I am about four hundred different flavors of thrilled because I get to teach my most favoritest thing ever at the coolest fabric and yarn shop this side of the Mississippi – Fancy Tiger Crafts!

Grace started it, so I blame her. She posted this amazing quilt from the 1930′s showcased at the Nebraska Historical Society. I had some tangential knowledge of paper piecing – enough to know it when I saw it – and I piped up and said, “Oh, yeah! English paper piecing, totally easy! You could recreate that quilt with a bit of graph paper, no sweat. You don’t even need a pattern!” Well, there I went putting my foot in it, and I could. not. stop. thinking about that quilt top. So much so that I ran out and bought a jelly roll at Joann’s and started piecing using YouTube videos and scattered tutorials. I weeded through hard-to-find resources, figured things out with trial and error, and ended up with basically the coolest thing I’ve ever made.

It was actually my first real quilt – so easy – and yet so, so impressive. Admit it, you’re impressed, right? All of those 3/4″ hexagons hand pieced together to make a twin-bed sized quilt. Whatever. I’m impressed enough with myself for everybody! I only hope that my sweet baby girl will like it when she is big and will feel all the love that went into it for her. I was pregnant at the time, and it seemed only natural to make this complex and beautiful thing while I was making another complex and beautiful thing.

So, if you’d like to impress yourself with your mad skillz and create something that even sewing and quilting people will drool over, come take my class! The best part is that the project is infinitely portable – I carry what I’m working on in a tiny makeup bag, needs only a few supplies, can use up all of your cool scraps that you can’t bear to throw away because they are Heather Ross mushrooms or Kaffe Fassett crazy prints and you are sure there is a project to use the 1″ strip you’ve got left. Well, here’s your project!

I’ll be teaching 3 sessions this spring – one in March, April, and May! You’ll learn to choose fabrics, design your own original quilt, piece a star out of hexagons, and applique it to a tote or garment (or you can use your applique skills to put it on an applique border once you’ve finished your truly epic quilt top). Plus, you can bring scraps of your own for the class or use scraps provided by Fancy Tiger – and you know that means scraps of their stellar store stock. Be there or be square!

Sign up for the class here!!

Because I am a lunatic, I’ve started a project with 1/4″ hexagons. They are tiny, tiny little beasts, but once you gain the confidence from the bigger hexes, you can do ANYTHING – even make a queen size quilt with hexagons the size of green peas. And by “you” I mean that general “you” that actually only means me, because who else is this crazy?