Illinois Quilters Inc--Stars All Over

I recently spent time with the Illinois Quilters Inc.in Northbrook, IL. Their program person, Sue, saw me in action at Spring Festival in Chicago as I gave Open Studio presentations the last 3 years and booked me to come teach for them.

A great hostess, who took care of everything, Sue:

Flying into O'Hare with very minor time delays, I was met by two great hostesses, Sue and Martha. They  have the airport run down pat--Sue came into baggage claim to help with the bags, while Martha circled or went to the cell phone lot--no parking permitted at the arrivals area unless you are loading your car. They keep you moving. As soon as my bags arrived, Sue texted Martha and she pulled up to the curb as we exited the building--very smooth.

After dropping off my personal luggage at the hotel, we headed out for a lovely meal and conversation at a Market/Deli. Quilters always feel like they've known each other forever--these women quickly felt like old friends.

Then we headed to the church were the meeting was held to get the technical stuff done--connecting my Ipad to their projector worked perfectly--we felt so smart but were probably just lucky. The lecture was "How to Make an Award-Winning Quilt" and it was well-received.

The next day we gathered back at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, for our first class:  Feathered Stars Precisely Paper Pieced. This is usually a 9-12 hour class but the guild asked if I could do it in one day. As long as everyone had all their pieces cut out before class, we could give it a good try. It was pedal to the  metal all day and they got pretty far along. One amazing student, Nona, worked really hard and got 2/3 of her star pieces made: 

This was helpful for the rest of the students to see--it's like a jigsaw puzzle.  Here is some of the student's class work:

Vickie, I think

Bill, the lone gentleman in the class

Martha, I think

Lynne--don't you love the orange against that blue?

All in all, they did great and most figured out why it's usually a longer class. But they all know how to finish their stars once all the "parts" are pieced.

Day Two was a new class with a few students staying on and a some new ones joining the fun. We made String Stars--Save Our Scraps, here are a few:

Barbara, with a Christmas theme

Diana, with plans to make an "exploding" star

Vickie, very scrappy and happy

Mary with a beautiful scrappy red, white and blue star

Lynne, determined to use up lots of bright kids fabrics

This time we remembered to get a class shot

Everyone got their block assembled, or very close--a successful day.

Nona, from the Feathered Star class, was the class "hostess" for the second day but did not take the string star class. Instead, she worked hard to complete her Feathered Star, in between taking lunch orders and going to get lunch.

It is helpful for students to see how all those paper pattern pieces come together--the jigsaw puzzle. Here is Nona's before she assembled it:

And, ta da! Nona and  her beautiful block--thanks for keeping at it for most of two days, Nona:

I had a great time with these good folks. They fed me well, showed me around and did their best in class. Too soon it was back to O'Hare the 4th day to head for home.

A few days later, Bill posted his completed block on Instagram--beautiful block, Bill:

I hope to see more Feathered Star and String Star blocks from this group in the future.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara