Friday, October 21, 2016

Friday Finish

Last week I attended a two-day workshop at my favorite local quilt shop, Authorized Vac and Sew. The instructors were Latifah Saafir, co-founder of the Modern Quilt Guild, and Jenn Rossotti, who lives about 30 minutes away from me.

I had just returned from being on vacation for two weeks, and the thought of trying to gather supplies and choose fabrics for the projects seemed a bit overwhelming. And then I got a reminder call from the store--the only thing I needed to bring was something to snip threads. What??

In addition, it included lunch and snacks.

My first session was with Jenn, who taught "quilt as you go" hexies using the Accuquilt. If you follow Jenn on Instagram (and you should, @jennrossotti), you have probably seen both of these. I love the method, which involves cutting a smaller hexie and same-sized piece of batting, glue basting them together, then centering them on a larger hexie, folding over the excess and stitching. Then you can either sew your hexies together by hand or on the machine using a specialty stitch. Jenn had lots of great hints. I'm waiting for the arrival of Alison Glass's latest line because I think these would look amazing in something BRIGHT!

The next day I was in Latifah's class.
We each had a machine that did machine embroidery, and for the first hour we watched as the machine did all the work.
We could choose one of three words for our pillow: love, peace or hope.

We each had a little kit of Latifah's newest fabric line called Grafic, which is based on urban images. It's a very cool fabric line and I might have done a little shopping later in the afternoon and purchased a fat quarter set of the entire line.

After the embroidery was done, we made a strip of flying geese, sewed the top together and did organic grid quilting. I love the way it turned out.

Latifah even autographed the back of the pillow.
It was lots of fun. And I finished something!
I'm looking forward to more events like this at AVS. They are expanding their store and it's going to be very bright and modern. This is what you will see when you step inside.
I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, TGIFF, Fort Worth Fabric Studio and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Have a lovely weekend.

13 comments:

05 08
Jayne said... #

What a fun day it would be in either class...but both?!! I'm intrigued about the hexies, I've never seen this before. And your pillow is gorgeous!

Needled Mom said... #

They sound like great classes. I can't wait to see what you create with the brighter fabrics.

Edith said... #

Oh my, what an amazing couple of classes. So beautiful, so creative. I love what you have done - inspired.

Brenda said... #

I'm making these quilt as you go hexies with my Go cutter too, using Kaffes and hand dyes. I don't bother with the glue and use my wonder clips for the binding.

Brenda said... #

I'm making these quilt as you go hexies with my Go cutter too, using Kaffes and hand dyes. I don't bother with the glue and use my wonder clips for the binding.

legato1958 said... #

What fun workshops !! I love your quilt as you go hexies and the quilted pillow!!
Susie

Sharon said... #

I love that pillow...the workshops wound like so much fun!

Mary Marcotte said... #

I came by (from one of the above) just to see this pillow up close. I mean, I want to get really close. It's fantastic! But I found out about a few workshops I'd do something bad for, and played around Instagram checking out @jennrossotti. (A girl could get lost in that racket!) All in all, a good hour of fun...and at no charge. ;) Oh yes, back to the pillow, did I say I love it? Y'all, love, love, love it!

FlourishingPalms said... #

Oh wow! You are SO fortunate to have access to such a vital quilt shop/sewing machine store. It sounds like they're on top of the latest. What you did with both instructors is great... such a neat concept for as-you-go hexies. I love it! And that pillow... I am normally quite averse to machine embroidery, but this is an exception. Very modern-looking. I'm happy for you to have gotten to participate. Definitely worth rushing around for, after vacation. I see you're moving into full retirement just like everyone else! Ha, ha. Plenty busy!

Robby said... #

Vacation and two great quilt classes?!? Sounds like this retirement thing is working out okay. Love the pillow.

OPQuilt said... #

(I love the comment from Robby H.)
I think your experience is everyone's dream of a quilt class: just bring scissors. What a fun two days and what great projects. With those hexies, now you'll have something fun to work on while it rains all winter. ( We can only hope.)

Lindsey said... #

Looks like you had a fabulous time! Love how your pillow turned out! We featured your pillow over on the FWFS blog! Thanks for stopping by and linking up!

-Lindsey

http://fortworthfabricstudio.blogspot.com/2016/10/fabric-frenzy-friday-features_25.html

pennydog said... #

Latifah's font is very beautiful but those hexies are my favourite!