Lynne's Liberated Letters Class

Here are the ladies from the Liberated Letters class on Saturday at Night Owl Quilt Studio. They had a grand time and they did great work, as you can see.
 

Amazing

I was looking through my pictures the other day and something stood out. I'll let you figure it out.

 

The smiles tell only part of the story, but they are my favorite part. 

It is so easy to forget how many students I have had over the years. These pictures are the students who took the Liberated Birds class. I've sold a lot of tutorials all over the world, and regularly receive photos of bird quilts in quilt shows all over. Last month I received a photo of a bird quilt in a quilt show in Auckland New Zealand. I heard there were three Lynne Tyler bird quilts in a show in Farmington CT recently. I've heard from quilt guilds who've made bird quilts as donation quilts and as raffle quilts. 

The birds are fun and very forgiving. Skinny legs, thick legs, long beaks, big beaks, short beaks, fat birds, short birds, big birds and little birds, almost any variation yields success.

It's humbling is what it is. And it's wonderful.

If you would like to make your own birds, go to my Etsy shop. The tutorial is an instant download so you can get started right away.

A Very Bird-y Weekend

Remember these two birds? I made them last year as part of my Happy Holidays quilt.

This is the finished quilt, but you can't see the quilting particularly well.

Here is the finished quilt hanging in my house.

I'll be teaching my Liberated Birds class tomorrow at Quilted Threads in Henniker NH. It's a fun class.

Then I'll be decorating the rest of the house for the Christmas season.

Scrap Slab Wrap Up

We had a lot of fun on Saturday making scrap slabs at Quilted Threads.

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A big advantage of a class is being able to put a lot of blocks up on the design wall and play with them to see what kinds of things happen.

Surprising things can happen.

We all liked this when it was up on the wall, then the students made one change, and we all liked it better!

This prompted a discussion about the importance of the placement of the black on white side triangles and whether to sew them to the colored triangle shapes before working out an arrangement, and how we all develop rules about what can and can't go next to each other (too many blocks with the same print, etc.)

It was a great class and we all had a good time.

My travel kit worked out great, and I knew there was a reason the suitcase I used was my least favorite suitcase. I think I will go suitcase shopping for something that fits and works a bit better. (And yes, I will bring the current one to make sure everything fits.)


If you would like to make a scrap slab triangle quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.

BFQG Birds!

I love teaching classes to quilt guilds. The guild members all know each other and the vibe of the room is always friendly and happy. The ladies of the Bedford Friendship Quilt Guild were no different. I had a grand time with them, and didn't take nearly enough pictures.

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This was a very thoughtful group. 

They had a lot of fun determining how long the bird's legs had to be.

One student had a hard time maintaining the 1/4" seam allowance while making the legs because the presser foot on her sewing machine was so wide. A quarter-inch foot generally works just fine, but she didn't have one. "Could I use a zipper foot?"

I thought it was a terrific idea and said so.

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And check this out...

 I had mentioned that having a central table with a big cutting mat would make it easier for the students as individual worktables get cluttered quickly. The ladies of the BFQG did one better and put two cutting tables up on these bed risers, making it easy and comfortable to work on. I ended up spending most of the day at one of these tables, giving demonstrations, advice and a lot of one on one attention.  This is an idea I plan to steal!


If you'd like to make your own birds, you can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

Snowy Thursday

We haven't had a particularly snowy winter, so I can't complain about this latest storm. I can't tell how much snow we got, not that it makes any difference.

I'm getting ready to teach my Liberated Birds to the Bedford Friendship Quilt Guild on Saturday, so I am gathering up everything I will need. If you want to make your own birds, you can buy my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.


PS, I've added a page to the blog that shows all the Diamond Quilts in one place. You'll see the link in the header.

Barns!

Here's one of the barns from the class at Quilted Threads on Saturday.

The class was very small, only four students, but it was great. I was able to give each student a lot of personal attention, and helped choose fabrics with a couple. We had a lot of in deep conversations about "What if I..." and "How should I do this..."

We talked a lot about Julie's quilt, and spent a lot of time looking at all the wonderful details. I had a grand time as well.

A Sample Barn

 I like to have a lot of examples for my students when I teach, but some  examples should be in pieces, so students can get a better example of how things go together.

This is a closeup of a barn door and a window. When a barn has two doors, I like to include a thin contrasting strip down the middle to show that. And sometimes I like to indicate a windowsill, thus the gold underneath the windows here.

Some barns have windows in the upper story, and some just have decoration. Here I have cut up a floral print to indicate a kind of star design, and used some contrasting fabric to show it off.  Notice the fabric in this upper story is different than the one used in the bottom half of the barn. 

See the thin red strip along the roofline? That is to indicate this barn has a red roof.

Leaving this sample barn in pieces like this is the best way to tell students to build the body and roof of the barn separately. That way there won't be any sewing into corners or applique to get them to fit together.

This barn also has two different options for the eaves. Notice the left side is different from the right.

I'll be teaching barns at Quilted Threads in Henniker NH today.

Barn Building

On Saturday at Quilted Threads ten intrepid women gathered to build barns in fabric.

It was a long day, and everybody worked hard.

A strip of flowers was a terrific addition to this barn.

All students had photos a barn they wanted to recreate in fabric. This was Laudell's.

Brenda thought the barns were a lot easier if you had prior free-piecing experience. She said taking my letters class helped her wrap her brain around how things got sewn together, and in what sequence.

As usual, I learn from my students, and I have several ideas to improve the class the next time out (which will be July 22.)


Funny story: There was a Lynn in the class (she's the second from the left in the photo above, hiding behind one of her friends.) We hit it off right away. Turns out she teaches quilt classes also. We were talking and she said that we were on the same wavelength. She said something about her age, and I said, "Well I'm 62."

"So am I," she said. "I'm going to be 63 this summer."

"Me too."

"Don't tell me your birthday is in July!"

I made a face. "Um, yeah, my birthday is in July."

"Well don't say it's on the 20th."

"OK," I said, "I won't. It's the 21st."

"I can't believe it. It's like we're related."

The world is a funny place.

Birds, Birds, Birds Class at Quilted Threads

I taught a Birds class yesterday at Quilted Threads. It was a fun day of birdmaking, and the students made a lot of terrific looking birds. Here is a sampling:

I don't do pastels or soft colors, but DAMN, this bird is stunning!

Donnie and Laura drove from New York State to take the class and stayed in the local B&B the night before.  Before they left they asked for a picture of me with the Flight of Fancy quilt.  Well, sure!

A good time was had by all, and the students were thrilled to receive the new bird tutorial, Lynne's Liberated Birds, to take home. You can purchase it here.

Birds & Henniker Barn in Sunshine

Of all the pictures I have of the Henniker barn, none of them is in bright sunshine, so it was a treat to take this photo yesterday morning, when I arrived at Quilted Threads to teach the Birds, Birds, Birds class.

I promise you there were twenty students yesterday. Here are fifteen with their first birds. They all "got it" and by 2 PM they were off to the races, with many of them making four or five birds.

Here are a few of them...

Liz and two of her friends drove all the way up from Connecticut and were very happy not only to take the class, but to see Julie's quilt, Just Wing It!

It was a GREAT DAY!