Enjoying Kathy McNeil's Class!

Today started out great. I got up feeling good and rested. It took me a while to decide what I was going to do, then I remembered I was checking out Kathy McNeil's class.

I went to iquilt and hooked up for Kathy's "Audobon Christmas Tutorial." I have been watching it and on Lesson 6, which I'm loving every minute of it. If one wants to learn the different types of applique, this quilt has it. I love the quilt itself, and would love to make it. This course has me wanting to design even more. I love the way she teaching each step and how she explains every step. I'm a visual learner and this was perfect! Check it out, it's well worth the money so far.

Kathy at iquilt.com

So, while listening to the introduction, I finished the table mats I was working on.

The past couple days, I didn't have this photo to show how much I had done. I started at this point today, and enjoyed sitting here working on it. Charlie wasn't too thrilled I didn't have her on my lap today, but I had the computer on my lap instead.

One can see how quick this goes. I just love this pattern - "Oak Leaves & Acorns" which is perfect for this time of year. If anyone is looking for the pattern, go to your local quilt shop or if you can't find it there, go to Pacific Rim Company. I do have the Cat and Dog pattern they have. Those are new patterns, and I'm looking forward to doing them as well. I tend to like these because they are quick and they work great for gifts. I quilt it, but not as much as I do on bigger quilts.

I have several quilts from wall to full size that are sitting and waiting on me to finish them. I need to get back to them. I will try and do that after this one is done.

Tomorrow is our QOV meeting and the committee meeting of TAS' annual meeting. It's going to be one meeting after another. Think I will take the Acorn quilt with me to work on. I could actually take those baskets I need to work on as well. I printed out the November pattern. I'm excited to get that close to being done. It should be fun! I am going to try and make it bigger, and need to figure out how I'm going to do that. I may have to frame the blocks to get it bigger and have the half square triangles help me out. Need to double check it with Donna to see if my math is right.

I was doing laundry today, as Patrick has a way of putting rugs in the wash on some weekends. I got a lot done, and happy to feel like I've actually done something today, including cooking a decent meal. (smiling)

Check out my new links of other quilters blogs. I have taken out the ones that have not posted since June, and replaced a lot with some new ones I found. I'm having fun looking at a lot of others blogs. I'm learning from them as well. Please, check them out and give them your support.

Okay, time to get back to listening to Kathy! Can't wait to see how she does some of her applique! I loved it when she explained what "needle-turn" applique was and that fusible (among others) is not needle turn. I've only learned needle turn applique and in the last year I've been learning a lot of other ways to do applique. Kathy explains all those steps, and I can't wait to "perfect" what I've learned. This will come in handy when I teach needle turn next week. I had a hard time explaining the other kinds of applique (which I truly thought was part of needle turn to find out it isn't). So, for me, this class is awesome - not only did I learn something new, I'm inspired to keep going and try and try a few other methods as well. Since I'm a hand quilter, I'm going to have to keep that in mind when I do the applique techniques I've always wanted to learn. I'm okay with that. Like those learning how to machine quilt better, I'm going to learn a way to work with the new techniques and make it work in hand quilting....I'm okay with that. I'll be even more then Happy Quilting!