The Creative Journey class with Amanda was so good. She had a cute doodle and had a story to share with every word or phrase she drew on the board. Hearing about her journey was great, she was very inspiring. She made me feel like I need to take a deep breath and check where I am, which is a good thing!

I took the foundation paper piecing with Lee and Elizabeth and LOVED it too. Before moving from Washington, I took a class and I thought this class would give me more tips and tricks to paper piecing. I did learn a few new things and I made three blocks using the pattern they had us work on.

I did three because I’ve gotten into the habit of making two or three blocks when something I am working on calls for one. I don’t do this all the time, when I make a quilt I just make that quilt. But this class called for material for one block, so I just did three. Two are in this picture, and I finished the third the other day but didn’t grab a picture because it just doesn’t look as good! I don’t know how that happened, how the third block (which was really the first, that I worked on in class) ended up a little bigger then the other two and it just looks a little off.

I am thinking of making these into pillows and giving them away.

I didn’t get into Kelly‘s metal frame class, but she offered to teach an unofficial metal frame class and I signed up for that! It was a great class! I learned a new skill and bought a few frames so I can make more of these purses. They are cute and fun and relatively easy to put together.

Of course I had to use some Native print fabric. I have a whole box of Native print fabric – every quilt shop I stop at gets checked for fabric like this. I buy it either because it is pretty, or because it is so hilarious I can’t help myself. I put this one more in the hilarious column then the pretty column, though the colors and design are not terrible.

My Sewing Summit classes were great. They were fun, informative, and I managed to get almost all that I wanted. I actually had to look back at my wish list to see what I didn’t get, since I really liked all of my classes.

I started off with a Creative Journey class with Amber and it was great to listen to. I enjoy hearing the process of how people got to where they are today, because I recognize the importance of knowing where you came from and how hard you worked to get to where you are today.

Next up was fabric selection with Jeni. I used her Art of Choosing series to when organizing and sorting my fabric after we moved in and really loved it. I now fold my fabric the same way and sort it before putting it away. The class really helped me think mostly about color saturation. The dark and light of it all. She showed two of her side braid quilts and pointed out that because of the saturation of the fabrics, you were able to see the fabrics a lot more clearly in one then the other. I am planning a side braid as well and have my main fabrics picked out already and need to pick a background. I don’t want the pattern fading into the background.

My first sewing class was a piecing class with Amy. I spent way too long trying to get my quarter inch seam to be a quarter inch. I admit I usually just sew and I know where a quarter inch is because I use a quarter inch foot as often as I can. I know that making sure your seam is correct is the key to getting a pattern right, so I liked taking the time to set it up. Amy had cute fabrics picked out for us to use and enough blocks to make a smaller sampler. I am the person who either cuts the first step of the quilt, then the second step because the sewing might be a touch off OR I cut it all out and make it work. It would be nice to not have to make it work so I cut all of a project out and let’s see if I can put my new skills to use.

There was open sewing each night, provided by Babylock, and I had only taken one project to work on. I knew I would be too busy to start something new or to want to work on something that took a lot of attention. Plus I didn’t want to pack a lot because I knew I’d have a lot to bring home.

This is the Atkinson Classmate pattern. It has a lot of fabric pieces, and you use something I never used before called soft and stable. This was also the first time I sewed with vinyl and it wasn’t as bad as I thought, and I also didn’t take the advice to use tissue paper with the vinyl. It is clear so definitely tough to see, and I didn’t pin it since those holes don’t go away.

I took this to Sewing Summit just needing to finish the binding. While I did manage to sew the binding on during open sewing, I didn’t finish it until I got home. I love this case, lots of pockets and space for supplies, and it is not a hard sewing project. It does take a very long time, but I have a lot of vinyl now so I am thinking of making a couple as gifts.

Next up ~ more classes!

Sewing Summit was AWESOME!

It was so fun, and inspiring, and exhilarating. It was so great to be around so many people who all love the same thing that I do! I could show them something I made and they all appreciated it. The entire event was just a lot of fun.

I arrived in Salt Lake City and had been texting one of my roommates, Jessie at a Tiny House so we were able to meet up and take a shuttle to the hotel. If you heard someone saying “That’s a weekender! That’s a handmade bag! Are you going to Sewing Summit?” while in the airport, then you probably heard her. 😛

I’m so glad my flight got in earlier then when the conference started. This gave me a chance to meet people and join the shop hop. We grabbed a shuttle to the hotel and after a quick unloading, we grabbed a bite to eat and walked to a couple of thrift stores. We also found a great shop that had cupcake shakes! Jessie had one but gluten free me did not. Basically you take a frosted cupcake and add it and soft serve ice cream to a blender and turn it on. I imagine that tastes SO good!

The shop hop was a lot of fun. I got a seat on the bus and we went to three shops. The first sold mostly (all?) apparel, and since I don’t sew clothes I didn’t look around too much. The next two were quilt shops and they were so fun!

Yes, I got a lot of fabric. But that’s okay! It was all on sale, and I haven’t been to any local quilt shops so being in a couple was just too fun. I need to get out more here I know. Plus the shops we stopped at generously offered a 25% discount!

After the shop hop Jessie and I met up with our other roommates, Rebeckah and Stephanie, and along with the fabulous Leigh, we went to the mall and grabbed a snack before the mixer sponsored by Craftsy. There was so much going on in just those first two days, I was really tired. I stayed up late every night and woke up early, and it was nothing short of fantastic.

This was my first time attending so I have a few (yes a few!) more posts coming.