Power Stripping with Brenda Gael Smith

16 of us did a terrific Power Stripping workshop with Brenda Gael Smith from Serendipity Patchwork and Quilting on Saturday. Brenda has kindly blogged about it, with some progress photos here.  It was very good to see her Power Stripped quilts up close, to study the well thought out use of values, to compare the proportions of designs using different strip widths, and to discuss the quilting options for different designs and fabric choices.  While the sewing was straightforward (as is the point of Power Stripping), there was quite a bit of thinking to be done!

Here are some more photos, but be sure to check out Brenda's photos too - they are different, and show many more blocks. We achieved a great deal in the workshop - there will be more completed tops to share pretty soon, and lots of ideas for future quilts.

By Monday, Dawn had made and put together 49 blocks.completing her 4-bar basket weave top!

Fabric choices varied - this is Dawn's  Jelly Roll

Some of Margaret's beautiful batiks (a popular fabric choice for this workshop)

Noelle included some gorgeous Kaffe Fassett 

Elsa chose to work with rich reds and neutrals

Brenda's Keyhole design is behind her

Detail of Brenda's Melody 33 - made with 33 strips, cut across the width  to maximise economy

 We were also impressed with Brenda's portable/temporary design wall - a wide length of white polar fleece, with rod pockets sewn top and bottom to accommodate two dowels, that can suspended by a cord over any convenient support, such as a tack or two in the top of a door frame, a window handle, or a hook in a wall. It rolls up around the dowels for easy storage and transport (it would fit under a bed easily, or in the corner of a closet such as a broom cupboard). Our blocks stayed nicely in place without pinning, while we admired them, and took in what was working well, and what might work better!

These are Robyn's black, white and yellow blocks - lots of movement from the graphic prints

Thank you Brenda, for a great workshop, and Georgie for organising it.
Photos - thanks to Sue Crowe.