Improv piecing workshop with Denyse Schmidt

Hey there. How are you? I hope you are doing well. I got to do a fun thing on Friday. I attended an Improv Piecing workshop with Denyse Schmidt. In my opinion Denyse Schmidt is a genius. Her book,  Denyse Schmidt Quilts was the very first quilt book I ever bought way back in the olden days of 2005. I can remember sitting outside on the sidewalk with it. My friend (Becky) and I looked through it and studied every picture and read about each project. Becky dashed home and ordered a copy for herself and called me immediately to let me know that she had some fabric with Denyse Schmidt's name on it. I thought that was so cool. Of course Becky was talking about the now infamous Flea Market Fancy. I can remember thinking to myself that "wow...this lady gets it!" I want to be like Denyse when I grow up.

If you have never gotten to attend a workshop with Denyse I will tell you what goes on so maybe you can improvise your own workshop with yourself.

Denyse has the sewing tables set up with 3 brown paper shopping bags each one is marked "Small, Medium and Large" Each bag is full of fabric scraps cut in small, medium and large sizes. 

You have to stick your hand in a bag and pull out a piece of fabric without looking. No matter what you select you have to use it. 

You just draw fabric out of the bags and sew them together.

What a fabulous exercise. 

There were some fabrics that I pulled that were a bit ugly, but when they were all squished in their their friends they looked lovely. 

I had a great time on Friday. If Denyse Schmidt ever comes to town and you can swing it, do go sew with her. She is brilliant and I hope some of that inspiration will stick to me so I can finish the quilts block I made and make them into a quilt.

Here Denyse is with my 6 blocks. I love how different this is from my normal work. My youngest son has already claimed the blocks for himself, so I will make this quilt for him.

Here we all are after class. I love how Shea and I have blond eyebrows...I wonder if she ever got grief growing up about her eyebrows like I did?

These are Shea's pictures. I totally forgot my camera. I did bring my phone and I took a ton of pictures with it, but I am too dumb to figure out how to move pictures from my smart phone to my computer.

One more thing before I go back to sewing. Friday night I watched a great movie that I had checked out from the library. Atonement.  I knew it was not appropriate for the kiddies, so after they went to bed I put it in. I guess my husband had overheard me telling Emma that it was an adult movie, so she was not welcome to join us. He translated that into the movie was a porno. He had this goofy grin on his face when he plopped down on the couch with me to watch it. About 15 minutes in he voiced his disappointment with my selection. I was a bit confused. He told me what he had been expecting and I started laughing. Who would want to see a dirty movie with Elizabeth Swan? It would be like watching a cadaver. Yuck. And I got it from the library. I don't think they rent out dirty movies there? And I have never rented a dirty movie anyway, where would I even begin to find them? Needless to say my husband managed to stay awake for about 10 more minutes and then he was snoring away beside me. 

Happy sewing folks!