Friday, November 20, 2015

Today was my wool felt appliqué class; I was the only student so I had Lainey’s undivided attention (except for a couple of times when a customer came into the store). She told me that her sales are down 50% since Deb (up the street) opened her shop. One of her regular teachers from the past is teaching at Deb’s and the story Lainey tells of their split is much different from the one Kathleen tells.

The day was much more expensive than the $40 I paid for the class. Everything I needed was provided, including felt, needles, floss, pearl cotton, fusible fleece and backing. I had a couple of things on my list (chalk refill and a Frixion pen) and then there were all the little things I picked up. I bought another wool appliqué kit, as well as another wool appliqué pattern. Lainey had a quilt on display and I think the pattern will work for my “Opposites” quilt; she gave me the pattern but I had to purchase a ruler. I bought a few packages of needles, a needle threader, a new pair of scissors, and a new marking pen. The pen is water soluble and we used one today and just a spritz of water took it right off the fabric. Lainey had a few extra kits made up for the class and she gave me another full kit.

It was nice to learn the proper way of doing the buttonhole, the chain and the outline stitches. We used pearl cotton for most of the embroidery but we also used three strands of embroidery floss in one section; since I have so much floss it was nice to know I don’t need to purchase a bunch of new threads.

So here’s my almost-completed top.