Judy Niemeyer Paper Piecing Class

  Recently I had the pleasure of taking a paper piecing class with certified Judy Niemeyer instructor, Catherine Erickson.  My entire experience with paper piecing prior to the class was making a heart-shaped block for a sampler quilt, and doing some crazy quilt paper pieced mini blocks.  I had previously found the process a bit of a mystery, but have always wanted to do a Judy Niemeyer pattern.  If you aren't familiar with her work, please click on the following link to go to her website and be absolutely amazed at the variety and beauty of the things that she, and her son Bradley, have designed:  http://www.quiltworx.com/   As you may know, or can tell after visiting the website, these patterns look super intimidating and more than a little bit scary (at least to me!).
  We had decided to do a four day class at the quilt shop, beginning with a cutting day on Thursday, two sewing and instruction days for a pattern called Golden Harvest on Friday and Saturday, and then, for the true die-hards, an optional class on a leaf pattern called One on Sunday.  I learned a lot! The first thing I learned was that four days may be a little too long for me:)  More importantly, though, I learned that paper piecing the Judy Niemeyer way is not all that scary!  Happy Day!  The cutting was a bit hairy because everyone had chosen fabrics to go in different places than they were on the pattern, which, when you have 16 people taking a class can create a bit of chaos.  However, once everyone got into the groove, the cutting happened and we were all ready to go by Friday morning.  We started class bright and early, and Catherine walked us through one section of the pattern at a time.  Since there really is no way to finish a quilt of that type in two days, it was very important to pull units demonstrating each technique so that we would learn everything we needed to know in order to go home and finish.  For a linear thinker, such as myself, that was a little bit frustrating.  I like to work on one thing until it is finished, and then go on to the next thing.  However, I totally understand why it had to be taught in that manner, and now I feel comfortable enough with all the techniques that I know I can finish my gorgeous project on my own.  In fact, I am so comfortable with the methods that we learned, that I have already chosen and purchased my next Judy Niemeyer pattern, and can't wait to get started on it!  I have vowed to finish this one first, though.  Stay tuned for the finished product---I can't wait to see how it turns out!  In my next post, I will talk about auditioning and choosing the fabrics for my outer borders on this quilt.  Spoiler alert---the fabrics that I chose originally did not work at all, and had to be thrown into the stash for another day!