Happy Village finish!

It's always fun when quilters send me pictures of their finished projects from class. I got this over the weekend from Mary. She made a nighttime Happy Village scene...now I want to make one too! I love that she used lighter colors on the roofs in the front and darker as you look to the back of the village. Very interesting aspects to this one. She used a black tulle with sparkles on it to show snow.

Anne finished hers soon after class. It's a bit blurry, but you can see the project during class below. I've seen some other partially finished village pics so hope to see some more finished villages soon!

More Happy Villages

I taught a class on the techniques used to make the Happy Villages quilts on Saturday...what fun we had. I will just let you look through the pictures of progress on these artsy projects!

I love the river....see any houses?

See the church?

Boat ride anyone?

Rent a cabana, anyone?

Sunrise....Sunset....

Sparkly netting for this nighttime village.

I see a castle by the river in her future!

Soft and cozy village...I'll book a room!

Lots of pretty trees in this colorful village!

Yes we made a mess!

I know I keep saying it, but I'm trying to do better on posting. I had a great time on my retreat a week or so ago...and have many pictures to prove it! Soon....

My Happy Village

Building a Happy Village...

I spent Saturday teaching quilters how to make seaside villas, magical vacation spots and other fun villages using Karen Eckmeier's book Happy Villages. They added mountains, skies and water to create interesting views.

Diane

I took multiple pictures throughout the day so that we could remember where we started! They got more creative as they created their vistas...adding interesting details.

The cottages, castles and waterfront villas appeared as they added more pieces to their work. It was amazing!

Jane

If you look closely, you can see that Joyce added an island with a bridge.

Joyce

Jeanette used an Alaskan vacation picture as her inspiration. It was beautiful.

Jeanette

Jonette has several series of long steps down to her waterfront.

Jonette

This was my working model for the class. I worked along with them, adding pieces to show the steps to creating these villages. Everyone enjoyed the freedom to create and became more enthusiastic about their projects as the day went on and they could see the beauty. Since you can change as you go if you decide you don't like it, the sky is the limit. (and your basket of scraps!)

My working model for class

Making a Happy Village

With the Happy Village class coming up this weekend, I need to start a class model to show the quilters how it goes together.

 It's sort of fun and magical how odd shaped pieces like this can make something so beautiful and artistic! I had a lot of fun playing with shapes and moving them around.

Have you tried one of these villages? Stop by and see us work the magic on Sat. at Cut Up and Quilt or sign up and join in on the fun!

Happy Village....let's visit!

 I spent most of the past two days working on my Happy Village quilt and it's finished. I enjoyed making it and am already planning the next one. Water....the next one is going to have water...

As I quilted around the shapes, I could definitely see places that could use more quilting, like roofs, trees, fill in areas. So I did some quilting on some of the roofs and other areas. I think it gives it even more dimension. (If you look back and forth between the two pictures, you can see the difference). It's hard to know where to stop on this one...when to stop making houses, when to stop quilting. I was afraid to quilt the sky on my machine because I wasn't sure if I could get the look I wanted. Plus I had added in a piece of white tulle for effect and wanted to make sure it wasn't going anywhere. So I hand quilted the sky using a very light blue thread. I wish I would've made the sky a bit bigger by starting the houses down farther, but I can try that on the next one, right? 

Before I went on retreat, I made these Boxy Pouches for my retreat friends. I used purchased quilted fabric so they were quick and easy to make.  I have a few left for other gift giving.