September 2, 2012

AV and I went to a glass blowing class today! So I had to draw my paperweight on it's little metal stick thingy that I've already forgotten the name of.

But here it is!

I hope it's awesome when it arrives :D

JK I know it will be, because I made it and I'm basically a genius.*

Cheers!
Red


*What did I tell you about letting me have my moment??? JUST LET ME HAVE IT, OKAY?

Glass Blowing Class!

My friend's wedding was over Labor Day weekend. So, everlasting love, blah blah blah whatever. My friend being all nervous and excited to see his bride. LAME.*

But what was REALLY awesome was that AV and I went to a GLASS BLOWING STUDIO AND MADE PAPERWEIGHTS.

We went to Marble City Glassworks in Knoxville. We didn't realize it was in somebody's personal studio so we were pretty confused when the address matched up to a house rather than some sort of industrial setting. But once we got into the studio, we figured out it was pretty sweet.

Who would have thought that molten glass would make the studio so so hot? Obviously not me who sweated through all their underwear. Too much information? Probably.

AV and I got to make TWO paperweights each. It was amazing. Seriously. It was THE. BEST.

We worked with Matt, who was fabulous, patient and so so helpful. I seriously cannot say enough about how awesome this experience was. We're going to have to go back so we can actually make some blown glass!

Here's AV rounding out his paperweight!

I'll post photos when we get our finished paperweights. The studio has to ship them to us because it didn't occur to me that the glass would have to take a couple of days to cool from being MOLTEN. So get excited for those!

Tip: Do NOT try to touch the glass at any point... It might look like super awesome taffy or ice or something fabulous to touch. BUT IT IS NOT. IT IS NOT AWESOME TO TOUCH.

I cannot say this enough... IT IS NOT AWESOME TO TOUCH THE GLASS. NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT.

But in all seriousness, if you are in the Knoxville area, look up Marble City Glassworks. No joke. They offer private two hour classes where you'll experience something totally unlike the art you've ever done before.

Cheers!
Red


*Okay, just to clarify, I am totally kidding.... My friend and his wife were adorable and I am so so happy for them. I just wanted to throw that up there for those kids who have no sense of humor :)

Watermelon Table Runner

I took a second quilting class over the summer. I only got around to finishing the quilt a couple of weeks ago... I'm a terrible procrastinator :)

But it looks fantastic! I'm pretty proud of myself :D

I think I might put some loops or something on it so that I can hang it on the wall over the kitchen door.

I'm taking some other classes at the quilting store so by the end of the year I should have some fantastic full size quilts! I'm making a barn quilt and a quilt with different star patterns. I'm pretty stoked!

Cheers,
Red

Finished Quilt!

I finished my quilt from quilting class! It's a bit small, only a twin where we have a full bed and a queen, but it still looks pretty awesome.

Darling Ned gracing the new quilt with some hair

I'm really proud of myself, this was a huge undertaking! I have also discovered I really like quilting! Its really nice to work with the fabrics, the textures are pretty awesome. But it's also really difficult since the projects are inherently fairly huge so I still have to figure out how to deal with that.

Cheers,

Red

Quilting Class: Grandma-tastic

There is a really nice quilting store in the city AV works. I've been in it a few times (approximately as many times as I have been in that city...) and I've been wanting to take a class there. They do a table runner class which I'd really like to do but there isn't one scheduled until next month. So instead I decided to do the "Take 5 Quilt" class. It's a set of three, three hour classes. So today, I went to my first quilting class!

I really loved it, but I do feel a bit... old... now. In the three and a half hours I was there, I was by far the youngest person in the store... by like fifty years. At a few points some younger people came in, but only because they were visting/talking to the store owner who was their grandmother/mother. So, as the stereotype would suggest, quilting is for grandmas.

Any way... When I got to the store I had to pick out 5 fabrics to make the main part of my quilt. I picked different blue/green/purple batiks in the hope that my quilt would look a bit like water. We shall see...

The class was taught by the owner of the store, and since the other woman who was going to attend was unable today, I got private lessons! I learned how to cut out squares of fabric today. The way she showed me is so much easier than how I would have done it, she had me fold the fabric twice then cut instead of trying to do each block individually. CRAZY!

After I got all my pieces cut, we laid them out and started to make the bigger quilt squares.

Some pieces laid out at the quilt shop

Next I made up all the big squares which will make up the quilt, twenty in all.

All my blocks laid out!

Now I have to decide how to set them out for the whole quilt. The directions specify which way to put them out but I'm not sure if I want to do it that way. I'd hate to spend all this time on something I won't like.

This is how the directions specify the blocks.

But maybe turn them around a bit more?

I want to have more of a "wild" look I think, since I want it to be a bit like water. I'll just have to keep playing around. Next week I'll be making the rows and then connecting them into the big square for the center of the quilt.

Exciting!

Cheers,

Red