Sewing Technique Class

At the request of The Wooden Spool in Excelsior Springs, MO, on July 24th, I will be teaching a class in which I will share my secrets to my sewing/piecing techniques.
My Mother began teaching me at the age of 9 years old, how to sew and she purchased me my first Singer sewing machine (which I still own). All it did was straight stitch and zig-zag, but boy did it help me turn out of lot of my clothing. In High School, I made pretty much all of my own clothes.
As part of my learning to make those first garments, I ripped out a lot of seams that Mother did not think was good enough...especially seams where I was trying to match up plaids! It didn't matter if the plaids were off a 1/16", if they didn't match up...out came the seam.
But all of those hours of agonizing over doing it the right way, carried over into my piecing of quilts and to this day all of my seams line up perfectly and my seams lay flat. It may take me a little more time to turn out of quilt top, but my Mother will be proud!
After the class in July, I might be convinced to share some of my techniques with others. Stay tuned.

2009 Spring Patchwork Party

Well, after 14 months of procrastinating, I finally finished the spring version of 2009 Patchwork Party.
I had seen this quilted at Quilter's Station in Leavenworth, KS in either January or February, 2009 and absolutely feel in love with it. You would purchase a block from each of twelve quilt shops from across the United States and then choose the finishing kit from the shop that you wanted to complete your quilt. The center of this quilt is what caught my eye and I just had to have it. It is again, out of the norm of my taste in quilting fabric, but this one had to be added to my stash.
Well, after purchasing the first block and finding out that the blocks where made from templates....not my favorite...and I was soon wishing I hadn't started this project. But I continued and had the 12 blocks quickly put together and then the quilt was put away as I had other quilts I had to get done for one thing or another.
April 30, 2010, I attended a quilt retreat and took the Patchwork Party quilt with me to start putting together. Yep, I spent the entire quilt retreat piecing. Got it all done except the last floral border which I got sewn on first thing this morning. It is beautiful, but I am really worried that my oldest granddaughter will be here in a few weeks for a visit from South Dakota and decide it has to be hers. Cassi is very partial to pinks and browns! Well, Nana will just have to wait and see.
But needless to say, I am very, very happy to have this quilt pieced. I think I will be taking it back to Quilter's Quarters to have them quilt it. I do want to have it custom quilted in order not to destroy the beautiful center.
Happy Mother's Day to All!!!