PIQF ends today but I’m so tired I am not going.  Instead I’m running errands to get ready for the next week.  My son has a school project due tomorrow!  Why teachers assign projects on Friday with a due date of Monday is beyond me!  It’s a great way to ruin a mom’s weekend.  Oh well, a momma’s gotta do what a momma’s gotta do.  Hubby will be taking the girl to cheer practice so they’ll be gone most of the day not returning until later in the afternoon.  Anyway, I came away from PIQF significantly lighter in the pocketbook but I didn’t buy much fabric (yay!).  I’ll put a post at some point with everything I did purchase but in terms of fabric I only purchased 3.5 yards of a pretty corduroy fabric.  That’s it!  I did buy my corduroy quilt kit and I bought a wool wall hanging kit but I’m not sure how to add the fabric for that.  So I’m not going to.  That would seriously confuse me if I try.

Stash count: **I started counting 5/23/13…

Used this week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 27.5 yards
Added this Weeks: 3.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 152.25 yards
Net Added for 2013: 124.75 yards

see more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Yesterday’s class was a big disappointment.  If you missed my post yesterday I did a quick run through on all my classes.  Yesterday’s class was Fab Feathers Messenger Bag.  It was really not worth the $65 class fee + $25 materials fee.  I took the class because I wanted to have some supervised practice making bags and how to put on a zipper (on a bag).  I also didn’t mind playing with a Bernina 780. 🙂 I didn’t mind that it was basically a sales pitch for Bernina.  I understand what it means to sponsor something and to wanting to sell your product with that sponsorship.  What was irritating was that the materials kits were not completed in advance.  At a $25 fee I expected a better presentation than being handed the materials as the instructor went over each step.  At every single piece of fabric – she didn’t have enough fabric cut out.  She kept having to cut more of any given piece.  Which took away from class time.  And she kept missing people whenever she handed them out.  And since she did that people kept going up to retrieve the piece they didn’t get and inadvertently get the wrong piece.  It was distracting and disorganized.  Don’t get me wrong, the instructor is a nice lady and she was fun and entertaining.  But we didn’t get the bag done and I believe it was because of the materials issue among other things (like only having one binder to use).  By the end I was rushing to finish one of the steps and in rushing I messed it up.  And the mess up isn’t something I can easily fix.  I’m going to finagle it to work without having to redo it but It’s really irritating that I have to do that.  The instructions were not printed as she didn’t have time to make copies.  She’s going to email it to us today. So that class was a big disappointment and now I’ve got a UFO of a bag in pieces.  I’m not sure I know how to complete it but I’m hoping I do.  For right now, I’m putting it away in a plastic bin because I do not want to see it anymore.

Loving the embroidery machine!

On a better note – I loved playing on the 780!  I’ve never played with an embroidery machine before and I loved all the little gizmos and gadgets the machine has.  If I was looking for a machine right now I would have totally jumped on the bandwagon.  As it is, my little Bernina 330 is a little over a year old.  I’m using it a lot though so I think I can justify getting a new machine next PIQF.  At $8,000 (which was the sticker price at the show) I’m not sure I will be able to swing that but a girl can always dream. 🙂

And my favorite class at PIQF was Jean Brown’s Hawaiian Quilt Making.

Jean Brown’s last class before retirement.

Hawaiian Quilt Making
Before applique

I bought a bunch of stuff in her class to help with hand quilting so apparently I’m going to continue to hand quilt after I’m done with my current hand quilt project.  I also went to the vendor booth with all the Hawaiian quilt stuff and bought all the pattern books they had!  I may have gone overboard but at $6.95 per book (with 12 -15 patterns) I thought it was a steal!  There were only 5 books so it wasn’t a big deal.  However I did add to my list of things I want to do! 🙂

Wish I was quilting!

Melanie