What I’ve been up to

I keep meaning to post updates here, but the fact is, I mostly Internet from my phone, and the WordPress app isn’t all that user friendly. But enough excuses… Here’s what’s been going on:
I opened my fabric cabinet for a little organization a couple of weeks ago, and was pretty appalled at the amount of scraps I’ve accumulated over the past year. I’m not a quilter, but I’ve worked with so much quilting cotton, I’ve had it in my mind to try just one from all the leftovers.
Hexagon quilts are the only type appealing to me at the moment, so I picked up a cutting template from Joann, and I’ve been working away at hexifying my scrap pile and playing around with different ideas.

This is going to be a loooong process. First- I need nearly 1000 hexes for the size quilt I want to make. Also- it seems the best way to assemble a hex quilt is through English Paper Piecing, which means each one of those suckers gets sewn by hand. Yikes! I ordered some pre-cut paper templates, and stuck the 200ish hexes I’ve cut in a box until I feel like continuing because I’m already overwhelmed with the process.

Last week, I spent a day at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo. I took 2 classes, and had a lot of fun at all the vendors. Most of the vendors were quilting oriented, and I picked up some fat quarters, half yards, and yard pre-cuts. Vogue Fabrics was also there with a good selection of fashion fabric, and I picked up a couple of yards of a sheer white rayon (I think) embroidered with little pink flowers.
The classes I took were great, and offered a lot of good information. The first one I went to was about sewing garments with quilting fabrics, and I learned that underlining can really make a difference in the drape of the cotton. I’m definitely going to try that some time!
The second class was AWESOME! It was about identifying figure variations, and I volunteered to be a guinea pig, so the instructor took me from head to toe explaining all my oddities (and discussing common figure variations that I don’t have). It was super helpful, and also kind of surprising. I didn’t realize I had sloped shoulders or a broader back. I’ve also got narrow shoulders, which I expected, but for some reason I didn’t realize you could have along with a broad back. So they are small, but widely set.
I also didn’t know there was a difference between a full bust and prominent bust. I’ve got both. Lucky me!
At the end of class, I got the checklist she used with all the notes about me, and it’s got page number references for dealing with them in the awesome but expensive pattern alteration book I’ve been wanting. So, that class alone was worth going to Expo for.
I was supposed to go back Friday for 4 more classes, but my oldest was sick, so I had to stay home to be Mom instead. Maybe next year!

I want to write about my next project, and how I’m having a tough time figuring out what I want to do, but this blog post has been long enough, so I’ll save it for later.
Happy sewing, everyone :)