In late February I taught Folk Art Animals at the Stitchin' Post. I brought along some inspiration in the form of some of my favorite books, my wooden Ostheimer animals, and even my silver folk art animal bracelet.
I also brought lots of samples including some finished pieces.
I also brought several new starts that were ready for applique and/or embroidery.
The two small pieces on the right (above) are copies of drawings that Ryan and Chloe did. Ryan's dinosaur is fairly recent, but I knew I wanted to translate it to cloth as soon as I saw it. Chloe's bird is from when she was 4 years old. I still haven't finished them. However, the bird, three cats and funny blue dog above are finished and I'll do a blog post about them soon.
I also brought these two larger quilts as inspiration. The cat quilt, In the Night Garden, has lots of interesting cat faces. It's a good example about how a change in line changes the personality of a figure. It's a good reason to do your own designing. If you only ever follow a pattern you have no chance to see how something might be different with even just a little change in line.
Better Not Pout includes a Santa and Christmas tree that I copied from old drawings that Ryan did. it's one of my favorite quilts! I love that you can use these techniques to translate a child's drawing.
My students were awesome! They each created a unique and wonderful piece (or more than one!). It was a lot of fun!
Maybe you can join me the next time I teach this class. I don't have it on the calendar yet, but I'm sure I'll do it again at some point.