I took a Judy Niemeyer Class

I have been going to a Judy Niemeyer Certified Store for years now in San Mateo, the Scruffy Quilts shop.  I have always looked at all of the Quiltworx quilts on the wall and I've always wanted to take a class from a certified instructor but the classes are two weeks or longer and I can't attend all of the classes.  San Mateo is near my husband's family but it is 2 1/2 hours away.

I signed up to receive the emails that they send out.  They sent out a plea for more students a couple of days prior to the class, August 28.  It was a one day class and they needed students.  We were going to visit my mother-in-law and I thought this is the perfect opportunity because it was also 2 days prior to my 60th birthday.  What a way to celebrate my birthday by taking a class at Scruffy Quilts!  I was ecstatic!  I called the store and they told me that I could chose between two patterns to make: Ice Crystals Quilt or the Winter Wonderland Table Runner.  Both use the same "star."  At first, I decided to do the quilt but then I read the instructions and I had to have 10 blue fabrics and only two days to gather all the materials needed.  I changed my mind and called them back and they were able to find one pattern of each for me to purchase on Sunday.

There were four students there and the instructor was sweet, Gretchen Veteran. She was also very knowledgeable.  I was the only one there who did not have experience with a JN pattern.  I did do the One Leaf pattern several years ago but that was pretty easy.  I enjoyed this class because we got right down to work and started with the instructions.  There are always corrections to be made and it depends on when your pattern was printed.  The most current patterns have the least corrections and the first patterns printed always have the most errors.  The table runner pattern instructions have ONLY eight pages of instructions!  The Ice Crystals pattern has twenty pages of instructions.  Of course, the pattern that I had was one of the older ones and I had to make many corrections.  I found that going through the instructions helped me understand how to get through to the end.  Gretchen explained that these patterns are made on CAD engineering programs.  My engineering daughters use CAD at work and I am so impressed with the entire Niemeyer family that make the patterns with this complex program!  Anyway, each time a caller had an error to correct, the Niemeyer's check it out and make the correction. That is why the date at the end of the pattern is important.  You can download any corrections to your computer from the Quiltworx website.

Ice Crystals

I have one of the snow flakes done now.  I made a few errors but I figure i did it on the table runner and not the quilt.

1/8 of the snow flake.

Two more Snow Flakes to go.

I've enjoyed sewing and paper piecing this block.  It was easy but it wasn't that difficult once I got used to the directions.  I will hopefully be done in the next few weeks.

I needed time to clean up my sewing area.  Unfortunately, after I started I decided I had quite a few more things to do.  You know how that is....you can see areas that need more work and you stop to do them.