Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Preparing for Freddy Dot Com Class

Last month, LeeAnn of Nifty Quilts came to the Bay Area for work. We met for a delightful afternoon lunching and visiting the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. The current exhibit, Blanket Statements, pairs quilts from the Kaffe Fassett Studio with their historical inspirations from the Quilt Museum and Gallery in York, England.

The next week, Freddy Moran was the featured speaker at our guild, SCVQA. What a quilting treasure! After her lecture, we took her to the museum, too. Of course, she wanted her photo in front of a "dotty" quilt.


To meet most of the demand in our group, Freddy gave two workshops of one of her most popular classes - Freddy Dot Com.

I didn't think I had many dotted fabrics but decided to pull all of them from my stash before shopping. And here they are. {See why I can't have too large a stash? I can't even keep track of my small amount.}


Black-and-white fabrics are not big features of my stash. They never looked good with most of my fabrics. After dining with Freddy I figured out why. Freddy likes "pure" colors - those that are not shades or tints. Except for the reds, most of my fabrics have some grey or brown leanings. While I think they are bright at times, they are nowhere near as vivid and clear as Freddy's fabrics.

Even though I didn't have many fabrics that went well with the black-and-white, there were still many more than needed. I used the two fabrics on the left below (the  stripe and the black-and-white) to choose a more limited set, culling them to ones that blended. The three on the right made the cut. Most of the pinks did not.


Enjoy the day, Ann

26 comments:

Quiltdivajulie said...

Oh how I would have loved being a mouse in the corner -- or better yet a student in Freddy's class and a tagalong to the museum. What a most excellent experience you all shared!!!!!

LA Paylor said...

lucky... I also work with clear colors and love black and white mixed in. Love a dotty fabric and have quite a dotty collection. LeeAnna

Monica said...

Looks like a really fun time! Can't wait to see what you produced in class. :D

Lara B. said...

It must have been such a delight to meet Freddy and get to know her a bit better! Ann I always think you are right on the ball when it comes to combining fabrics and colors. I am not knowledgeable enough to always understand what makes colors look good (or not) together, but instead just go with knowing what I like.

Cathy said...

Oh, gosh! I wish I lived closer. What a lineup of speakers you have at your guild. I'm so jealous! Say hi to Lisa Boni for me in Oct.! She may not remember me but I participated in several CQ round robins with her years ago - she's done stitching on some of my blocks and I've done some on hers. I think I got the better deal with her stitching! She is soooo talented.

So, that was a glimpse of Freddy.com you were working on in the previous post? Lucky you to learn from the masters! (Did I say I am soooo jealous?)

Mystic Quilter said...

How lucky are you!!!!! I would love to take a class with Freddy Moran, when I saw her first book I was hooked and of course her following two with Gwen Marston are on my shelf. What a wonderful selection of fabrics you had to work with for the class - looking forward to your posting pics.

Mary Marcotte said...

Who isn't jealous? Of course we all are! I'm jealous that I can't get to the San Jose Museum with your group of quilters! My hubby will go to any museum at any time and we've been to many, but a quilt museum with a group of quilters is just fun! Naturally, I'd give lots to attend your classes, too. I wonder if my hubby will move...

Ann said...

I wish we could have found a room for a third day. There were so many people who wanted to take her class. Not only is she a quilting icon, she's a delightful person. I was very fortunate to spend so much time with her.

Ann said...

Yes you do, LeeAnna! And your work is beautiful. It was interesting to see how different fabrics affect the colors. I am learning I don't have to use all my fabrics in every quilt. It was fun to pull "Freddy" colors and see how the quilt differed from my regular style.

Ann said...

Thanks, Monica. I hope to keep working on this until it's quilted. Hopefully my machine will be back in time to start quilting.

Ann said...

Meeting the teachers is one of the joys of working on the programs. Everyone approaches quilting differently. We all have colors we like and don't. It is fun to work in her palette. I'd previously thought of those colors as juvenile. She is definitely not. :-)

Ann said...

Lucky you to have some work from Lisa. I don't do much handwork but admire her work so much. Great color and design.
Yes, those were from Freddy's class. You don't have to be jealous. If you were program chair at your guild you could choose speakers, too. (Hint, hint. I think everyone should take a turn.) Meeting the speakers is one of the many side benefits.

Ann said...

You and I must have similar bookshelves, Maureen. I regret the people I haven't taken classes with. Some have now retired. And some are on other continents. Thank goodness for books and the internet.

Ann said...

Perhaps you could come for a vacation or meeting? That's how LeeAnn came. Send me a note if you get to town. I hope to get to BR this year. We'll see.
And lucky us, to have husbands who like museums! There's a great railroad museum in Sacramento.

Nifty Quilts said...

It was great to meet you in person, Ann. What a fun afternoon! I'm glad I got to see the show with you, whose opinions were so similar to mine. Your fabrics for the Freddy class look great. Jazzy variety there.

Barb said...

What fun - Freddy is so inspiring!

Ann said...

I'm so glad we were able to get together, LeeAnn. How fun that you had a class with Freddy the week after ours. What a treasure.

Ann said...

She is, Barb. Everyone learned so much.

Kaja said...

Every time I read a post like this of yours I wish I lived where you do! I like your fabric pull and your point about clear colours is interesting. I went and had a look in my boxes and I don't have many either.

Ann said...

I wish we lived closer, too. I'd love to see your quilts in person. I think we like similar colors. It's fun to see how you handle them and then it's interesting to try different palettes occasionally. There's always more to learn.

Teresa Duryea Wong said...

I must have a million dot fabrics. Can't wait to see what you do with these!

Ann said...

Isn't it odd how many we all have? I'm mixing mine with some stripes and plaids.
I hope you had a great time in Lincoln.

O'Quilts said...

So wonderful...lucky you

Stephie said...

I was sad not to be able to get to see the exhibition in York - and the museum has since closed its doors for good, lucky you! I'm going to show my ignorance here, but I've never heard of Freddy Moran.

Mel said...

What a fun picture of the programs team with Freddy in front of a polka dot quilt! Her lecture and workshops were a great success, many thanks to this fun team of volunteers!

Ann said...

Thanks, Mel. We think you're fabulous!