Meadow Quilt Workshop

Two weeks ago, the Central Jersey Modern Quilt Guild hosted Lizzy House as our main workshop teacher for 2015. She is currently teaching her Meadow Quilt class all around the world  - it's not a pattern, but a class, and she assured us that we are now a part of the "Meadow Club." Yay!

 Most of the group:

Bottom row (left to right): Christina, Yumiko, Heather

Middle: Me, Lizzy, Meg

Top: Laura, Laura (our photographer), and Lindsay

The class was 6 hours long (plus a 1 hour lunch) and I didn't get much done overall (mostly because I was running the whole thing!). The block has several steps and involves templates and curved piecing (I talk more about the blocks below). After the practice block, we spent lots of time planning our quilts.

 

My fabric pull, based on this color palette from akula kreative:

Lizzy is a calm, encouraging, and thorough teacher. She showed us each step in detail and gave each of us color advice. If you are going to take the class in the next few months, make sure you bring practice fabric for your practice block! You can see more pictures from our workshop over on the @cjmqg feed on Instagram.

We got a sneak peek of Lizzy's upcoming fabric line, The Lovely Hunt. Oh my goodness, those blues and purples!! Definitely up my alley.

I was really happy with how my practice block came out! I used random fabrics within what I had brought for the class. I'm going to make it into a mini quilt or a baby quilt one of these days.

Lizzy gave us Meadow Quilt planning sheet. This was so helpful and a fun way to stay organized. I've been referring to it constantly as I work on the quilt.

My first couple of blocks done! Lizzy taught us how to sew curves with pins, and since I'm used to sewing them without pins, it's been going really fast. The quilt is really a labor of love because the prep takes a while. Stay tuned for more... it's my next project after the Selvage Bookcase.

I also attended Lizzy's lecture on Friday night with the Philly MQG. She regaled us with stories about: how she started designing fabric, her first trip to Quilt Market, and the inspiration behind some her artwork. I asked about the meaning behind the Pearl Bracelet fabric and was delighted with the answer: when you give someone a present (like a pearl bracelet), and the giving means more than the present itself. So wonderful.

I never thought I'd be in the position to suggest Pearl Bracelet colors, but there we all were! I told her that even though there are four purples out, I didn't think it was enough. ;)

The original Meadow quilt in the flesh. Pieced and designed by Lizzy, quilted by Angela Walters. I am just itching to quilt the negative space on my soon-to-be quilt top now.

I had the privilege of driving Lizzy around for the weekend, and I told her how much I appreciated her talk. As someone who is considered young in the quilting industry, education world, and the world in general, I connect with a lot of her experiences. I also sang Broadway tunes with her the whole way, which was loads of fun. :) Thank you, Lizzy, for a genuine and inspiring weekend!