Di Ford Hall Workshop...Part 1

What an adventure...I have just returned from the Shipshewana Quilt Retreat in Indiana. Along with 3 quilting friends, I drove down to Shipshewana on Thursday and on Friday we attended a day long workshop with Di Ford Hall as our instructor. I met Di back in 1994 while on a quilting tour with Doreen Speckman (she passed away in 1999). Di owned a quilt shop in Melbourne and I had mine in Wisconsin. We shared a picnic lunch and I took photos, never dreaming 23 years later I would see this now famous Australian designer of quilts and fabrics. She is my most favorite quilter ever!

Our project was this...

We were instructed to bring a few backgrounds and assorted fabrics to work on the center medallion.

(I packed waaayyyy too many fabrics worrying that I would not have “just the right one.”) Silly girl! 

The focus of this class was to understand how to make your fabric work for you. 

We would start with the bird and leafy wreath.

 Incredibly, Di took the entire morning to visit each student’s work station (there were about 36 of us) 

and examine everyone’s fabrics...What an education as we listened and watched. Many of us had laid out a possible arrangement for the bird and others were not quite sure. I knew my bird would be red to honor my Mom’s love of cardinals and I hoped to use a particular paisley for the wing.

 I was delighted to be told it was a wonderful arrangement & I kind of floated from there! But I was nervous about the 3 background choices brought from home.  When Di saw the Elly Sienkiewicz  roses she was very excited as this is quite “precious.” This term is so sweet and she used it when questioning if we really

wanted to cut into it! So the roses background is the winner...my leafy wreath fabric had me kind of 

stumped and Di suggested this green and red print would work well giving the wreath movement.

We broke for lunch and the afternoon was all about sharing tips on achieving perfect points on a leaf;

 improved stitching when working with EPP hexies and 60 degree diamonds, broderie perse 

application and finishing details on the overall quilt. At this point I am holding off as to how to finish the rest of the quilt thinking about a different arrangment around the medallion center...no hurry! The 

center will take awhile and I can dream along the way.  

I have more “teaser” images to share from the class of Di’s other project - will try to add those in Part 2...and the Amish dinner, shopping at Lolly’s, show and tell...

(having major issues using blogger since the huge update with IOS a month ago so am only able to add a few photos for each post that I do on my iPad Pro- my apologies for the chopped up text)