Playing with Toys

Our class with Betsy started at 10am on Saturday morning.  I was up before my early bird friends (very unusual) in anticipation of our class.  We had breakfast at our hotel and then headed over to the fire station to set up our stitching spaces.

The class had been arranged by a sampler guild in the Indianapolis area called "Needle in Hand".  What a nice group of ladies they have in their guild.  They were so welcoming and friendly - we knew we had connected with the right group!  The classroom arrangement was perfect - each stitcher had enough space to  work and we all could see and hear Betsy perfectly.

Until just a few year's ago, I had not heard of Betsy Morgan.  It was my friend Chris who commented once that she really wanted to take a class with Betsy Morgan.  I immediately began "stalking" her on the internet. Many of her classes seemed to be on the east and west coasts.  When I saw that she was going to be in Indiana, it seemed like it was just meant to be.

If you haven't figured it out from the title of my post, our project was Betsy's Toy Chest Etui.  This was the project that Chris was most interested in doing (another sign!)  We would have taken any of Betsy's classes but were especially thrilled to be doing the Toy Box!

We had completed some pre-work in the weeks prior to the class, so Saturday's class was spent completing the thimble holder which is made to look like one of those old fashioned cup holders that you would use to try to catch a ball with.

Here's Betsy's:

Our three completed thimble holders at the end of the day on Saturday:

Here is my thimble holder: (Blogger is misbehaving...)

Front:

Back:

It was really fun to have something completed at the end of the first day!

During Sunday's class, Betsy walked us through all of the instructions so that we would know exactly what to do when stitching and finishing our remaining pieces at home.  We also spent some time making the little drumsticks for the top of our drums - who knew that you could make drumsticks with toothpicks and beads!

At the end of our day on Sunday, Betsy did a twisted cord and tassel making demonstration.  This was great information.  It seems like my cording either is good or bad; I have trouble being consistent.  Now with Betsy's instructions my cording is always going to turn out great!

As I always say at the end of one of these weekends, all good things must come to an end, and so it was true again - our weekend with Betsy Morgan was over.  Not only do we have a great project to now work on, but we also learned from a fabulous teacher and formed some great new friendships with our sister stitchers in the Indianapolis area!

If you would like to see a photo of the Toy Box and all of it's toys, please visit Betsy's blog and scroll down to her post from April 4, 2013.  The fourth photo down is the Toy Chest Etui with it's toys!  While you are there, check out some of Betsy's other projects.  Delicious eye candy!

Willing Hands

Will wrap up our trip report tomorrow.  Thanks for visiting!