so much, Kathy, for sharing my work with fellow quilters. I really enjoyed making this wall hanging – I was super motivated because it was for a very special person – my new son-in-law!! I also felt really good about making it, because you helped me design it myself, which was new territory for me! I loved taking your workshop, and hope to use the technique again very soon, because I’m getting more and more interested in appliqued quilts.