Waterlilies Block

Hello quilt lovers,

I wanted to share the latest Ocean Waves Opportunity Quilt block that was completed.  Waterlilies was stitched by me, Mercy Savage.

I also wanted to post a few photos from my 

class last November with Sharon Schamber.  She is an incredible teacher and I highly recommend you take a class with her if you ever have the opportunity.  Below is a picture of me with Sharon.  

Jim made the trip to Lakeland, FL with me and attended the trunk show.  Sharon asked him and another husband from the audience to help her by holding up the quilts while she spoke about each one.  Lucky thing both husbands were tall & strong because the quilts were a good size and weighed an average of 60-70 pounds.  Here Jim (the guy on the left in the green shirt) and the other husband are holding up Sharon's quilt that was awarded the $100,000 prize - The Spirit of Mother Earth.  You can go to her website to see closeups of the quilting - I believe she said she used over 70 different stipple designs in the background.

http://sharonschambernetwork.com/gallery/tSoME/index.html

It's unbelievable in the photo so you can imagine what it's like in person!  

One of the classes I took with Sharon taught us how to free motion quilt feathers with NO MARKING.  Not that I have anything against marking but if you don't mark then you don't have to REMOVE the markings!  That's a huge plus for me.   Iris is the first piece I quilted after I took this class.  The Iris flower is a commercial pattern - I can't remember the name of the designer and I have misplaced the pattern.  I was making the wall hanging for a Christmas exchange in my small applique group - I drew my friend LaVerne's name - but saved the quilting until after Sharon's class.  It's not professional but I had a great time quilting it and there was NO MARKING and NO MARKING REMOVAL!  

 I hope you like it.  The close up shows a dragonfly I quilting into the background.  It looks a little like a butterfly because the tail is a little lost.  The problem (and what I learned) was that the width of the tail is the same width as the surrounding outline stipple.  If I ever quilt this design again I would either make the tail wider or I would make the surrounding outline quilting closer together.  I hope you enjoy the photos.

Happy Stitching!

Mercy in Miami - AKA The Savage Quilter