Friday, September 7, 2012

Karen Stone Class


Karen Stone is an absolute joy as a lecturer and as a teacher.  Quilting is so obviously her "happy place" and it just bubbles out of her.  I am so very thankful that my friend Karen gave me her spot in this class.  I learned a lot and had a wonderful time.

We originally had a choice between 2 patterns for this class - the Summer Star and the Unusual Feathered Star.  I am not and have never been an applique person, so I figured I'd just do the Unusual Feathered Star.  Then, when we got to class, she had another choice available - a Christmas Star (It's the one in the middle).

Kate and I sat together and we were both a bit lost.  After a short little talk about picking colors and arranging them, we were sent off to our tables to "play with our fabrics".

I don't know about you, but that's tough for me.  I pulled out a pile of purples and blues and greens and magentas, all batik.  I wasn't sure about the greens, but I left them in there.  Then when we started looking at the sheer volume of different colors for the Unusual Feathered Star, Kate and I decided that maybe we should do the Christmas Star.  Here's our thinking: 1) the pieces are bigger so we might actually have a chance of finishing it, 2) It looks like we only have to pick 8 fabrics for the star, which has got to be easier than picking, what? 50, 3) and of those 8 fabrics, we really only have to pick pairs of 4 colors, now that I could probably do.  Other people were sewing already and we were still "playing with our fabrics".  When we were finally satisfied, we started cutting out our patterns and preparing to sew.  Then we had to wind bobbins and change needles and set our stitch length and all that stuff.  Then, when we had absolutely nothing else we could to do procrastinate, it looked like we were going to have to actually sew. My first seam went together great and I was excited.  Hey, maybe this isn't so hard after all.  Hah!  I had to rip my second seam out three time, I think.  Oh well.  It was a learning experience!  Of course, I missed the whole part about the applique, because I was so overwhelmed with trying to get my stars done and also trying to catch up with everybody else.  Event with all that procrastinating. I was still able to get 2 points for my star sewn together.  Woohoo! So what do you think?



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