Friday morning I tried to get up and workout but I was so tired from my full day of quilting that I just didn't make it. I thought I'd try to go for a jog after sewing instead...I started bright and early with another 3hr class to make a quilt called "Tumbling Leaves/Ode To Autumn" with Nelly Vilekis. The project uses a pretty cool technique to make curved leaf edges without having to sew curved piecing. Here's a picture of Nelly's completed one that we were trying to make:
https://secure.artelasquilts.com/patterns.php?id=57
As you can see, there are 12 leaf blocks in this quilt but in the class I was only able to get 6 blocks completed and then the other 6 are almost done.
Shopping
After my morning quilting session, I left myself some free time for shopping :) There were so many cool vendors at the expo and I wanted to try to visit as many as possible. The biggest things I wanted to purchase to improve my sewing tools were: better marking tools (Lisa Sipes recommended the Sewline pens), better applique scissors, and new stabilizers for applique (along with an understanding of how to use them). I saw this booth that had pre-packaged sets of fabric that you could use to make any one of a number of patterns and at one point I had bundles of fabric in my arms - enough to make quilts for all the moms for Mother's Day, plus for my nieces/nephews and for a few baby showers...LOL. But I realized how much money I had in my arms and was able to put everything back and not buy any of them.
But then I made my way to a booth that had the cutest purses and bags ever and all the patterns for them. I ended up buying four patterns - one for a big purse with a zipper top, one for a mid-size purse with an adorable rounded top, one for a small makeup bag and one for a wallet/coin purse/eyeglass case.
3:30pm - 4:30pm
After shopping, I had one last class of the day called "The Heart of Applique" by Susan Clark (a rep from Jenny Haskins, http://www.jennyhaskins.com/home.php). The class was all about various applique techniques, special effects you can get from them and some special stabilizers or other products you need to use to achieve those effects. It was a really good lecture and I have a lot of things I want to try out now! Now that I learned even more about applique, I think I'll be able to get a lot more functionality and projects out of my machine than what i have been doing, yay!!
One really neat thing that they gave us was a sample pack of the stabilizers and a link to show what each one is used for and when to use what kind. I am excited to review all that information and be able to get the right stabilizers ordered and tested on my machine.
Evening
After my last class, I headed back to the expo to wander just a little bit more. While I was wandering, there was a booth by Sue's Sparkler's (http://www.suessparklers.com/), and they had a "Make-It, Take-It" project where you pay a small fee ($10) and you get to use their tools/materials to make something. At her booth, it was a little scarf and you got to use the Bejeweler to add Swarovski crystals to it (there were a ton of crystals). So I decided to do it and it was so fun! I tried to take a picture but I couldn't get the lighting right so it was too hard to see the crystals. It was so fun that on Saturday, I decided to splurge and buy myself a bejeweler and some crystals to play with, heehee. The other thing I purchased was some blank tea towels to use for some new embroidery projects.
After my scarf making, Doreen and I decided to go out to dinner. We found a nearby seafood restaurant called Harry's and had us some fish and veggies and a couple of beers :) It was nice to have a few hours at the hotel to just relax, chat about what we learned, and get ready for the next day.