Glamp Stitch-a-lot!

I headed to Pink Castle Fabrics and Glamp Stitch-a-lot last weekend, and had an absolutely amazing time.  Hubby was worried about me going to Detroit, and I laughed and assured him that chances were I'd never leave the hotel.  I was right - we sewed from early morning to late night, and had a blast.  It's so fun to hang out with a group, where questions like "ooh - love your bag, what interfacing did you use??" are perfectly normal, and where you can get lots of help and opinions on just what color fabric should go where.

We had four classes over two days, by AnneMarie Cheny, Anna Maria Horner, Guiseppe and Lizzy House.  Talk about a star line-up!  I loved all of them, and can't wait to finish the projects we started.

The general theme was "mini's", and Guicy Guice took it quite literally!  These four inch paper-pieced blocks were time-consuming, but oh so fun!  I'm planning on putting the four black ones on the pocket of a purse.

The hoop project from AnneMarie was a quick finish, but I do like how it turned out!  I had time to do two of them.  I think the fall colored one will go to Grandma, to hang in her assisted living room.  I'd like to hoop it, but I'm not sure what fabric I'd cover it in, so we'll see.  I think the batik-ish one will stay with me.

Anna Maria's free-form applique was definitely the one that pushed my comfort level the furthest!  I like what I ended up with, but it's one where I see others being so much more creative, and I know I need to continue to push myself to think outside the box a bit more.  I'll finish this as a mini, and I think actually hang it inside the house, rather than in my long-arm room.  I didn't like the initial fabrics I'd picked out, so a day or two before I left I headed over to Fern Hill Gifts and splurged on a good amount of Frond fabrics, and I'm so glad I did!  I only used a couple of pieces for this, so now I need some good projects to use up the rest of my splurge. 

Lizzy House's blocks are a TON of fun!  I made the first one in scrappy batiks, and decided I liked it so much I'd cut out a ton more.  So I spent the bulk of one evening at the cutting table.  We'll see how far what I've cut gets me!  I think they're a good one to keep in the upstairs sewing room, since I can just grab what I need from the pile and sew one when I have ten minutes or so.  I'm curious to see how a group of them together are going to look; if I'm going to struggle to see the circle emerge from the set, or if even through the scrappy-ness it will be obvious.  I was definitely in the minority at glamp as far as my love of batiks; oh well, they're what I like! The applique technique for the center circle was fun, but if I'm going to do an entire quilt of them, I'm likely going to go with wonder under and machine quilt them in place. 

Overall I'm SO glad I went, and am considering going again next year.  It was well worth it!