Only a million more to go...

For Christmas, my dad gave me the gift of a 2-day quilt class. I was very excited because even though I have been sewing for more than 7 years, I had never had any "formal" quilt training. I wasn't sure what to expect from the teacher, and I had a rather difficult time understanding the class supply list. You see, I am a very visual person. If you give me a picture, I can create it or paint it. But if you hand me a page of text, my eyes quickly glaze over. So I proceeded to fill my tote bag with a variety of my favorite fabrics from the stash in my studio and then I headed off to class.

The JoAnn's in Citrus Heights has a small area set aside in the corner of the store for their sewing and craft classes. Large tables, ample lighting, extension cords that hang from the ceiling so that they are nicely kept out of the way. And the best part, they provide you with a loaner sewing machine - a Singer. I was able to quickly learn my way around the Singer, but must confess that I madly love my Bernina and wouldn't part with it for anything in the world!

There were only two of us in the class, so we had lots of one-on-one time with our teacher, Pinky. I showed her my fabric stash and explained that I needed to finish a baby quilt for my best friend's son. I had been struggling with this project, which is why it has yet to be completed even though Baby Jack just recently celebrated his first birthday. So we decided to do a basic 9 patch block using the green dots and blue swirls fabrics. Each square is a teensy one inch piece of fabric, so the cutting and sewing was very time consuming. But I'm a huge fan of the "assembly line method" and once I got the basic concept down, there was no stopping me! Here's a piece of the 9 patch that I completed in class. It's already several hundred little, tiny squares!





Jack's nursery was decorated in farm animals. So when I found the panel below, I did cartwheels in the fabric store. The blue and green 9 patch blocks will surround this panel.




The yellow paw print fabric will also be incorporated into the quilt, perhaps to help break up the 9 patch blocks and as the quilt backing. I just loved the idea of little animals paws walking across the quilt!




So I'm many hours into this baby quilt creating a million little green and blue squares. It's been such a huge learning experience already. And I can't wait to see how beautiful it will look when it is finished. I only hope that it will be done before the baby is driving!