As promised, here are a couple of photos from the workshop with Hands All Around Quilters in Bloomington, Illinois last Friday.

Becky took a photo of a beautiful poppy she grew, the kind that produces seeds used in baking and cooking. The detail in the center is remarkable, even after altering. Becky jumped right in a did scads of free-motion stitching to outline the petals and detail the center—then proceeded to add borders and stretch the piece and mount it herself! Didn't she do a fabulous job?

Sue’s piece is very different. She took this photo at a hot-air balloon festival earlier in the year and was intrigued by the image of the sun and clouds on the balloon. After altering, she added texture and detail with free-motion work.

Sometimes altering a non-floral image can be challenging, but Sue’s piece is exceptionally lovely. It has not yet fulfilled it’s destiny (it hasn’t yet been mounted or finished). I’m hoping Sue will send another photo once it is bound or framed.

These are just two examples from the group of 16 diverse compositions in the Friday class. Additional photos will be shared as they are available.

If your quilt or art guild would like to have a program and workshop, please contact me. There are a couple of openings in 2010.

Lori and I traveled to Naperville, Illinois on Tuesday to visit the Riverwalk Quilt Guild. What a fun group of ladies! The trunk show went well Tuesday evening and the workshop on Wednesday was very productive.


Each participant sent their photo to us ahead of time, so we could alter it, print it in sections, and have it ready for the workshop. This is Catherine Redford's finished piece—bound and beaded!


Catherine was familiar with free-motion work and jumped right into the project.



She used flame-shaped stitching to add color and texture.


Sharon Racibozynski (apologies for the spelling Sharon) had never done free-motion work before and found it easier to work with the feed dogs up. She said this is the first piece she has finished in a long time and the guild would be surprised to see it at the next show-and-tell!

Pegg Hislop spent much of the workshop outlining the many petals in this flower, but it was well worth it! Pegg, we can't wait to see the finished piece!

Beth Hunter adds detail to a cone flower before moving to the color sections.

Ladies, thank you all for a delightful day! My heartfelt hope is, even if you don't plan to make photo quilts, you found something to enrich your own work.