International Quilt Festival 2011 - quilt class

As you probably all know by now, last weekend was the IQF in Cincinnati and I had house guests! Regina showed up on Wednesday night .... Well, "showed up" is not the correct phrase. She was supposed to arrive via plane at 10 PM to the Dayton Airport for me to pick her up. On my way home from work, I get a text that her flights were re-routed and she would be arriving in at 11PM. About the time that I was getting prepared to leave my house, I get another text from her stating that she had yet to board and that maybe I should check the flight info online to see when she would finally arrive.... 11:52 PM! I think that she was scared to tell me how late it would be... UGH!!!

Anyway, I snagged her from the airport almost as soon as she de-planed and we were off! We got back to my house around 1 and were settled in for sleep around 2 AM with alarms set for 6 AM so that we could pack lunches and get to our class with plenty of time.

Getting to class wasn't too much of a problem except for the sun delay that kept us on the highway for way too long AND the misdirection from Convention Center workers and IQF workers. We did score a prime parking spot for the class that day and I think that made up for the misdirections. :)

When we finally got to the class, Regina was kind enough to set up our sewing areas while I checked people in and performed my Teacher's Pet duties. After just a few minutes, we were ready to begin.

Our class was Savor the Scraps by Gayle Bong. I received Gayle's Save the Scraps book last year and enjoyed looking at the patterns in it, but I haven't made one of her quilts. But since I recognized her name and Regina and I both liked the picture that was in the class catalog, we decided to take her class.

I have to say that I was very pleased that we picked Gayle's class. She is an awesome teacher and the block pieces and processes that we learned are fantastic!






We used these sewing machines for our classes and while I wanted one at the beginning of the class, the beeps and bells were annoying me by lunch! It was a good little machine other than the beeps and bells!

And here's Regina who sewed right next to me.



And my first couple of thirtysomething blocks.




And a few pictures of quilts that Gayle brought to show us in class. Regina and I both really like the sampler. Click on any of the pictures to see it enlarged.




We got a 2 hour break for lunch, but I was starting to fade fast. When we got back to the room, we still had some time before class was starting so I decided to put my head down and rest a little. I ended up falling asleep for about 20 or 30 minutes, but woke right up when Gayle called me name to get started. When I woke up, I noticed a book that I was going to buy from Gayle's table at my sewing area and she had already autographed it for me. Regina was very sneaky and bought the book while I was asleep!!



We also got the pattern and the square ruler with the special 30* markings with the class. Very neat ruler!

And here are all the pieces that I got done in the class. I was having issues with the ruler slipping and decided to wait to trim the rest of the blocks until I could put some non-slip grip on the back of the ruler. We learned how to make several different types of blocks in class and I think that I can safely say that Regina and I both came out of class full of ideas on how to use these blocks!



Once we started making up the last of the blocks, Gayle picked my sewing area and my blocks to use in her final demonstration. I got to sew for her and everyone seemed to whip out their cameras at this point. :) Regina got a few good ones and you can see her post on the class HERE.

Thanks for taking the class with me, Reg!! And thanks for the book! I love it! And I think that I just figured out the perfect fabric to use for one of the quilts... :-D