Beginning Quilting Class Update & Fabric Pottery Class

This post originally appeared at The Dropped Thread on 12/22/12.  It is being archived on this blog.

Dear Reader,

So sorry I'm behind in my December postings, but I'm sure you're all just as busy with your Christmas shopping and crafting.  Also after the recent events in Newtown, Connecticut, my heart has been grieving, as the rest of the world has been, and I just wanted to concentrate on spending time with my family for a little while.  I'm sure you've all been doing the same, giving extra hugs, and "I love you's".  I've been spending time praying for my own family and friends, and for the grieving families and community of Newtown.

As I've mentioned in a past post, I've been taking classes at Quilters Emporium in Stafford, TX.  First I want to give a shout out to Rose Ann Cook and the ladies in the shop who are all so nice and helpful.  They really take the time to help me when I say I'm a beginner and guide me to patterns at my level.  They helped me understand why a particular fabric wouldn't work in a pattern they way I was thinking it would and guided me another fabric (the ombre effect I was look at would have been lost when the fabric was cut up to make the border long enough to fit my piece).

My first quilt top!

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.