Paper Piecing with the NEMQG

Phew! It was a lot of work to put together, but yesterday's meeting was a success. Summer is a really busy time for everyone, so we only had 3 other NEMQG members plus my mom and I in attendance at our paper piecing class at the Sewing Diva. (I begged my mom to come just to increase our numbers, fearing that the shop might want to cancel if we didn't have enough people. At one time I had to tell my mom, "It's not torture" because she really was hesitant given that it was going to cut into her Saturday yard-saling time).

Anyway, the lady who taught us was really nice and this was definitely not something I could've learned without personal instruction. My favorite part was when she emphatically asked me, "What are you doing?!" after one of my many mistakes. At one point, to explain my difficulty in grasping the upside-down/backwards methods of paper piecing, I had to say to her, "Did I mention that I am a mother of a 10 month old son?" (Baby brain!)

My mom grasped it pretty quickly and was one of the first ones done. After making the blocks, we did a quick show and tell.

I am in love with Rebecca's zig-zag quilt made out of mostly Modern Meadow fabrics. Modern Meadow is a fabric line I have very little of. To my dismay - I am finding online fabric sellers to have very little of it lately. I put off buying any because Joel Dewberry is so popular - all his older stuff is on sale everywhere, so I figured I would buy some when it was at a lower price.... but maybe this is one of those collections that sells too fast for clearancing!

This is a block Jill made for an online block bee that she is participating in. I think it looks great!

I didn't finish my block at the class, and afterwards I went with my mom to her home to meet up with Gregory and Nick. Once I got there, I promptly setup a sewing area on her kitchen table and finished up my block. I really like how it turned out and can say I would do paper piecing again.

I do have to say that I am really glad the guild purchased fabric for the block kits. Paper piecing is hard and tedious, and I think we really would've had no energy/motivation to keep going if we had hated the fabric we were using. The shop wanted to make a "fall-themed" kit - which is not exactly a keen idea to a modern quilter. The only thing that really stunk was that I was given an incorrect measurement for one of the pieces, so the shop provided the little heart print.

When I got to my mom's, I took this really good picture of Nick and Gregory. It was so nice to have an afternoon away and just get lost in sewing with good friends. Our family has been under a bit of stress (anyone know of any entry-level legal positions in the Boston area?) - so it was nice to forget all of that for a little while.

Nick took this picture of me with Gregory - I have to say he's getting better at taking pictures!

Thanks again to Lisa, Jill, Rebecca, and my mom for taking time out to come to Saturday's meeting. Traffic was terrible and it was a gorgeous day to sacrifice for sewing - but I think it was worth it!