I’m here at Road to California having a wonderful time and I know I will be exhausted by the time I drive home. Here’s what’s on the agenda for this weekend:

Today, I’m taking an advanced class called, “Customize Your Quilting”, taught by Quilt artist and author, Mickey Depre. Here’s a sample of her beginning quilting class. I can only imagine what the advanced class will be like!

Tomorrow, I will spend the morning browsing the show floor taking in as much inspiration as I can handle.  In the afternoon, I’m going to attend a lecture entitled, “Show Quilts, From Start to Finish” given by Linda V. Taylor & Cheri Meineke-Johnson.

Isn’t the machine quilting in this piece simply lovely? These ladies are my inspiration!

Finally, on Saturday, I’ll spend the day with Charlotte Warr Andersen learning some of her tips and tricks for perfectly quilted quilts. She is one of my favorite artists and if you’ve never seen her work before, take a look at the picture below to see why she is so amazing:

I plan on taking lots of class pictures and can’t wait to share them with you when I return.

I’m so excited! I’m going to Road to California this week, the quilt show and conference where I’ll get to hobnob with “quilting celebrities” and experience award winning masterpieces.

I’ve signed up for several classes and lectures and I’m attending with my friend Judy who just happens to live in California and just happens to have a spare room for me to stay! So stay tuned and I’ll post pictures of my quilting adventures.

I’ve been trying to take more non-quilting domestic sewing type classes.

Last Friday my friend Jessica, her mom Judy and I took a little bag-making class where we learned how to put in a zipper. I’ve never even sewn a buttonhole before, so this is all new to me!

First, we stitched together a bunch of 1 1/2″ wide strips (I used a Crazy 8 Honey Bun by Sandy Gervais for Moda).

Then we added some free-motion quilting. This was the fun part for me! I quilted one of my favorite designs – loopy swirls.

Next, it was time to add the zipper – how exciting to use a new foot!

Finally, I stitched the edges closed and trimmed off the excess zipper. The instructor warned us to put the zipper pull in the middle of the bag so we could reach it and not to sew it closed. Thank goodness for those detailed instructions! Then we flipped it out and “fluffed” the edges.

And voila! The finished bag! Isn’t it “sew” cute? I think I’ll make several more of these and use them to store notions and supplies when traveling to future sewing classes.

Here’s a picture of Judy, me, teacher Lynn, and Jessica with our fun finished bags!