At this point in my quilting life I had been going over to T.'s apartment and taken the workshop both of these are things I did with professional quilters even with that I was quite nervous about my first class at a store. I was still really new and at this point still nervous about my sewing machine, I still make tons of mistakes but back then mistakes were the only way I did it. I arrived a bit early for class and find out there are 3 taking the class. I spend some time talking with the teacher and really she was very nice. She had moved here from the East coast and did long arm quilting as well. A little after when class should start the other two come in. They are clearly friends and had to rush in coming straight from work. It didn't take long to find out one sells Husqvarna Viking sewing machines and the other had just bought an expensive one from her. The other two had very fun bright colors, one orange and purple and the other pink and yellow. I was of course working with taupe and blue, not at all bright and fun.
Class starts and we start cutting all the fabric into strips. I was quite slower than the other 2, they could chat and cut and I had to focus. Once some strips were cut we started sewing them together. The teach was able to give some tips, one I remember is not to put really thin ones at the edges because with the seam it is really hard to quilt over such thick spots. After sewing a few together she shows us how to cut them into blocks then how to cut those blocks in half. One advantage I did have is the book called for an 8 1/2 inch square ruler, I looked all around for this ruler and another local quilt store had it so I picked it up. Then I read her supply list for class and it called for a 9 1/2 inch ruler. I went out and got that size as well. Since I had the 8 1/2 inch ruler cutting my squares was super fast. So by the end of class I have really been able keep up with the other two. The first class is over and we have homework to finish sewing, cutting blocks and then cutting those in half. Next class we will start putting them together.
This was a hard week for me. I tried hard and sewed often but still didn't have everything done. I did try and get quite a few of each variety ready that way if she had any tips on the different style blocks I would be ready. The one lady in class that sell machines had all hers done and the other was a bit behind me so all in all I was happy with my progress. In class we started putting blocks together and I was able to get quite a few done. We looked over the class sample and she talked about putting it all together and how she quilted hers. Class was over and really for just 2 weeks of work I was quite impressed with all I had done. The quilt was still far from finished but really knowing how long I worked on the first quilt top the amount finished at this point was amazing. The class was so much fun and getting know a few others in the quilting community was great. I wish I could remember names because I still see the lady that sells machines at Jo Anns and would love talk to her but my shyness always kicks in and I never go up to her and introduce myself. I am certainly glad I took another leap and signed up for class. Here's a look at some of the work finished during this class.
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