In August I took a Zoom class with my friend Sandy.  We both belong to the Virginia Consortium of Quilters which in times other than COVID has meetings all over the state four times a year and offers classes during the meetings.  When COVID arrived they pivoted to a remote model which has served them well. 

Sandy and I were familiar with the instructor, Julia Graves, as she did a wonderful presentation of her “Quilting Journey” in September of 2019 for the Hospitality Chapter of the Richmond Quilt Guild, as well as a Gemstones Piecing workshop.  She is thorough and knowledgeable and we thought it might be a nice diversion and an opportunity to use up some of those fabrics we have been collecting. 

The pattern was easy to come by as the designer, Jenny Bowker has a shop on Etsy under her name (JennyBowker) and it is an instant PDF download. 

I won’t lie; one of the hardest parts of this class was picking out the fabrics.  This class is based on contrast which, although it should be a no brainer, is not easy for me.  I thought it would be a great project to use some of those lovely florals that I’ve been (hoarding) collecting over the years.  And so it went.

The fabrics were set out and shuffled and moved and turned into black and white.  This is one of the best lessons I learned, the fact that the little device that I use daily and take pictures with can help me with my quilting and color placement.  Did you know that on most of your phones you can turn those color pictures into black and white – mind blown.  Well, ok, I was impressed. 

Truth be told I didn’t dare take this off the design wall until it was totally pieced.  I feared once I took it down I would never remember which way it went and it would be relegated to the UFO pile which is supposed to be shrinking (it isn’t because I keep find these other projects!).

Although I didn’t nail the “contrast” lesson with each block pairing, I did hit it well in a few places.

Once the top was done I found the absolute perfect backing – a Hoffman from 2017 and if I can find more of it I will buy it again!  Seriously, isn’t it fabulous!

I brought this to Deanne Davis of Creative Quilting Company here in Richmond and together we found the right design and thread for this project.  And what a wonderful job she did. 

Although I won’t be hurrying to start another one of these any time soon, I am thrilled with the outcome.  It may not be perfect, but it is perfectly fine.  My vision of a field of flowers in the soft breeze has been achieved. And in some places we have “shimmer” and in others we have “impressionism”.

Just in time for holiday sewing…