Happy Village

 I attended Quilting in the Desert a quilt camp held annually in the Phoenix area.  My class was Happy Villages.  Karen Eckmeier was the instructor and is the author of the book Happy Villages.
Below is our starting point.  A blue sky and pieces of fabric cut according to instructions and arranged on a batting background.

Next we started to build our village by adding a roof here and there.  Windows and doors were added to some of the houses.  I also added a palm tree at this point.

Below is how my village looked at the end of two days of classes.  I still need to do more free motion quilting and add embellishments before applying a binding.

The colors are a little muted because we added a layer of tulle over the entire village before beginning to quilt.  My inspiration came from a photo on Tammy's blog http://tsdailytreasures.blogspot.com/.  She had the photo on her blog late last year.  It was a shopping mall in Dubai that resembled a souk.  I asked her permission to use the photo as an inspiration.  The color palette came from a photo I found of a bead vendor in a souk.  Last I also used a photo of a palace in Dubai.  I tried to use the shaped of arches, doors, and windows that resembled those found in my inspiration photos.  This was a great class.  I will be teaching the Grand Daughters to make a village on their spring break in March.