Ole and Blue

I spent 5 days in Sisters at a quilt retreat this week. Two days were spent in a wonderful class with Gabrielle Swain where I learned all about design and hand applique. It will be a long time before you see the quilt from that class but I am inspired.
The second class was with Jane Davila for only one day but we played with fabric, paper and lots of found objects. I created these two pieces in her class with a little follow up at home. The first one is called blue because I focused on finding pieces in that color family including rocks, paper and yarn. I loved sewing on the letters to finish it off.

The second piece was inspired by the wooden birds that I picked up at a garage sale on my way to Sisters. They look like they are from South America so I wanted a fiesta sort of feel. I couldn't find the letters to spell out "fiesta" so I settled for "Ole". I used fabrics that my friend Joanna had given to me for the class and had great fun digging through her box of treasures. I couldn't have done it without her.