Puzzled Nines Class

Yesterday I attended a guild sponsored quilt class. It was a fantastic class. The class was called Puzzled Nines and the teacher was Linda Wagner. She was also the program speaker at our guild meeting on May 3, 2010. She brought lots quilts to share with us that evening. There were lots of quilts that went whizzing by quickly so that Linda could show them all within the time limit she had for the evening's program. The topic of her presentation was playing games with yourself so that you could get those UFOs completed that most of us have residing in our sewing rooms. I say "most of us" because I know there are quilters out there who actually finish everything they start before they will start a new project, i.e. no UFOs. I hold those people in awe!

Linda is a very energetic person. She is also a prolific quilter. With all the quilts she shared, and the many she has finished and given away, I have decided she never sleeps. She works a full time job, and makes quilts in her spare time. She also teaches classes and does lectures for groups like ours. The quilts pictured above are some of Linda's Puzzled Nines quilts.

Linda is working on a series of floral Puzzled Nines quilts. She has three finished quilts in this series. She started class by placing her focal fabrics for her fourth quilt in this series on her design wall. She then added nine patches here and there and talked about how all the pieces could play together. By just moving one or two pieces, she showed us how a section could look better, how it could flow into the next design element, or even change the whole design concept with just a change of a nine patch or a focal fabric.

Linda had given us homework for this class. We were to bring at least 50 completed nine patches and our cut out focal fabrics to class. After Linda's class lecture and demonstration, we then started working with our own pieces on our design walls. Linda moved about the room for the rest of class and helped us with our designs.

This was such a great class. Linda is an excellent teacher, and shared with us so many wonderful design ideas. What I like so much about this class is that everyone's quilt will be different even though we all had the same teacher and the same class instruction. All the students asked for a follow up class so that we could see everyone's quilts again, and have Linda critique our designs.

This last picture is of my design wall at class. I have focus fabrics and some nine patches placed on my design wall. I have at least 100 more nine patches to place, and I want to find some more focus fabrics that will blend with what I have. I need to move some of my pieces around so that there are not too many umbrella pieces together. I think it looks a little bare right now, but when I get the nine patches all placed with the focus fabric pieces, I think it will look a lot better. The quilt size I am thinking about is a lap size, but as Linda said, the quilt will tell you what it will be.

For me this was a very liberating class. I feel much more confident that I can design a quilt on my own, and execute the design to my satisfaction. I usually work with patterns. I have never felt the need to make "original" designs, but after this class, I feel that I can design and sew a unique quilt without a written pattern. My grandbaby's quilt was inspired from a picture of a quilt in a magazine. After Linda's Puzzled Nines class, I am much more at ease with working without a pattern.

Happy Quilting