Beginning Quilting Class at Quilter's Emporium

This post originally appeared at The Dropped Thread on 11/19/12.  It has been move to this blog by the owner.

Have you ever started something that you think is going to be soooo easy, only to find out it just kicks your butt?  Well, that's the humbling lesson I've just learned, once again.  I'm taking Beginning Quilting Classes at Quilter's Emporium in Stafford, Texas.  I thought, "I've been sewing (fashion) most of my life.  How hard can this be, it's just a straight seam right?"  Wrong!!!!  This is geometry - and I'm an English major.  My brain doesn't function that way.  Thank goodness there are patterns, and flying geese rulers, and internet resources; not like in my grandmother's day when she figured out the math for the triangles and how much material she needed to make binding for a quilt that was so big.

On the first day of class Rose Ann Cook (the teacher and store owner) gave us so much information my brain felt overloaded, but I left feeling like this is a REAL art class, not just some hobby.  The quilts that are being designed today are true works of ART!  

Block #1 - "Album 2" (learning Flying Geese)

We learned how to pick out fabric (which was eye-opening) and how to cut it out.  For our learning quilt we needed a focus fabric with at least three colors, a dark fabric, a light fabric, and a "bling" fabric pulling a color from the focus fabric.  

Block #2 - "Farmhouse Friendliness"

My focus fabric (the four outside rectangles in the block above) is "Dottie" from the Club House Collection by Swirly Girls for Michael Miller.  The dark fabric (navy blue with white flowers) is "Hawthorne Blossoms", also from the Club House Collection.  

Closeup of "light" fabric

The light fabric is "Ramblings" by P&G Textiles.  I picked it because of the little paisley, but am afraid that it will get lost once I put a white backing behind it to keep the seems from showing.  That is a lesson learned, and will probably never use such a sheer fabric again until I get much more advanced.  Another lesson learned is to always make sure you are using a clean iron - especially when ironing on white.  Unfortunately someone in an applique class before ours had burnt fusing onto the iron.  Black streaks across white fabric - ick.  Fortunately it was only in the area that was later sewn into a seam.

The bling fabric is not shown here (a red batik) because we haven't had to use it yet.  There are two more squares for us to learn, then we learn cornerstones (bling) and sashes.  In late December there will be another one-day class to learn how to add batting, backing and binding - and then I'll know everything about quilting!  Riiight.


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Brenda