Ingrid Whitcher

I just added a new section on the site to show the quilting classes that I am teaching. You can find it here

I can’t believe how quickly this summer is going. The trips to Indiana are over and only 3 weeks until school starts again. Both myself and the kids are feeling sad about that. I had hoped to get so much more done. But instead of piecing quilts, I had the wonderful opportunity to teach quilting classes at least 2 times a month most of the summer. This has been so much fun for me to do. It also helps me to see new things and a new way of communicating what I love about quilting.

I have finished the last minute details for my Nashville show quilt and will be sending it off tomorrow. I was unsure if I was going to be able to make the trip, but everything seems to be working out so that I can go up the last day. My daughter Emilie is also going to go to the show with me and is looking forward to this new experience.

I taught my first advanced machine quilting class today. I had one student and it was the best. We design a really neat whole cloth quilt and she started stitching it out. It was a lot of fun to work one on one. I also took a small piece to work on, so it seemed more like girls day out. I think we were talking as much as sewing.

I also finished quilting a really large project. It is a extra long twin sized quilt with a curved pieced sea turtle in the center and a really cool border. I hope to include pictures soon.

I got started on this small art quilt at my mom’s house during a week of vacation. It combines several fun and new techniques – using a silk tie, organza, felting couching and my favorite, new beading techniques. It was a lot of fun to do.

Here are a few of my other fun art quilt projects. I am hanging them in groups under the shelves in my dining room. I brings me joy to see them hanging there.

This was made from acrylic felt and organza. I got the idea from a “Quilting Arts” magazine and came up with my own design for the flower. You use a heat tool to melt away the excess organza and felt to leave the fun design. The edges are couched with yarns.

A friend of mine knitted the background of this piece for me. The organza and the yarn were needle felted into a background cotton fabric with batting. The hummingbird base is angelina fibers and secured with thread painting. It was then meander quilted with a mono-filament thread.

This image is a close up of a thread painted piece that features several areas of dense bead work. It makes me think of a flower that has gone to seed and how beautiful even the end of things can be.

Here is the completed flower piece.

I found out today that my quilt was accepted to the AQS Nashville show in August. I have been impatiently waiting for the last few weeks to hear the verdict. I sent the registration in the beginning of May and tried to put it out of my mind. I am so excited.