Dreams can come true

As you do when you are preparing to do something new and somewhat unknown, I was dreaming about teaching at Patchwork Corner yesterday morning. OK perhaps a little sad but it was quite cool too. If we could just get rid of the roads and expand the shop to the one in my dream... but that isn't the bit that came true. I dreamed about thread (yes yes, really sad I know) and lo and behold one of my students asked exactly the right question for the answer I had rehearsed in my dream. Although I think I did it better in my dream. Of all the things to come true I don't think this would have been my highest priority, heck the huge shop with a whole room dedicated to threads would have been more exciting, but still quite fun. I guess the brain does know what it is doing with rehearsing things in your sleep.

I think the class went well. Th reason it was concerning me is that I had no idea what I would end up teaching. I had prepared several things but I had to go and ask what the class wanted. As it turned out they had all brought things along with them. That made things a lot easier even if it did mean teaching different things to each person. They seem like a nice bunch and I am very much looking forward to seeing them regularly. One bonus of a regular group is getting to see people actually finish things, and I benefited from this in the very first session. One of the ladies in this calls took my speed quilt workshop and brought that along to show me finished. It looked really good and people found it hard to believe how quickly she had made it. She thinks it took about 12 hours including all the cutting. Not bad.

We also concluded I should get shares in June Taylor for showing people the Shapecut tool. I love mine and wouldn't be without it so I am always surprised how many people have never tried it. It is a special 'ruler' for cutting strips. It's hard to explain without showing you but trust me if you do a lot of strip cutting for piecing, you want one.

I thought it was time to show you my challenge fabrics, well the camera was to hand and I needed a break from quilting.
The terms of the challenge are that I have to use all of these and the threads to make a quilt. I can add more to it but I have to use all of these. I was wondering if I can do some kind graduated change from brown to purple, but I think that is going to need to be a very big quilt given that a lot of these are quite similar shades. I also considered something pictorial, but there isn't enough variation in value for the ideas that came to mind. Still I have a year so I don't need to rush into it. It's going to be an interesting problem to solve.