Featuring Susan Gardner!

I was privileged to teach at the Sisters Quilt Show this past July and offered a 2-day wholecloth class. I always encourage my students to share their pieces with me after they're done so they can inspire the rest of you. It's always a treat when somebody DOES share their finished project...today I get to showcase Susan Gardner...here is the story that accompanied her pictures~


In July I took a class with Cindy at the Quilters Affair in Sisters, Oregon. I was not familiar with her style, I only knew it was to be a whole cloth quilting class. Wow, did I have fun! Even though it was a two day class, I was only able to complete the marking of my class project. (I used the Pilot FriXion pens to mark, they make a nice clear fine line easy to follow and iron away.) During class I was busy learning all sorts of things from Cindy about threads, needles, pin basting quilts together and many other helpful bits of advice. Cindy does a great job of teaching and encouraging her students.

I came home after my class and found that I could do a fairly good job of quilting these type quilts so I went in search of some old linens. I found a nice little white table runner with feathers that were appliquéd onto the runner with a sheer fabric.

Not really knowing just where I wanted to start this type of project, I just jumped in and used some white cotton fabric with silver sparkles to put the runner on. From there I marked some more feathers and some cross hatching and stitched away using Superior thread's Bottom Line. I thought about using some silver/metallic thread, but changed my mind and just used white thread. I also stitched around and inside the sheer feathers that were on the purchased runner. I did use a Sulky white metallic thread to satin stitch the edges of the runner to the “quilt”. While I love beads, since this is a table runner I opted not to bead this project.

I have two more table clothes to work on, I'm really having fun looking for table clothes to turn into great little quilts! Thanks Cindy!

Susan Gardner