Two Weeks at the Crow Barn: Day-by-Day (part one)

I'm back from The Crow Barn!  Each night after class, I wrote down a few thoughts about the day.  So, here is my day-by-day recap of the first week:

Sunday, May 20, 2018

• Set-up from 4-6pm.  I set up my space and then looked around.
• Everyone seemed to know each other.  I felt very out of place.
• Looking at other people's set ups: I need to go to Walmart after set up to buy: bed lifts to raise my cutting table and a small folding table for my sewing machine.
• Surprise!  Class started tonight with notes we need to copy.  BUT, I left my notebook in the hotel room...not off to a great start.
• At Walmart, I bought the bed lifts, a folding table, and I found some under bed storage containers that will be perfect for my fabric!

Monday: May 21, 2018

• We spent the first hour-and-a-half of class copying Nancy's handwritten notes, which she posted to the walls of the classroom.
• We were given our assignment.
• Nancy circulates through the room asking if you want to talk or "pass."
• I am surprised and delighted to receive a compliment: good eye for composition
• I struggle to understand some of the concepts and terminology but work quickly nonetheless.
• I am enjoying the process of figuring out how to piece the designs I'm imagining.

Tuesday: May 22, 2018

• I finished the assignment before lunch.  Everyone else is very far behind.
• Nancy gave me an extra challenge because I finished early.  She said that I wasn't exaggerating things enough.  So, she challenged me to take one of each "sketch" and more completely exaggerate it.
• The feedback I received after doing this was: better, but you could still exaggerate more!  She told me to relax and let go.  I find this hilarious because I'm usually completely insane and out of the box, but maybe not with quilting?
• Nancy said that most people have a lot of trouble with exaggerating and I might not be able to get there yet.  Need to keep doing it and practicing.
• She gave me the next assignment and I started to work on it while everyone else was finishing up assignment #1.
• The hardest part was the lines to create the frame -- hard to keep them straight.
• I really like my composition.  My classmates were very complimentary.  They noted that I didn't do a lot of thinking or hesitating. I just jumped in.  I think that's why I'm faster than others.  I just make decisions and don't dither around.  Even Nancy commented (on my earlier work) that I just plowed ahead and didn't give myself any obstacles.  It's a learned skill after years of creating and the secret to my productivity.

Wednesday: May 23, 2018

• Really really tired today.  Burning the midnight oil at night, after class, to do the work for my job and the lack of sleep is killing me.  Brain hurts.  Body hurts.  Need sleep.
• Spent hours and hours today refining my design.  Very proud of how it turned out.  I never would have pushed myself so hard at home. Very proud!
• However, I am in the hot mess phase now that color is being introduced. 
• I chose the most difficult color combination under the theory that this is class and I have an expert here to help me when I fail!

Thursday: May 24, 2018

• Fail, fail, fail.  The switch to color is making me crazy.  It's so hard!
• I tried piecing together little bits at one point today.  Nancy literally gives it the thumbs down.
• I think that I may have cut every piece of this composition from 4-5 different colors.  Sigh.
• I decide that I have to stop screwing around with the colors and need to just start sewing.  I start with some of the easy areas.  Ugh.

Friday: May 25, 2018

• Didn't finish.
• I think that only one person in the class finished stitching her piece together.
• I ran into sewing issues.  Major sewing issues.  I just don't know enough about piecing to get some of these curves.  It's frustrating.
• Scrimping on fabric has screwed me multiple times.  Each time I end up having to add more fabric.  Sigh.
• Nancy insists that we clean off our design walls.  We can pin the fabric and then come back Monday from 7am-9am and sew.  Should I?  Will I?  I would like to finish, but 7am?!

Saturday: May 26, 2018

• Today is the day off.
• I've been thinking about why I was so unhappy at the end of the week after being very happy at the beginning and I've come to an important conclusion: I designed my quilt to be black and white,  Therefore it didn't work in another color scheme.  If I wanted it to be color, I would have had to design it IN color.  I think Nancy's method doesn't necessarily work for me.  Good to know.

So, there you have it!  Week one in the books!  I'll be sharing more from The Crow Barn tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by!