Harriet Hargrave workshop

I was fortunate to be able to take a Harriet Hargrave workshop at Quilting is Happiness in McKinney recently. I wasn't sure about what I was in for....but I had a pretty good idea it would be intense. Harriet is a wonderful teacher and very passionately serious about quilting and teaching. She teaches Heirloom Quilting on a machine as well as piecing techniques. This class was on the quilting aspect of her knowledge. I haven't done any freehand quilting at all, so it was a huge eye opener for me. I learned that I will need to practice....A LOT.....to be able to free hand. I like this. It means you can't just pick it up, but you have to work at it. Challenging. Yes? Yes. Right now my quilting looks like a drunk trying to mend a sock on a crummy sewing machine. Yeah.......almost disheartening......but I am going to try. And try and try.... This is Harriet with one of the students and one of her glorious quilts.




One of the things I love about taking classes is the people I get to meet. I don't tend to meet a lot of quilters in my daily life so this is nice for me. I met some wonderful quilters in this class. Not only great quilters but genuinely nice supportive people. Hi Chris! :0)

We also worked on stitching in the ditch a bit. Here are my placemats getting that technique. I had no idea I was doing it wrong. This does look a lot better than my previous work. I also learned I should not meander on a walking foot...........yes. I actually did this. hahaha I was wondering the whole while "why in the hell do people do this?" Yeah......so much for self teaching. It is easier to do it freehand. Not that it looks better at this point....just saying easier than the alternative.








Now....can you guys be brutally honest with me? Would you hate these? My fear is that I have no style and no idea they are actually hideous. I think many crafts people probably wonder this. You get into it and all of these new techniques and fabric draw you in and pretty soon...WHAM!! You are wearing ugly quilted coats that shouldn't even be in public because you like the fabric or technique, think it looks great and you have no idea you look like a Bozo reject. I am serious. You wouldn't let me go out like that, would you? Honest. Brutal. I can take it........




And this is a top finished a few weeks ago. I think I will also ditch quilt this and maybe branch out slightly and do a pattern within the blocks....hmmm. We will see......