Charms, Teaching & Tests

I did put together something for the shop hop charm quilt - I'm not sure I like it so it's sitting at the store waiting for inspiration to hit for a border that will make it stunningly beautiful! As soon as I find that perfect fabric and also find the camera, I will post a picture.

I'm also not sure I get or like this charm phase the quilt industry is going through. Before quilt market a friend observed that this would be a market of charm squares ad nausea and she was right. Patterns for charms and jelly rolls were everywhere. Other fabric companies have joined Moda in cutting their own sizes of charm squares. Hoffman has some really neat batik ones that come in clear cylinders that are gorgeous! Market for me became a hunt for patterns that DIDN't use charms or jelly rolls. Quilt historians will look back at this time of charm squares and jelly rolls and I'd love to know what they say about them!

Yesterday I taught machine classes to customers who had bought sewing machines from us. Students ranged from 7 to 65+. I love to teach these classes because I've bought a very expensive sewing machine and gotten no lessons. So you take it home, take it out of the box and are petrified of it so you don't use it to it's fullest potential. When I first thought about opening the shop, I knew I'd carry sewing machines and give lessons. Bringing home that New Home 8000 that I'd paid quite a bit of money for and being frustrated with it because I KNEW it did more than I could figure out, drove me crazy.

Teaching guide lessons allows me to show people how great the machine they bought really is and how to make it do all kinds of things they want to do but couldn't on their old machine. It made me laugh that the 7 year old could thread the needle easier on her own than she could manipulate the needle threader, while the 65+ year old bought her machine just FOR the needle threader!

Bragging time - My oldest son is an architect. He has a 5 year degree and had to work for three years before becoming eligible to take the tests so he can be certified & go out on his own (and get a raise!). There are nine tests and he called, on top of the world, Friday night to say he'd passed the first one he taken right before Christmas. Having been a little more than nervous to have to take a test more than three years after graduating & second guessing himself since he'd taken the test, he was over the moon that he'd passed. Eight more to go . . .

I need to go take the four yards of flannel out of the dryer & make a jacket for serger club Friday afternoon. It's from an Indygo Junction pattern but of course I want to change the bottom . . . Someday I will actually make a pattern just like the picture on the front - probably not!

Debbie