Hand sewing & new sewing machine & a little family history

Last week end I attended the MQA Summer Gathering in Pearl, MS.

I drove down Friday morning and joined the group about noon.

I signed up for the hand sewing class because I didn't want to lug a sewing machine and all the extras.

This class was all about hand piecing and quilting.

I had never hand pieced a quilt. I always machine piece my tops.

Our teacher was Cynthia R. who will be the president of MQA next year.

She lives on the coast and is a member of a Gulfport guild.

We worked on a pattern called Seven Sisters.

It is made with diamond shaped pieces and some triangles.

Cynthia used stamps to mark our fabric. She made us kits with needles, pins,

thread, beeswax, stamped fabric, and a handy block display board.

Our class was four hours on Friday and four hours on Saturday.

I finished the center block and 6 blue stars.

I cut out all the stamped diamonds when I got home.

I'm steadily working on the stars while I watch TV in the evenings.

I figured I would need more white diamonds so I made a template from card stock.

I used washable marker to trace the pattern.

Yesterday I took my project bag (also furnished by Cynthia) to Joey's.

Kenton was intrigued with the shapes and possible ways to arrange the pieces.

Above is one of his designs.

In other news, my second Pfaff 1473 started having problems.

I have a small machine that I take to sew-ins. It is not my favorite machine.

I decided that it was time to buy a new sewing machine and started looking online.

I found Baby Lock Brilliant had all the features I wanted.

After checking local stores I checked The Cotton Blossom in Ridgeland.

They had exactly what I wanted and it was ON SALE!

I bought it online and talked to Lisa about picking it up when I was in the area for MQA.

Here it is at home in my sewing room.

I'm learning a new machine and I love it so far.

Side note: One of the other participants Fran was from Polkville. I told her my dad was from there and we talked about family names. Her husband, Randy Gray, is related to me from both my grandmother Cora Lee and my grandfather Roscoe. We are second cousins on both sides. 

Fran texted me this family information when we got home.

It was a fun week end.

Next up-

A summer dress for me and a dress make-over for Ava.

Happy Sewing!