ELAINE QUEHL, Quilt Artist, Teacher, Dyer, Designer

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Cherry Tree Quilts

Cherry Tree Quilts is a beautiful shop in the town of Summerland, in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. Owner, Barb Gillespie, runs a well-stocked store with a broad array of products. That's Barb on the left behind the cash. Although my three classes took place at a local hall, we did make visits to the store to pick up fabrics to round out students' palettes, especially for my In Full Bloom class.

Students seemed to have a great time playing with dyes in my Dye Another Day class. This is Deb with a stack of colourful fabric batching in small containers.

Shirley's stacks of batching fabric were quite joyful to behold.

but not as joyful as seeing the finished product. Here are Linda's hand-dyes after being washed.

Meet my first student to ever complete a tree trunk in class time, and what a great job she did!

Here's most of the Collage Tree class.

Some students came for all three classes, some only took one or two classes. The last day's class, In Full Bloom, was a bit of a challenge with the Steam a Seam problem. Steam a Seam is back-ordered so far into the future that no shop seems to be carrying it. What I love about all Steam a Seam products is the pressure-sensitive, re-positionable adhesive, that makes it easier to build a design with many little pieces. Fortunately, there is a new product on the market called Lite EZ Steam II by Pellon that saved the day. It is the only other fusible I've seen with the pressure-sensitive, re-positionable adhesive, however, it did throw a challenge in that it works a bit differently, adding even more complexity to In Full Bloom. Despite this, everyone pushed ahead and some great pieces were started. I hope everyone will send me pictures when they are finished.

2 comments:

  1. I've read lots about the SteamASeam shortage, glad you found a good replacement to use. Do you think you'll ever teach a class in the US? Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Laura,
      I would really prefer to have the old Steam a Seam Lite, but at least this product has a pressure-sensitive adhesive. I have no plans to teach in the US at the moment. Am waiting for someone to invite me.

      Delete

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