Anna Maria Horner in Colorado!

I guess I have to dust off my blog, whew.  I had such a great weekend meeting Anna Maria Horner that I had to share.  I've been sewing a long time so I find it hard to take classes, there aren't a lot of major skills I need to learn, it's more that I need to practice the ones I know but when I heard Ms. AMH would be in Denver, I signed up for the Multi-Tasker Tote bag class she was teaching at Fancy Tiger.

First, I attended the meet and greet Friday night which was a laid back event where Anna Maria was available to chat.  When I walked into Fancy Tiger, I saw the two owners in the back of the store and went back to say hello, kind of ignored the tall woman next them and then OMG, it was Anna Maria!  I pretty much acted like she was Brad Pitt or something, embarrassing.  Anyway, she has such a great personality I'm sure it went right over her head how silly I was.

 

 Fancy Tiger had her new fabric line Field Study for sale, as well as lots of cute things they had already made from it.

(I bought the pattern for the dress Jaime is wearing on the right, it's the Painted Portrait pattern and the fabric on the shirt that Amber is wearing on the left (which happens to be the Wiksten tank pattern but she added sleeves) is the one I used to line by bag.)

The class was Sunday afternoon from 2 - 6 PM and I tried to cut out my fabric before the class so I'd have the full 4 hours to sew.  I didn't get it all cut out and I was sewing like a race horse to get it all done in 4 hours!  I stayed a little over and got it done.

I have to say, having the person who created the pattern in the room while you're sewing is awesome.  She taught me something new about turning a corner seam, not to mention I didn't have to read the pattern, I could just yell "HEY ANNA".  OK, I didn't really do that but I could have!

 

Also, the pattern itself is amazing.  She explained how she came up with different aspects of the design as well as the instructions.  I would have had to do a lot more "reverse sewing" if I hadn't had her right there in the class to explain things, sometimes seeing is easier than reading the instructions.

I had her sign the pocket before I sewed it in.

And my favorite anecdote of the day was when I gave her a little gift, I made a Denver postcard fabric picture for her and when I gave it to her, she thanked me and then immediately announced to the class "OK it's time to give me gifts, you can just pile them here on the table."  he he he

So there, now it's time to leave my little fantasy world where I live in a world surrounded by fabric and craftiness and go back to REALITY.