Well, now that its the first day of February, I will wish you a Happy New Year. 🙂 I keep meaning to re-start but realize how much of a perfectionist I am and how that really hinders me. I sat down to journal why in the world I haven’t been here!  And came with all sorts of excuses.

Reasons I came up with: can’t show some of my work right now, haven’t been taking enough quality photos and lastly, I feel busy but boring. And I realize how ridiculous that is. I had a fine week filled with a workshop I jumped into at the last minute for 2 days, a blizzard, dyeing a large quilt backing, a husband who has been gone skiing for 5 days, and this overwhelming urge to organize.  And I had critique with a long lost friend and dinner with my niece who is a young artist. So exciting for me, but maybe not so for you?

Anyhow, I did indeed purge my studio last month.

 

I can now see my desk and my photos I take on my little Selphy printer are all ready to be filed away. I have sat at this desk and actually sketched this past week and did some printing of inspirational photos for my journal. One of my new goals for the year is to use my sketchbook for more than just pasting photos and notes in . I got a swanky new  to me lateral file so I am dreaming of my profound organizational skills I will have this year. Yup,  you can smile .

 

I am dyeing some backing fabrics for finishing. I wasn’t sure how my white sink would like this but it fared ok.

 

Bummer about the large hole in the first piece. It was too light of a color so I will darken it up after I cut out the hole. I had ordered extra wide Kona for the first time to save me from piecing the backs. So much for that great idea.

I also jumped into a workshop sponsored by the WMQG this past week. It was a 2 day long machine quilting class and featured the wonderful Harriet Hargrave. I took this same class 20 years ago and am not sure at that point if I heard anything at all. I was recently having such a time with my free motion quilting skills and the George and getting kind of desperate to improve-quickly and quietly. This workshop was absolutely the right thing to do. The amount of information I had wrong or was just ignorant about was AMAZING.

Needles , thread and just plain technique. I had been a walking foot girl for so long and what I was doing had been working for me.

I guess when I jumped into free motion quilting, I never took time to stop and understand how it was different. And a call to APQS helped me fix George’s problems that I had been struggling with for about a month now. I should have called sooner.

Harriet was forthright and adamant that you need to learn the skills. And then you can do whatever it takes to make it yours. I really needed this kick in the pants to practice before I jump into the next quilt. So, if you forgo a workshop because you “should” already know the information, think again. You are coming at the information from an entirely different vantage point. Or you haven’t done the practice. Harriet won’t be teaching for much longer so take advantage of her knowledge while you can . If she comes close to where you, sign up and you won’t regret it.

I generally take the lifelong learner phrase to heart. I am indeed a lifelong learner and find it rewarding  to stretch.

Nice to catch up.

 

     I am a member of the West Michigan Guild which meets every other month and sponsors a nationally known teacher to come for workshops and a lecture. It’s a guild of several hundred so not easy to get to know others. At first. But since I always jump in to the opportunity to take a local class I have met some fun sewing friends. I really had no intention of attending  this month since it was not a technique I could see myself using. But a quick posting of an invitation of Facebook on Tues night led me to go. Paper piecing? Mmmm…I couldn’t imagine how I would do as I was driving there. Where would that fit in to what I am doing now? But I needed social contact with other humans who sew and would actually talk back to me. I hoped.

      Well, the teacher was Deb Kurasik and she would teach us paper piecing using a pattern called Look Ma No Curves. Deb was a great teacher and made everything seem easy. I brought my hand dyes and picked really bright colors to start an intricate pattern of pointy triangles.

  

It was so out of my realm-I haven’t used a pattern in three years maybe-that I was grateful for a great teacher sitting next to me as well-Betsy. I enjoyed chatting her ear off for five hours and one thing about quilters-they are always fun to get to know. And nice.  The pattern is on the back and you sew each piece on to the paper foundation.  Took me awhile to wrap my head around that concept again. With Betsy’s patience, I finally did it and enjoyed something entirely different. Great pieces to use in some project. No, I will not make that quilt. I admire those who have the patience and expertise to do this but not me….

     Five hours of work and I only made two pieces. Wow. But I did sell a piece of my hand dyed fabric to a quilter who needed just the right color. Recouped some of my spending , met a great teacher and got to know another great precision perfect quilter who is funny, too. Thanks Betsy for the invite.

    I have seriously digressed from the jeans quilt. Must focus today.

Happy sewing, my friends!