Lizzy is in the House!

Last week I was lucky enough to get into the class Fabric Pattern Design and Printing with Lizzy House at gather here in Cambridge, MA.  It was nice to see Lizzy in my home state!  

The two-day class started off with Lizzy talking about how she entered the fabric design industry.  She also talked about elements that go into the design of a collection and taught how to make repeats by hand using tracing paper.  When you do it by hand, you really learn it!  We designed a three-piece collection and selected one for block printing.

The second day was reserved for block printing.  Lizzy majored in printmaking in school and it's something she really loves.  Her passion really shines through in her teaching.  Block printing takes quite a bit of time:  carving your block, getting the painting surfaces ready, preparing the fabric, preparing the paint and then finally printing the fabric with the blocks.  Oh, I forgot to mention cleaning the blocks!  I really like block printing.  It is a great way to experiment and develop new ideas.  I need to carve out some time and space to do it at home, though! (Ba-doom-pish!)

I was supposed to attend Lizzy's talk sponsored by the Boston Modern Quilt Guild and the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild, which was held the morning on the same day our second class was held.  I had a quilting emergency that kept me up until very late the night before.  I knew I had Lizzy's 6-hour class later that day, so I decided to sleep in (and I was afraid to drive up to West Newbury on only a few hours' sleep).  What quilting emergency, you ask? I'll blog about that a little later.

Lizzy graciously agreed to pose with my PB-Complete quilt I made this summer.  This quilt has all the Pearl Bracelets that have been released to date.  We will have more Pearl Bracelets in early 2014, so I'll have bragging rights for a little while longer. 

See what everyone else is up to this WIP Wednesday!