Wednesday Wonderful--Feeling Happy

I love Wednesdays.  It means, usually, I am done teaching for the week, we get a morning newspaper (only now on Wed, Fri, and Sun), I can work on sewing projects all day, and tonight is Survivor--the one show my husband and I always watch together--it's the little things, right?

Yesterday I got the May segment of Rajah Revisited done:

This quilt is a replica of an historical quilt made in 1841 by women prisoners being transported by ship from England to Australia.  The pattern is a free Block of the Month for paid subscribers to www.thequiltshow.com, my favorite Internet quilting site.   I didn't finish the April segment until the very end of the month so I decided to get in front of this month and now it's done.

I've got to brag on my most recent class of beginner students--we concluded their 5 week class last night.  For the first time all the students who had attended all 5 sessions came to the last class with their tops complete--I was impressed as that's a lot of work to complete in one week for true beginners. They all said they didn't want to be the slacker! Here they are:

Barbara Z Christmas-y

Beca S Happy

Donna D--Also Happy, similar fabrics as Beca but distinctly her own

Holly R Spring-y

Katy W Lively--the black adds such a pop!

Marilyn R daughter of Barbara Z LOVE her own take on the pieced border

The pattern is Mix 'N Match Stars, Glad Creations.  From the beginning this group of mostly strangers was a lot of fun, arriving early each week, full of enthusiasm and questions.  Classes like these are why I teach.  The first week I tell them I have 3 goals for this class:

1. At the end of class I want them to feel that both their time and money was well-spent
2. That they actually finish the project, not leaving it in a box under the bed for their descendants to wonder what they planned to do with all that fabric
3. Most importantly, and I am always successful at this, I want to addict at least one of them completely and totally to quiltmaking--I think I hit the jackpot with this group!

I also tell them right up front that quiltmaking is an expensive way to make bedding.  If you want a blanket, go to Belk.  We are making gifts for generations yet unborn.  This is how we say "I was here".  At the end of class I always get choked up when discussing why they HAVE TO put a label on their quilts--to say, this is who made this quilt, this is why, this is where, this is when.  Future generations will thank them.

Tomorrow I get to travel to Birmingham, two hours south of here, to give a lecture and teach a two-day workshop to the Evening Star Quilters.  The lecture is The Hard Stuff, a favorite of mine, and the workshop is one of my most favorite to teach--photos of that next week.  Get ready, Birmingham, here I come!

Let's Quilt!

Barbara