Off to a good start!

After my excitement about having 94 followers yesterday, there was a mysterious disappearance of 1 follower leaving me with 93. I wonder why? Hope I have not bored or offended anyone!

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Yesterday I had my first quilting lesson with my amazing Domestic Goddess teacher Lucinda and I finished my first block. I decided on a using three different blocks throughout the quilt, 2 different star patterns and one plain block to showcase the cute animal Noah's Arc print fabric I chose.

Here's the finished block that I worked on yesterday.

I think that the colors look a bit Christmasy, however the other two fabrics that are not used on this block are the ones that are really cute (with the Noah's Arc prints) and they really bring these colors together in a nice way. I don't think the final product will look like it's meant for holiday time.

Yesterday was honestly the first time I ever used a sewing machine in my entire life, but I thought it went really well. At first I was super hesitant, but as the lesson went on, I gained confidence and I was proud of the outcome. Lucinda is a fantastic teacher because her teaching style really resulted in me doing my own work. She showed me how, but then stood back and made sure that I could then do the steps independently. When I was working with her, I was really thinking about my post from yesterday and how some teachers (myself definitely included) do too much for their students which results in the students not truly having mastery over the task/material or whatever it is. Lucinda was an excellent model of what teachers should do. I feel like I could make another block with even less help next time, which is exactly my goal---to gain independence with these sewing/quilting skills.

I am having my next lesson on Friday of next week and I can't wait. The one problem I did run into was using the fabric cutting tool because it was meant for a right handed person. Luckily the blade was able to be switched to the other side, so I could use it without trouble. I rarely run into issues that prevent me from using certain tools as a left handed person and typically I don't need to use items, like scissors, specifically for lefties, but in this case I really did. Lucinda gave me a list of some of the items I need to purchase so that I can do my own cutting from now on. That way, when I am paying for her time, it is just for sewing and not for the part that I could prepare before my arrival.

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Tonight a few of my teacher girlfriends are coming over to watch The Bachelor with me. My husband invested in a lot of fancy electronic toys that allow us to record shows from his parent's house in Cali and then watch them in Germany either on our computers or on our TV. My husband is awesome. What would I do in Germany without my trashy American TV show??

I heart Tivo, Slingbox, and Slingcatcher big time!!

A nice pitcher of Sangria is chilling as I type this. I love having the girls over and we are already hooked on the show despite our huge disappointment in some of Jake's selections. I really thought that overall it was a pretty lame bunch considering what a nice guy he seems to be. But as I mentioned to one of my friends...in this economy, surely not as many people are willing to give up their jobs to go on a reality show when it's likely that they won't find love and they will be back home and jobless within a few weeks....That sounds so cynical, but I remember a few seasons back, there was a teacher who left her job and then got sent home after two weeks or so...

Hope everyone has a great Friday.