Amalfi Coast Happy Village

Happy Villages by Karen Eckmeier

In March, I took a workshop to create a Happy Village, based on Karen Eckmeier's book, Happy Villages. The course was taught by Jan Kittle, the owner of The PickleDish quilt store in Carleton Place ON.

I completed a large part of the wall hanging that weekend, but like most things, it took me a while to finish the entire project. Well, it's done!

I chose the Italian Amalfi Coast because I fell in love with it when we visited. The views were spectacular and we had the best lunch ever! Anyone who knows me, realizes that travelling is about the food (and the people, the views, the wine and when ever possible, the fabric!)

Amalfi Coast Postcard

Here's a picture of the postcard that the wall hanging is loosely based on.

The project calls for adding mesh on top of the piece and then sewing over it. This stops the fabric from fraying. I chose not to do that since the mesh really tones down the colours, no matter what colour mesh is used. Since I'm all about colour, I just couldn't do it.

Final Amalfi Coast Happy Village Project

Here's the final project.  It was a lot of fun and I hope to make another when ever I get inspired!
















What I learned:

• It may have been finicky, but it was a lot of fun.
• I didn't follow the book's instructions (what else is new!) because I couldn't "see" the houses when I lay the blocks down as directed. So I started working in the left corner adding structures, steps, doors and windows. That worked best for me.
• I enjoyed the free motion quilting - it's far from accurate, but it goes with the rest of the whimsical project. Besides, from far, you can't tell (and if you can see it, you're standing way to close!) 

Finishing up - Final Update

What a month! It was a great idea to join the 30/30 Challenge hosted by Berry Barn Designs. It encouraged me to quilt as often as possible and I got to read some great blogs, comments etc. Thank you everyone, especially Sarah of Berry Barn Designs!

Here was my list of projects and what I hoped to accomplish:

• I'll be finishing my Quilt-Along project using Dot-to-dot FMQ (free motion quilting);
• I will also be working on my frog quilt. My objective is to get the quilt top finished.
• I will be working on my Grandmother's Choice quilt.  My objective is to get 10 more blocks finished and blog about them (that takes the longest time since I usually research the Canadian facts about each issue.)

What was I thinking? I think I thought I was going to take the month off work and quilt!

Quilt-Along almost finished

Here are my accomplishments:

• The Quilt-Along project is almost finished. I used only Dot-to-Dot FMQ on it. All of the blocks and the sashing have been quilted. I just need to quilt the border with the Cathedral curves.
• I completed two blocks of the frog quilt in the first week of the challenge. That's as far as it went.
• The Grandmother's Choice quilt is coming along. Before the challenge, I had chosen and cut the fabric for 5 more blocks. This weekend, I completed them, plus one more; and then chose the fabric for another 6 blocks. I haven't blogged about them yet but I will in the near future.

Grandmother's Choice blocks

Accomplishments that were not included in the Challenge:

• I completed a DIY kimono for my daughter;
• I completed the batik quilt top that I started during week 2, when I was too tired to piece my complicated blocks (frog quilt and Grandmother's Choice);
• I have embroidered about half of the leaf for one of the projects from Carol Armstrong's Applique Inside the Lines;
• I have almost finished the Happy Villages project. It's 95% completed. I just have to add boats on the water and FMQ some waves on the water; and



Completed Batik Quilt Top

• I attended one quilt guild meeting and three classes in Canadian art appreciation.

One of the reasons I got so much done was that I went on a quilting retreat from Thursday to Sunday this week. That's essentially where I did everything that I hadn't done in the previous 3 weeks.

It was a great weekend of quilting, sleeping, reading, and eating with friends....not necessarily in that order. It was almost as good as going down south for a holiday (almost but not quite!)

What I learned

Happy Villages - Amalfi Coast

• Why am I always so ambitious in setting goals? At the time, I actually thought they were pretty realistic. Not sure on which planet or alternate universe!
• I really did get a lot done - frankly an incredible amount. It just wasn't on the projects that I had anticipated doing.
• In hindsight my objectives were made up of projects that demanded a fair amount of concentration and focus. What I did accomplish included easier projects that I could do without too much thought.   

30/30 Challenge Update - Week 3

Happy Villages by Karen Eckmeier

I had a wonderful time last Saturday at the Happy Villages course. It was taught by Jan Kittle, owner of The PickleDish quilt store in Carleton Place ON.

I used Jan's batiks as well as some of my own to create the quilt.

Postcard of the Amalfi Coast, Italy

I based my Happy Village on a postcard that I bought on the Amalfi Coast in Italy two years ago. It was such a magical area that it would be great to have a quilt to commemorate it.  This is the postcard that inspired the quilt.

This is what it looked like at 3 pm on Saturday.  It had a semblance of a village by then.

Results by Saturday evening 

This is what the project looked like by Wednesday evening. Since I left it on the dining room table, I was able to work at it in small chunks of time. I found that it was important to work on it and then leave it for a while to get the overall look of it.
I'm really hoping that the free motion quilting (FMQ) will add a lot to it. I can't wait to give the church some details.

Result by Wednesday evening

During the week I was able to do a little bit of embroidery of my second leaf. I also go the chance to moved the squares that were in the wrong place on my batik quilt.

What I learned:

• It's a VERY finicky project. Those tiny pieces are tiny! You cut the pieces, audition them and when you like what you have, you glue them to the surface.
• It's a very forgiving project.  If you don't like what you put down, you just cover it up! It's not worth fighting with the glue to remove pieces.
• Since there's so much going on, I wanted to make sure that there was some consistency in the fabrics I used. I used the same fabric for all of the trees within the village, all of my stairs were made with the same background fabric (a light mauve-pink) with the stairs a dark blue. I also had some awesome orange-yellow fabric that I used for stone walls (and the top of the church since it was made of stone). 
• Leaving it out and having it accessible to work on for short periods of time was the best way to go. I could spend a half hour or an hour playing without getting frustrated or too stiff.