Denise Schmidt Quilting Class

I had the privilege of attending a Denise Schmidt (http://www.dsquilts.com/) quilting class last spring. It was an amazing experience, even the train ride from New York to her studio in Bridgeport, CT was delightful. I incorporated my patchwork squares from this class into a quilt, still a work in progress, so no photos yet, but it's nearly finished.

About Town

Just a few things that struck me, some in a humorous way. I have had a lovely daydream of traveling around the country photographing all the different varieties of rideable (for children that is) animals, spaceships, etc in photo #2. Perhaps someone has already done this and made a coffee table book out of their photos?

Abstract Subway Art

Unfortunately for those of us who live in New York, the subway system is not in the very best of repair. Fortunately for me, the layers of old paint mixed with rust make for beautiful abstract designs.

Lavender Quilt

Small quilt with fussy cut centers, hand quilted down center of "logs" or strips.

Blue Sky

1) Sculpture outside the Louvre in Paris

2) Trees in Manhattan

3) Row of trees on grounds of Versailles

Colors

1) Fruit stand in Paris (even fruit looks better in French!)

2) Flowers in Madison Square Park

3) Flowers on grounds of Castle in Poland

beneath my feet....

Landscape-like scenes carved into beaten sidewalks. Some of them strike me as the perfect inspiration for random square/rectangle quilts.

Twin Quilts

My cousin had twin baby boys, so I made them soft, fluffy yarn tied quilts.

Golden Yellows

1) Storefront in Paris

2) Wallpaper at Grand Trianon on Versailles Grounds

3) Marketplace in Krakow, Poland

4) Rusty barrel, NYC streets

Wedding Cake

I made my friends wedding cake! After many, many trial runs and force-feeding friends samples of frosting, it's finished! I used the book Wedding Cakes You Can Make by Dede Wilson; although in retrospect I think it was a bit too detailed for what I needed. Aka, this cake, and particularly the frosting, were built to withstand extreme temperatures, but the wedding was in the Fall in Brooklyn, so perhaps not necessary. I made white and dark chocolate leaves interspersed with the roses for decoration.