Quilting Lessons Learned

I haven't been able to do much sewing lately (which makes me very sad) so I'm going to share something that I finished a few months ago. 

Several people in my new favorite quilt guild (Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild) have been asking and commenting about the quilting on my projects.  I will be the first to admit that the quilting process use to intimidate me more that anything.  I've found that the only way around that intimidation is just to jump right in and practice, practice, practice.....and take a class from Julie Lambert.  Julie makes the most FANTASTIC quilts and while that aren't really my own style of quilting (very traditional) I really feel like you can learn so much from her just on technique.  I took her workshop called Shadow Trapunto and finished these 2 little beauties...

There is a huge amount of stitching but they actually went pretty quickly to complete.

This quilt is made in layers with the top being a yellow batiste fabric with a bright orange fleece behind that was used for the trapunto and then batting and backing as usual.  Here's a closer look at the stitching...

The other little guy was just a sample that she put together for the class.  This one was a bright yellow fabric behind a layer of white batiste.

So my lesson learned is to keep taking classes from the most talented people.  Even if the finished projects aren't exactly your style you will still walk away with a wealth of information about techniques that you can carry over into your own projects.