Liberated Medallions with Gwen Marston

On Sunday and Monday, I enjoyed the Liberated Medallion quilts workshop with Gwen Marston.  It was a smaller class, and only one other person from the Saturday class was there.  Gwen started the workshop by gathering all of us in a circle and sharing some of her medallion quilts.  As she spread them on the floor in the middle of the circle, she talked about her inspirations and choices for each piece.  After her very inspirational discussion, we all went to our machines and started our creations.

From time to time, Gwen would demonstrate techniques and tricks she uses to create her wonderful works of art.  She was available to help and guide us throughout the workshop. I found it a great environment for growth and learning.

I shared a table with two very talented women from Northwest Washington, Ruth and Karen.  Ruth chose to work with beautiful batiks.  This is her piece.

I love the colors she selected to go with her focus fabric in the center.  The placement of the liberated triangles really help the eye travel throughout the quilt.  I also like the inset lines on the left.  This is quite a stunning piece and I had a great time watching it grow.

My other table mate, Karen, worked with fantastic Kaffe Fassett fabrics,  some from older collections and all really beautiful.

Karen also used liberated triangles in her first border.  I love the way the colors of the triangles bring out the colors in the focus fabric.  The curved insets in the top and bottom of the first border are mimicked in the KF target print on the outside border, which I think is a great touch.  I love the little strip of target in the top border and the piece of purple in the bottom one.  This is another really beautiful work of art.  It was great fun watching the growth of this piece, as well.

I would like to thank Ruth and Karen for their generosity of spirit, sharing of fabric, and wonderful humor that all added to the great experience I had in the workshop.

This is the piece I started.  I have the next border cut out and partially pieced.  I can't wait to get back to working on it.

Meanwhile, back in my studio, I finished up a couple of small projects today, and finished piecing my H2H quilt project.  Tomorrow, I need to get that one quilted so I can put it in the mail next week.

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting, everyone.