Pam Buda Class

I spent seven hours in a Pam Buda class yesterday, along with 25 other eager students and had SUCH a good time! It's been years and years since I took a quilt class and I had forgotten how much fun it could be!  

I met up with my friend Janet - of Rogue Quilter fame - and her friend Kim. 

Janet spoiled me rotten and gave me two more paper pieced ornaments for a birthday gift. These things are SO tiny - only 2" square!. She also gave me two bars of her delicious smelling handmade soaps that smell good enough to eat! LOL

And my table mate is a new friend from Idaho - we clicked immediately and I felt like I had known her for years (hi Jami!)

Pam taught us two different ways to make flying geese units, two different ways to make quarter square triangles and several other methods  -  plus shared some great products with us. Most everyone finished making the center blocks for their quilt project and they were displayed all together at the front of the room at the end of the day. So many fun color combinations. Mine is in the top right corner of the board and I switched up the project by using black for the background instead of a light fabric. I had to always double check to see if I was getting the color placement right and only had to use a seam ripper once....

I don't ever remember the teacher giving gifts to the students before, but each of us received a darling tote bag from Pam.....

......and one of her patterns as well! Wow!

A delicious lunch was provided - along with dessert and snacks on each table. Mmmm. The staff at Village Dry Goods gifted everyone with a mug & liner for storing and organizing your tools - like pencils, seam rippers, scissors - whatever - so cute! I felt spoiled!

I loved walking around the room to see what treasures I could spot. This button covered journal was just darling - I believe she bought it at Target awhile ago.

Janet made one of her tiny little paper pieced quilt blocks into a darling pincushion.

I've seen these design boards before - great for laying out your blocks and taking them to the machine to sew - but this gal had used colorful duct tape on the one in back to finish the edges up - so cute!

One gal was wearing a darling vest that she bought on sale at Christopher & Banks. The fabric looks just like a penny rug, huh? 

She even embellished it a bit by stitching a REAL wool penny here and there across the surface. Unfortunately, it's not available in the store or on their website anymore, but I did find a size medium listed on eBay if anyone's interested.

Fran had the cutest purse made from a wool Army blanket that had wool flowers appliqued to one side - the leather straps were very sturdy and added a lot to the look of the piece.

This class is a yearly event and I think I might be hooked on attending from now on! Today I'm hoping to finish making the rest of the quilt top and I'm looking forward to spending more quality time with my sewing machine....