Goodness!  How is it Thursday already?  I feel like the week just slipped away from me.  But before it goes entirely, I wanted to share with you all my very fun sewing weekend I had this past weekend in Chicago.

I attended the second Sewtopia weekend, this time held in Chicago, and this time held with classes and teachers.  AWESOME teachers.  We got to learn from two greats in the industry whose work I have respected and admired for a long time, Latifah Saafir, The Quilt Engineer, and Rita Hodge, Red Pepper Quilts.  Uhm. yeah.  That was fantastic.

Latifah taught us her Molehills quilt (pattern available soon!).  I love Latifah’s work because we have a common love of sewing curves.  You might wonder why someone who wrote a book on curves would take a class on sewing curves from another quilter.  But let me tell you, there is always something new to learn.  And if someone has a fantastic pattern, then go ahead and do it.  I’m LOVING my quilt from her class and it was pretty low stress for me.  Win win.  I loved finding out what we did in common and what we did differently.  Plus Latifah is just an amazing teacher and it was a pleasure to see her work in person and hear her talk about it.

Rita was in all the way from Australia.  I know!!!  It was so delightful to meet her.  Rita is shy and quiet but feisty if you got her laughing.  And I made it my goal to make her laugh.  I know how hard it can be to be an introvert and teach.  She taught us a labor intensive, y seam filled patchwork piece.  And I seriously respect her even more now than I did before.  She can sew like no one else.  I’m proud to say that I actually finished piecing my mini there at the retreat (quite a feat, let me tell you) and I’m planning on turning it into a pillow for my daughter.