Mock Mola & Celtic Design Classes - Alice Ridge!

Tuesday night at my monthly guild meeting we had a wonderful woman share her experiences and collected textiles from trips and military assignments from all over the world. I would absolutely recommend to any guild to bring her in for her Trip Around the World lecture. We were lucky enough to also have her teach a couple of classes Wednesday which I was fortunate to attend. Let me share with you some photos from the workshops today with Alice Ridge.

The morning class was Mock Molas. Alice shared SO MANY samples and I wish I'd taken more pictures. This is a quilt she made with several "mock mola" flower motifs.

 I loved the way she couched some fluffy yarn around the edges of the flowers.

The decorative stitching really made the designs come to life.

 Loved the elephant and the gorgeous echo stitching. Notice that chain stitching outlining the ear?

Another pretty quilt using the leaf pattern. I really liked the organic, striped background fabric too!

Here are some of our works in progress.

 Don't you love that colorful fabric behind the fish?

 Here is another floral motif but these colors just feel "Hawaiian", don't you think?

This snowflake was a booger to cut out but Jean persevered and has already made her thread choice ... a white thread with a metallic twist. Going to be gorgeous!

After a brief lunch break, we started a second class. This one was Celtic Designs and once again Alice shared lots of samples. And once again I should have taken more pictures ....

Here's a bright and colorful dragon. Loads of twists and knotty turns.

 Such concentration on this Celtic heart.

 Another rendition of a Celtic Heart. Isn't that background stunning??!!

 Here's a Peacock getting threads matched to the tail feathers.

And another Peacock in the works. I loved the colors of this one!

Here's a look at my projects.

I loved the elephant so that was what I chose. See that cut on the right hand side? I was supposed to cut the back fabric and erroneously started cutting the front. Oops! Alice, may I have another kit? Class, let this be a lesson to you ... this is what NOT to do.

Take #2 went much better. I did all the outline stitching to secure and will cut the flannel on the back. The next step is the decorative stitching and that will be fun. We were allowed to choose one large varigated ball of floss or five small cards of floss. I picked a really cool card of black/dk gray/lt gray bulky floss and 4 shades of purple floss. Should work up nicely. Class was over.

Celtic class went much better for me. I chose the dragon and, in retrospect, it was probably one of the hardest designs due to many tight knots. I even managed to start some of the stitching to hold it all down permanently. The decorative stitching on the face, neck, and tail will come next.

All in all it was a fabulous time with Alice, both for her lecture and then the following classes. I hope we get to see her again! If your guild would like to bring her in and/or you're interested in looking at her other projects, visit her website at Alice Ridge Quilts.

Have a great finish to your week!