Technique Overload?

The past couple of days have been filled to overflowing with techniques. For the most part they were familiar, but others were new to me.

The first technique was origami. I have not yet folded my square of silk organza.

The second technique was weaving. "You can cut the strips with a rotary cutter or tear them. If you don't like raw edges, you can turn them under. You have 10 minutes." I don't like raw edges, but I couldn't even get my strips torn in 10 minutes. I finished my weaving about 3 hours after our 10 minutes were up. :)

Next up was taking tucks on cotton organdy.

Then we learned to inset circles. At this point I realized I had a hitchhiker along for my class. Apparently Charlotte came with me. I had planned to hand applique the circle, rather than machine stitch it as suggested by Jeannette. Suddenly Charlotte's voice piped up in my head and said, "You paid all that money for this class. You should at least TRY her way instead of doing what you usually do."

Charlotte's voice was right, and I got some lovely inset circles withOUT hand applique.

We learned pojagi, both by hand and by machine. I actually liked the look of machine pojagi better, imagine that!

We practiced free-cut straight lines and cut-throughs. In the hours since I took the picture, I've quilted this piece and have begun the process of binding it.

After the straight lines, we made free-cut curves.

Then it was back to inset angles...

After lunch the entire class hit the wall. It must have been the ribs and mac & cheese.

Jeannette explained reverse hand applique and reverse machine applique, but I've done the former and have no interest in the latter. (Again that issue with raw edges reared its head.)

After the applique explanation, Jeannette demonstrated foiling. We were set free to foil away, but I didn't. I do have my foil, in case I get the urge to foil later in the week. Or later in my lifetime.

And finally, today it was VERY windy, but the sun was shining. This is about as close as I got to the sea. I took the picture on my way to lunch.

Tomorrow we begin work on "our quilts."

I wasn't planning to make a quilt, I was planning to add tools to my tool box. It looks like I may end up with a Hoffman Challenge this year after all. go figure. I've taken all of my fabric up to my room, and tonight I plan to dig through it and decide what I will be working with tomorrow morning.,

I actually know EXACTLY what quilt I want to be working on, but everything to do with that quilt is at home. The idea will keep. It's been percolating for years, but now it's finally time to sew it out. I can hardly wait.