New Bedford Disappearing Nine Patch

I have a bit of a backlog of stuff to share over here which hasn't been helped by the longest period of dark, miserable winter days I can remember which makes decent photography very difficult!

Finally we had a bit of frosty brightness and I managed to get a few shots of this Disappearing Nine Patch quilt I made for a new evening course at myBearpaw Studio.

I finished this just in time for our open weekend at the beginning of December. Then I went on my hols toTenerife (seems SO long ago now!) and then it was Christmas and so I am only just getting round to telling you about this new class now (it starts a week on Wednesday!).

No sales pitch here as the class filled up in that first weekend (though there are places left on another class... read on!).

I used the gorgeous new Denyse Schmidt collection New Bedford, which I think is one of the best she has ever produced (and that's saying something!). I love the bright happy colours.

The background is good old Kona Snow. It's not a big quilt at 51 x 61 inches, though students will be able to make it larger if they like. The background is an extra wide fabric by Swaffing, which you will probably see quite a bit of over here as I have it in three colourways!

Amazingly my husband adores this quilt! You never really know how they will react... And he's been using it for a little extra warmth at night recently (I'm at that stage of life when I seem to be heating up at night!).

Over the (almost) 5 years I have been teaching at myBearpaw the nature of my quilting students has changed from mainly beginners to mainly intermediates, so for the first time this term we have two different intermediate evening courses and no beginner's (though we have beginner day workshops and a new evening course starts after Easter!).

Our second evening course is a Mystery Quilt!! That's right I didn't have enough time to make this before I launched the classes!! And thanks to Sheila for that excellent teacher's cheat ;)

But of course the class starts in a couple of weeks so I need to get planning it now and have produced the first block...

This is a version of Storm at Sea and may not be the first block we actually make (we might need a more gentle intro!). It's made with Denyse Shmidt's up and coming collection Eastham (plus a little New Bedford), which is equally beautiful and very 1930's (would be great for Farmer's Wife). I am very lucky to already have some of this to play with :)

I have some wonderful plans for the rest of the blocks in this course. The idea is to make one in the class and a different version at home, giving you 16 blocks by the end, enough for a full size quilt (perhaps with sashing or borders). We will be playing with colour values at lot and working on many different techniques, and hopefully you trust me to design a lovely finished quilt for you! 

I have just 2 places left - would you like to join me (providing you are local obviously!)??

All the details are here and check out all our classes here - still places left on lots of our day classes!