An Evening With Latifah Saafir

Last night I attended a lecture presented by the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild featuring Latifah Saafir the founder of the Modern Guild first based in L.A. and now with many international associations.  This was her first time speaking outside of the U.S.A so her first International Appearance!

 What Is Modern Quilting.  It is different things to different people.

 Latifah started sewing very young as she is part of a large family of mainly sisters.  She has one brother and is second in birth order.  She trained as a Mechanical Engineer and started quilting in 2008.  Her mother sat her and her sister on mom's lap and showed them how to make clothes from about age 6 or 8.  At age 15 she was regularly taking library books out on quilting!  Below is the first quilt that inspired her.

 Here is her version.

This quilt was done with bias binding stitched onto the background.  She uses bias binding for all her quilts and took left overs to create this design.

 The stack seems small, but there are some amazing quilts to be seen.

This was a Medallion quilt she designed for a book it was created in wedges and sewn together.

 Based on a traditional block she made triangles from rectangles.

 Latitudes made from bias binding.

 Love this one again featured in a book.

 First she machine quilted the background and then added the applique and bias binding.

 A peek at the back, you can see the loops of the bias.

 This was designed to feature her new fabric line called Grafic by Latifah Saafir Studios for Hoffman.  It will be available in June and was their best seller at Quilt Market!

 Latifah grew up in L.A. and many of these images hold special meaning to her.

 Love the colours and images.

 Explaining about her process.

 That's a pigeon.

 This piece was just back from the quilter and not yet bound!  Love all that texture in the different blocks.

 Her dress was her feature fabrics and she is talking of the significance to her of the images.

Glam Clam one of the workshops she is teaching.  You can find it on Craftsy!

Another Glam Clam in different colours.  She lays them all out and starts sewing from the top down.

 This Glam Clam is going to be a BOM!  Love all the secondary shapes.

 Hexi Glam Clams.  Apparently little children and people over 80 see them as women's panties. I also see it as a Sting Ray!

 Pieced Mole Hill are done paper pieced, with allowances to make larger curved squares if you want to include a fussy cut motif.  Love all the shades of beige and white backgrounds.

 A Blue, Black, Cream version as a top.

 Molehills one of the classes she is teaching while here.

 Good & Plenty a design that will be a freebie from her via Hoffman Fabrics featuring the new fabrics.  We all got one of the postcards.

 Grid quilting on the background.

 Show and tell is over but she is kindly answering some questions.

 Laid out for a closer look.

 Latifah talking about some of the patterns and rulers she designed.  She had some for sale and generously donated some as door prizes.  The guild contributed to her Kickstarter program and they received a lecture, one of the workshop and door prizes as a reward.  She is also setting up a program to teach children how to sew and make quilts.

  A closer look at some of her quilts before everyone crowded around.

 Love all those greys, tans, beige and a bit of turquoise backgrounds.

Thanks Latifah and Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild for a lovely evening.  Wish I was a member and could have taken a workshop. Here is a link to Latifah's blog and website.  Here is the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild Blog  One last link to Vancouver Modern Guild Facebook page.

If you get a chance to go to a lecture with Latifah I would highly recommend doing so!