Yesterday was THE DAY!

Guess what started yesterday at Craft U??

My online course is live!

And I forgot until part way through the day – I haven’t had a chance to watch much of it yet, but I can say that the folks at Craft U did a good job of taking this Nervous Nellie and made her look like she knew what she was doing! HA!

I’m posting this for those of you who may have purchased my workshop, to REMIND YOU that it’s time!

You simply need to log into your account at http://craftonlineuniversity.com/ and the workshop will appear in your dashboard.

The videos are there for you to download, the download button is at the bottom left of your screen.  Those with slow internet connections may do better to download it to watch it than to try to stream it.

There are 6 lessons provided – it is supposed to be a 6 week series, but I know some of you who are going to want to watch it from beginning to end all in one binge!

I suppose that is okay too.

There is also a link to download the pdf copies of your patterns and your “homework”  though how much you decide to do is up to you – there is no one grading you!

 

It’s a scrappy good time!

The comments that have come in through facebook and email have been very complimentary!  I’m glad to hear that!

What I don’t know for sure is if you can still sign up even though the course has started already.  I’ve sent an email in, but as it’s not quite 7am here on the east coast, the powers that be are likely still fast asleep or beginning to start their day, so I’ll let you know.

In the mean time – if you wanted to try, click the registration icon in the upper left hand corner of the blog (visible only on a real computer, not mobile devices)  and see if that will allow you to enter your code for $30.00 off.

Remember, you own the courses, so download them and save them.  Burn them to a DVD or upload them to your cloud service so that you will always have them if something happens to your computer.

No sewing happened here yesterday, and likely not today.

But THIS is coming along!

I’m only working with the neutrals now, so I realized with this last trip that I was carrying WAY too much leftover stuff in my busy bag.  That is getting a clean out today before I fly to Maine tomorrow.

A wide variety of neutrals in all different prints and styles and shades are required to keep this from being a monotonous job, so I did spend some time cutting some more neutral hexies when I found a moment of time to do so.  I will be making FOUR elongated triangle corners to take the hexagon medallion to rectangular shape.  Whether it then gets borders or not remains to be seen. I am designing as I go.

 I have a feeling there are still years to go on this one!

I was talking to my friend Irene yesterday – I did a little hexie mini workshop session on the ship this past week during evening Open Sew, and though those hexies are the same size as I use, 3/4’’ per side for a hexie that measures 1 1/2’’ across the widest center point, the kits were using 2’’ squares to cover the hexies.

While cutting 2’’ squares is definitely easier, it leaves A LOT of bulk behind the hexie, and if you are hand quilting, you aren't going to want all of that bulk in there. And then, who wants to go back and trim from behind one by one by one? Not me!

Tracing to cut from 2 1/2’’ strips!

I’ve mentioned this before, but instead of sending everyone to the archives ---I took my 3/4’’ per side hexie shape, drew it on to template plastic.  I added a 3/8’’ seam allowance all the way around because 1/4’’ around is too shallow and doesn’t like to hold the papers in if you are thread basting without stitching through the paper.  At any rate, I like a wider seam allowance when I do English paper piecing.

Here you can see I have traced my enlarged template on top of 2 1/2’’ strips with common sides touching.  It goes very fast.  I stack up 8 layers of fabric at a time and quickly cut them with dress making shears.  I only need to mark the top layer.

I would not be able to get a hexie die in the size that I prefer for my accuquilt, nor do I want one.  I really enjoy sorting through my strips, picking which ones I want to cut, and cutting them with scissors.

Scissor cutting takes me all the way back to when I was little, working with construction paper of many colors.  It’s elemental.  Not everything in quilting NEEDS to be rotary cut, or die cut.  For me, since this is a hand stitching project, hand cutting is part of the process. 8 layers at a time.

And I’ve got a nice little stack to show for it!

Yes, there are some 2’’ squares there, they were from the end of the strip sets when I couldn’t get another hexagon, and will be joining my 2’’ squares bin!

Plan for today:

Mail to the Post Office!  I got a day of reprieve yesterday as it was closed due to Columbus Day!

Book quilts to FEDEX!!  They are going for photography!  Hooray!

Books also being shipped to Washington State where I will be teaching at a retreat after I get back from Maine!

I suppose I should do some laundry?  I need to pack my suitcase AGAIN, but this time with warmer gear!

Oh the list is so long, I just need to think on one thing at a time.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

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