Weatherford Workshop With Maria

At retreat last weekend, Maria mentioned that she was short an assistant for her upcoming workshop.  Well, after checking my calendar, it appears I'm free for the day and can go help so it's an early morning trip to Weatherford and a start time of 8:30 a.m.  Somehow I manage to actually arrive early -- how I  missed all that 8 a.m. traffic, I'll never know -- and have a bit of time to kill.  That means a stop at Gibson's for a look around.

Yes, Gibson's Ace Hardware.  I've spotlighted them before but it's been a few years.  What a great stop.  I'm still being good and not buying fabric, but, OH, I want to.

Look at all the wonderful blue bonnet fabrics.  Hmmmm -- no, keep moving.

At the end of one of the aisles, a entire section devoted to "sewing" themed fabrics catches my eye.  I LOVE that the colors are not the norm -- teals, oranges, how fun.

A couple of the panels are really fun as well and I can certainly think of places to use them.

Spotted high above is a minky quilt that screams Sherri or Stephannie all over it.

With a quick walk over to the bolts used, it appears that it is more of a super soft fleece and yet still feels like minky.  I'm just not sure at this point but it's cute.

And that's all the time I have to peek as I need to get to the church to help Maria.  It turns out that her class is smaller than anticipated, but that's okay too.  Just tell me what you want me to do.  But first, Oh Maria, check this out.  I've discovered a great item at one of the ladies tables.  They have covered an empty fabric bolt with a slip on cover that has pockets for all sizes of rulers.  Here is the front and back:

The top has a cut handle made from a measuring tape.

And the bottom is just slip-stitched closed after sliding it over the bolt.

 Pockets can be custom sized for whatever you wish to carry with you.  What a great idea.

Time to get this class started -  Maria tells them that they are to take their panel or focus fabric, their graph paper and pencil, and just start creating.  This is a free spirit class.  I can't wait to see what comes from it.

I'm just a helper here so I try to not take too many pictures and let their own guild handle that, but I sneak a few in as well.  Look at this one with the Kaffe focus fabric to start with.  Then he just decides to use up some coordinating scraps.

Meanwhile, another floor display is coming together as well.

This one is complete and I really do love it.  I would not have bought either of those fabrics, much less put them together, but the outcome is wonderful.

What a fun day!  Seriously - I've had a great time watching creativity at work and encouraging it along.  Gotta run though - with a little luck I'll beat the 5:00 traffic home too.