Magnolias

I've been busy sewing while I was blogging about the Study Day, but first I wanted to show you the new Sue Spargo tote bags I got. They are printed with her Magnolia Quilt, and were available for the Quiltmania show in France. They were so popular that she bought every one they had left, and my fingers flew to order a couple after I got the email about them. Aren't they cute?

Speaking of Sue Spargo, I have been reading about her Australian teaching tour with envy, but my chance is coming. She is teaching at a local shop next month, and I'm taking two of her classes. The class kits were in last weekend, so I picked them up and got right to work. I'm taking the berry sampler and the bird sampler classes.

Here they are, all ready for embellishment with threads, ribbons, and beads.

I've also been working on my Stawberry Quilt. I had to get a new ruler, Perfect Fans and Shells. I'm using it to make the rows of the strawberry. You just trace around it however many times you need for that row. No making a template!

Here is the strawberry, ready to applique.

I didn't get a chance to do much sewing this weekend, because I took a couple of classes. Yesterday I took an Oral History Workshop at our local museum. My Quilt History Study Group has been listening to oral history tapes of well known local quilters, such as Betty Boyink, who started the Hoffman Challenge, among other things, and Karen O'Dowd, who was an Editor at both Lady's Circle Patchwork Quilt and Quilter's Newsletter Magazines. A few of us took this workshop so we will be able to record more of these histories. The workshop was taught by Dr. James Smither of Grand Valley State University, who records oral histories of Veterans, and he shared a lot of information on everything from equipment and setup, to how to conduct the interview, and we did a sample interview and critiqued it. I learned a lot and signed up to be available to take them in the future. People took the class for various reasons, including genealogy and other projects they were working on. I plan on doing some for my own genealogy research, too.

After that class, I dashed across town to Cascade Hospital for Animals to take a Red Cross Pet First-aid class. I am now certified in pet first aid! This was a class dear to my heart, as I love my boys dearly, and also wanted to be able to help other injured animals. It was pretty intense training. Here is my table mate practicing CPR on a dog manikin. Of course, I practiced on a cat! We each got a pet first aid kit and a manual with DVD as part of the class. Hopefully I'll never have to use what I've learned, but I'll be ready just in case.