Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Guffey tips at Expo

I took a fantastic class with Cynthia Guffey on piping. It was one of those 2.5 hour evening classes. There were problems with the sewing machines (wrong feet and clogged with thread from previous class) and so Cynthia sat down on the floor and walked us through the process by hand. And, it was even better than it would have been if the machines had been working great. We could watch her hands close-up and see just how she achieves perfect results. I will never reach her level of skill, but my knowledge grows each time I take one of her classes.

Here is one tip she offered: never understitch by machine on a concave curve. Even if you have trimmed and clipped according to Cynthia's techniques, the machine will close the clips and cause a bubble with the seam is in place. She recommends hand-stitching the understitching to maintain the curve gained through clipping.

The machine dealer felt really bad that we could not use the machines and so she arranged for each of us to receive Cynthia's piping DVD for free. Cynthia's DVD's may actually be better than seeing her in person. I have her zipper DVD - it is information-rich and the picture quality is great.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Sewing Machine needles

It was a learning for me to know that there are sewing machine needles with two eyes. After I took the needle class where I hear about this, I ran and buy them.

Nancy H.
I only spent one day at the Expo this year -- had to save time and energy to also attend the American Craft Council show. I thought the vendors were back in force this year. Some were missing, but it was still a good collection. Heavy on Quilt Shops.

I bought two patterns by Lois Ericson who passed away recently. Partly to honor her life and also because I know that once they are gone they will be hard to find. I enjoyed my class on Landscape Quilting. I'm not a quilter but I have a special scene that I would like to capture and I was so inspired by Barbara M's beautiful landscape quilt.

It was great seeing so many CWC members -- We could have held a meeting!

G