Getting ready for Diane Gaudynski!

I’ve made my plans and reservations to go to A New Tradition in Quilting workshop with Diane Gaudynski at the Museum in Paducah in the beginning of March. Three whole days of quilting with my quilting idol! Woohoo! Not to mention a whole week in the States with my buddy Dawn since she’s taking the class as well! I decided yesterday that it was probably time to really start looking at the supply list and order some things, as well as piece the sample quilt that we’ll be using in class.

I did finally load EQ6 after the holidays, and I used it to redraft a pattern that I found in a quilt calendar. Diane said this pieced wall quilt needed to have a 12″ light colored square in the middle, so I made this block 24″ total, then added 3″ borders. The pic you see here is an exported .jpg file from EQ6, and the export feature is much improved in this version. I used to have to take a snapshot of the quilt, paste it into a graphics editor and save it in the size I wanted. With EQ6, I can just do an export, and the program will ask what format to export to (.bmp, .jpg, .gif, .tiff, .png are the choices) and then I can tell it how big I want the picture, and what resolution. Sooo much better!

The pic of the quilt was easy, the piecing was painful. My own fault, obviously, since the thing has these diagonal seams that have to match up. It’s done though, and it’s not too bad. So basically it took me most of the day to order the threads for the class, and cut and piece the quilt. I still have to figure out what to do about batting; I love the Hobbs Heirloom Wool, but I’m out at the moment, and when I went to Hancock’s to order it I see there’s a new kind from Hobbs, the Tuscany collection. Problem is, there’s no explanation of what’s new/improved/different about any of it, and it’s more expensive, to boot. They still have the wool batting that I’ve used before, but I don’t know if it’s going to be discontinued or what, or if I should order the new stuff because it’s better. So much for educating the consumer. Anybody know anything about this stuff?

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to handle that whole machine issue. Hauling the machine as a carry on on the flight wasn’t going to be easy or fun, and I was going to have to buy a new suitcase to put the machine in that would fit under the seat, at $155 plus shipping. And I could just imagine the issues going through security. Ugh! So the next plan was to ship the machine and whatever else I could fit in it’s box to Dawn by registered mail, and have her bring it to Paducah with her. That sounded like a better idea, since it would only cost about $35 each way for the registered mail fees, but I had visions of damage to the machine on the way over, and then where would I be? I’ve shipped machines before with no problems, but you never know.

Yesterday when I called the Museum to pay the balance on the workshop, I found out that I can rent a Pfaff machine from a shop right in Paducah! I called the man, and he said sure, he’d rent me a machine and he’d only charge me $40 for the three days!!! And I can have a Pfaff 2056, just like mine! So I can use a machine just like mine for the workshop and get my dose of Pfaff love without the hassle and cost of dragging or shipping my own. Sometimes things just work out like they’re supposed to, don’t they?

Share This