Meet Annette Ornelas of Southwind Designs

 I've cruised and learned with Annette twice now and, man oh man, does it keep getting better!

Last year I went on a quilting cruise through Quilt and Cruise (Dawn Olmstead) with Annette as the teacher. We went to St Maarten, St Kitts, and San Juan PR. It was so wonderful that we booked another cruise for this year - same dates, same cruise line, same terrific teacher - but different ports.

This year - just a week ago actually, I joined the same friends and Annette for another week of sailing and sewing bliss. The ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) were our destination this time.

Most of Annette's patterns use a very clever technique that takes advantage of the bias edge of folded squares and rectangles. After becoming part of a block, these bias edges are then folded back and top stitched down to produce a smooth, gentle curve.

Last year we made "As You Wish" and this year "Mexican Star Dance". Both patterns have this fold and stitch technique that make them really interesting.

Annette also has lots of fun small designs for wall hangings and table runners.  Many of the cute little designs are cruise or inspiring words themed. I'm putting in an order with her so that I can offer her pattrns in my booth are the KC Regional Festivan in June. As soon as I finish Mexican Star Im goihng to start the Flamingo and Victorian Table Runner. There are so many cute ones it's tough to choose! I also just signed up her 2023 Mystery BOM. Can we say excited!

Do yourself na favor and check out Annette's website. If you have the opportunity to take a workshop with her, then please do. I'll be adding a class on one of her pattterns to my workshop list - but its better to get the real deal!

Curiousity on the High Seas!

Sedona QAL Block 3 - Desert Bloom -

 

Each Block just gets prettier and prettier. This one is my fave so far.
Each block is made of 4 "petals" - smaller units that go togethr fairly quickly.

There are a couple of things that you need to pay attention to. 

The first trouble spot is when you trim off the points on the background pieces. Its important to get the angle correct otherwise  you won't be able to properly cut the curve on this background piece. You should be trimming perpendicular to the short side. It is so easy to get it wrong and trim perpendicular to the hypotenus (remember HS Geometry?). If you trim them correctly, you will have no trouble completing the next step and cutting the curve out.

The next few steps just require following the directions. Easy-Peasy. Remember not to pull your peices as you are sewing the curves.

The next place where you need to pay attention is when you are squaring up the units. If you don't have 1/4 inch from the "petal" to the seam of the triangle on the corners, it won't match when  you sew the 4 petals together. Its more important to be exact on the center triangle (The dark green in this pic) than to be exact on the background triangle.

When you sew the 4 units together you'll want to match the seams of those triangles - see the center of the flower in this photo.

Overall it was a fun block, if a little fiddley to get the seams to match. 

This is the third block, so its not too late to join the QAL.