A few days ago, Lynn Koolish mentioned Ruth McDowell in her post. Lynn used some of the Ruth’s techniques to make the quilt, Silk Shibori. I took a class from Lynn at The Cotton Patch in Lafayette, and I’m currently finishing my own “Ruth quilt.” It’s an iris from Ruth’s book Pieced Flowers (which is currently out of print, but you can find here on Amazon).

Iris Possibilities

As you can see from the photo, I found several purples that blended and used a green border as an accent. I thought it was “done” when I added the off-white border, but then I placed it on a yellow background and decided to add one more border. To me, the final yellow represents the sun. 

I stitched in the ditch around the borders and around all the parts of the flower. Then I found some Swirling Sensations thread by Robison-Anton in my thread stash, and it was the perfect purple. So I stitched 1/8″ in from the purple seams to give the flower more definition.

Quilting lines are drawn in green.

Next I plan on getting some Swirling Sensation in green and machine-quilting iris leaves in the background. Here’s a sketch I did by photocopying and enlarging the iris from the book. I’ve drawn the leaves in green.

I didn’t really need to take the class because I had edited one of Ruth’s books and learned the techniques that way. Because I seem to have more ideas than time, a class is a great motivator for me. There’s a deadline by which I have to make up my mind and buy the fabrics. (A few friends donated purples from their stashes because I couldn’t find “just the right shade!”) My fellow students often give great feedback and are inspirations in their own right. Sewing away from home at a shop reduces my distractions, too, and I get a LOT done. All in all, a class does me good and it’s fun.

Lynn’s teaching Piecing Ruth McDowell Style at Asilomar next February, and I highly recommend it. Email us a picture of your quilt when you’re done! I’ll keep you posted on mine.