English Paper Piecing

Today’s retirement adventure was a sewing class.  I signed up for the class at Lucky 2 B Quilting in Pecatonica, IL.  The class was taught by the loveliest Cambodian lady named Vanna.  We had a group of three ladies.  One lady was from Lena, IL and the other one was a Brazilian lady.  They all had quilting experience and I have limited experience.

I had no concept of English Paper Piecing but knew I wanted to learn.  You wrap material around this little hexagon piece of thick paper and baste it in place.  Then you sew the pieces together.  It took some time to do this.  Our class ended up being over two hours for only $10.00.

Vanna brought snack and so I immediately fell in love with her.  You know me, I can always eat.  We had pomegranate, persimmon, grapes and almonds.  Perfect sewing food.

We shared stories of our lives and just had the most convivial time.  Vanna was a Cambodian refugee in Thailand before she came to the US.  Christina moved from Brazil to marry her husband whom she met in Brazil when she was a translator for him.

Of course, I had to share my retirement experiences and even got a reader for my blog.  I must keep up with it.

I learned so much about materials, threads and needles.  Vanna corrected my stitches which were too big.  You could hardly see her stitches.  She showed us two of the quilts she had made using the English Paper Piecing method.  They were just gorgeous.

I have Christmas projects going right now but as soon as I have spare time, I will start on my English Paper Piecing project.