This year has been an amazing year for meeting my quilting heroes and taking workshops with them! It started back in January when I took a class on hand quilting with Sarah Fielke. In February there was a trip to Quiltcon and classes with Carolyn Friedlander and Penny Layman. Next month I’m taking the Meadow class with Lizzy House in Wellington…and last weekend I took a ‘Modern Wedge’ workshop with Kathy Doughty at All Things Patchwork in Auckland. It’s been a good year!
Kathy and Sarah’s ‘Material Obsession‘ books were my first glimpse into how joyful and colourful quilts could be (all book links in this post are to the Material Obsession shop). I bought MO1 before I had even started quilting and I’ve since spent hours pouring over the pages, mesmerised by the fabrics, colours and designs. Taking a class with Kathy is something I never could’ve imagined when I bought that first quilting book.
The workshop started with a show and tell by Kathy. We were introduced to the ‘wedge’ and some of its many variations. The photo below shows just a few of the block samples that Kathy had brought along to show us.
Kathy also had a huge pile of quilts to share, this is her Garden Party quilt from ‘Making Quilts’.
Before launching into making our own wedge blocks, Kathy asked us to organise our fabrics in to three piles; warm, cool and neutral and then to organise each pile by value. This simple exercise helped us think about contrast, and helped us get off to a good start choosing fabric combinations for our blocks. The rest of the day was spent pairing fabrics, cutting and sewing. I wanted to make the most of the day so worked hard and only took a short break to scoff some lunch and snap a few photos (hence the lack of photos to show you!).
Megan arranging her wedges on the design wall.
Kathy took this photo of me hard at work (haha!). The wedges on the design wall behind me are Megan’s, mine and mum’s. We’re all making Vintage Spin blocks, the pattern for which can be found in Kathy’s book ‘Adding Layers‘.
These blocks are fun to make and a great way to use some of the larger scale prints in my stash. Another wonderful workshop experience, I’m really looking forward to the Meadow workshop now!
6 thoughts to “Modern Wedge Workshop with Kathy Doughty”
Looks like an amazing day ! I would love to have so much occasions to take classes 🙂 Your quilt will be gorgeous.
I do love your 'vintage-y' looking blocks! And that darkish red fabric in bottom R)block is particularly eye catching!
I love your blocks!! Looks like fun. And that Garden Party quilt is just beautiful!
Your blocks look amazing! I would love to have Kathy Doughty as a quilt teacher!
They are super cool blocks! I think I will have to put them on my to-do list – sigh, so much to create, such little time! Glad you had fun, you are certainly doing well at meeting up with all these quilting legends!
Gorgeous blocks Rachel – and you HAVE had an awesome year for meeting some wonderful quilty peeps! It's just so amazing and such a treat to be able to meet and learn from such lovely, talented people. Here's to finishing the year on a high with your Lizzy House class, you will love her and the class. x