Jun 05 15

2015 North Carolina Quilt Symposium

Our web site was down for a few days and I’ve been working feverishly on a quilt top so haven’t gotten a post up yet in spite of the fact that the symposium ended last Sunday afternoon!  Each May, all the guilds across the state of NC get together for a big quilt symposium with a quilt show/vendor mall and a few days of classes.  The site rotates each year and this year it was in Flat Rock, NC.  It was a great time and I had wonderful students in my classes.  It began with a teacher get-together at the home of Georgia Bonesteel.  I first began quilting in 1979 and Georgia was THE pioneer quilter who even had a tv show.  That may not sound like a big deal now, but back then, Georgia was the IT GIRL in the quilting world.  It was kind of awe-inspring to be sitting in her kitchen and walking through her studio!  In addition to being a great quilter, she’s also a terrific gardener and here she is meeting us in her front yard (Note the quilt on the front of her home):
 
Georgias-house
 
The next day, I taught a class on trapunto and thread sketching where we made pansy wall hangings like this:
 
Pansy-Class-Finished-wallha
 
  My photos don’t do the colors justice, but it was a real treat to walk around the class and see all the wonderful color combinations that people came up with.  Here are some photos of works-in-progress.  This first one was made by Sandy Chambers and she was the only person who gave me permission to use her name!
p4
 
 
p1
 
p3
 
p88
 
p5
 
p6
 
p7
 
p8
 
p9
 
p10
 
p89
 
p88
I also got to teach a beginner level free motion quilting class and was lucky enough to have a great group of students in that class as well!  All in all, it was a total blast.  Great to meet all of you and hope we get to meet again!
 
 
 
 
 

5 Comments

  1. Marjorie Busby Says:

    Oh Patsy, I am so envious of your visit with Georgia. She was the IT GIRL when I was learning to quilt. I followed her shows on public TV and bought every book. So happy to see that she is well. And love the pansies from your classes. Looks like everyone had a great time.

  2. Sandy Says:

    Wow! Georgia Bonesteel was the reason I began quilting many years ago! The idea that I didn’t need an enormous hand quilting frame was an eye-opener at the time, and I learned so much from her books and TV series. 🙂

  3. Helen Says:

    OMG! That is the most beautiful piece of art! How do you get the jagged edges of that flower? It looks so real, they were very lucky ladies to be able to take your class. Thanks for sharing.

  4. Tina Beshears Says:

    I loved your free motion class on Sunday. It was an honor to be able to take a class with you and it gave me the inspiration I was needing to continue on with my future goals in quilting. Thank you so much for the individual time you spent with each of us. Yours was the best class I took at Symposium. I hope to get in on future classes in and around western NC. I haven’t looked through your site yet for a list of where you’ll be teaching but I plan to.
    Thanks again!

  5. jean Says:

    These are gorgeous! I would love to make this! They are lucky to learn from you!