Progress on Market Fresh

Today was the last "Market Fresh" class at Hi Fashion.  Heather taught the class and did a great job.  It was a ton of fun and I enjoyed getting to know the other ladies in the class better.  I like taking classes because I ALWAYS learn something new, a new technique or a great tip for making a technique I already know easier.  Classes also get me going on a project that may otherwise sit on the shelf.  And .... it is just so much more fun sitting and sewing with friends!
Here is the progress I made on my quilt today - it is about half pieced together and I am loving it.  It is such a fun, bright, happy pattern :)

Here I am sewing at my kitchen table, which I hardly ever do, but my smaller "class" machine was all set up for machine appliqué with invisible thread so it was easier to just finish the process on that machine.  Then I moved upstairs to piece it on my bigger machine (with the even feed, which makes piecing so much easier).  I ended up laying the quilt out on my design floor and started sewing at home.  Not wanting to move my blocks, I went to class just to show what I had done so far and to see everyone else's progress.

Marlene, here, had a great idea that I wish I had thought of.  She lay her blocks out at home too, then took a picture of them and printed it out on 8 1/2x11 paper, so she would remember what blocks went where as she sewed it together in class.  Great idea!  I will have to remember that in the future.  Here is her quilt, with a light background, colorful wedges and a gray sashing - beautiful!  You can see her printed out photo "map" in the picture below.

This is Truly with the progress she has made on her quilt.  I love her dark chocolate brown background with beautiful colored wedges - it looks so elegant!


Here is a thought on classes for all of you teachers out there.  Classes give us a great start on a project, but rarely do we actually complete the project by the time class is over.  So we need to have a 3-4 month later "class reunion", so we can see at least everyone's completed top.  That would give us a deadline, so we're more likely to finish it, and I REALLY want to see all of these quilt tops finished because they are all going to be so different and beautiful!

Here are the top two rows of Truly's - this quilt is going to be stunning. I don't know why it reminds me so much of chocolate, but it looks good enough to eat!

Sue chose a light background also, with pinks and browns for the wedges.  I love the pink and brown combination!  I think her sashing is cream and she is considering pink cornerstones.

Sharon chose multiple browns for the background and many different fabrics for the wedges.  My original plan was to use multiple browns for the background too, but I just could not find enough browns in the shade I liked to make it work, so I ended up using the same brown for all the blocks. Sharon's is going to be very pretty - I can hardly wait to see it finished!  We need to start planning the Market Fresh Class Reunion :)