Bargello Sunflower Quilt Class with Jennifer Houlden

On Saturday I attended a quilt class with my mom and my friend Patricia.  The class was taught by designer Jennifer Houlden.  I wasn't familiar with her work, but as Patricia's mother used to say, all good Ukrainian girls must have sunflower pictures in their kitchen, I jumped at the chance to make one for myself.

 The petals are made using a bargello technique.

Jennifer is an incredibly organized teacher.  As well as having a printed pattern for each of us, she had this large board of instructions illustrating the steps for making the bargello piece.

 My friend is working hard on sewing her colour strips together while I am wandering around taking photos.  We both decided to go with more traditional sunflower colours while my mother opted for a blues flower.

 After the strips were sewn together, we sliced and diced and sewed them back together with  slight offsets.  I love the pinks of another student.

An even brighter version than mine

 

My bargello fabrics

Patricia's bargello fabrics

 This is the stage I am at now.  I am working on laying out my flower petals for best effect.  We want the tips of the petals to be light and the other end dark.

Jennifer showed up how to use a light table to layout the petals.

 A few of my fellow students got their flowers layed out ready to fuse onto their background fabric.

 That is Jennifer on the left.  She did a great job of teaching this technique.  She started the class with a group discussion and then did either small group or individual instruction as required as we progressed through each step.  The class was made up of quilters with a wide range of experience and everyone was able to do the project with varying amounts of guidance from Jen.  I wouldn't hesitate to take a class from her again.

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