Athens time

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Angela Madden - Workshop!

As soon as I heard that Angela Madden was going to teach a workshop for our local group, Thanet Quilters,I signed up super quick to not miss it! And I was not disappointed. Angela is a lovely very approachable friendly lady who loves to chat with everyone but still gets things done. I won't tell you what happened to her on the way here but if you meet her, DO ask her to tell you... you're in for a funny story (we worked hard but we laughed a lot too).

Here she is in front of her most amazing rainbow quilt;



She was just having a wee cuppa tea when I asked her to pose with the quilt (it's my favourite) and she graciously agreed (thank you so much Angela), but had to bring her tea! (as you can see, it was that sort of a day, relaxed, fun but jam packed full of information and technique too!)

Angela brought lots of quilts and samples for us to see, too many to put on the blog but if you want to have a look, do go and check out her site at angelamadden.com Lots of more loveliness to see and other classes to take. (Just click on the name to get there)

We all had an amazing day, learning not only the 'Slice a Circle' technique Angela came to teach us, but getting lots of stories from the quilt world and lots of little tips and tricks on how to do things. Some of them are amazing and shouts could be heard around the hall... 'Wow.. that WORKS like a treat! How come WE never thought of that?'



The Church Hall was still decked out in lots of cheery Jubilee bunting, a cheerful atmosphere to work in and check out each others' progress.


Would we like to learn the technique of how to construct the rainbow quilt or something like this?



Well... as far as I was concerned.. "Yes Please!!" :-) So I duly purchased the ruler that Angela especially designed to achieve these patterns with ease and the book, in case I wanted to check up at home what I hadn't taken in at the time.



As Angela says, it is a technique anyone can learn and it is really astonishing how with a simple change of colour, the same block can seem totally different! We had a quick first tryout at designing and for a first go, I came up with this;



Not quite a rainbow quilt yet, but... who knows.. with a bit of practice the sky might be the limit!

9 comments:

Jo said...

Wow looks great, did you come away with something to show, or was all the time spent on design and learning the Technic's????

Susan said...

I'm impressed with your designing skills! I'd love to see you make it up in some pretty colours!

barbara woods said...

they are great

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Wow - will be looking out for what you come up with x

Cathy @ CabbageQuilts said...

Wow, what an incredible class! Can't wait to watch your design grow. xo

Rafael's Mum said...

Thanks guys. The entire day is spent on technique Jo. You sew a tiny sample to teach you a new (easier) technique of sewing curves and straight lines (with freezer paper)but apart from that it's mainly design based. There is so much to learn that there wouldn't be time on a one day workshop, so you go home equipped with the knowledge to put the time in at home.

Jo @ life in lists said...

Oh wow, it looks like a great class! The kind of thing you really could only learning in real life rather than from an internet tutorial. I'm so tempted to order that book...

Unknown said...

Looks like it was a very interesting class - I look forward to seeing your 'rainbow' quilt

Betty said...

Wow! This really looks beautiful and very complicated: I hope there are shortcuts?