To My Hat Party Students--

Yes, here it is--an extra blog post! I wanted to post a few things for the students of my Hat Party class coming up this Saturday at Bearpaws & Hollyhocks. Everyone is welcome to read it, but it may be boring if you're not attending, and I apologize for that. Today's "regular" post is below and tomorrow's "regular" post will come later.

About the class, though. First of all, the class goes from noon to 6 p.m., so we'll have plenty of time to sew, play, and chat. I WILL be bringing food--we'll be having a little tea party, and I'll probably break out the goodies a couple hours into class after everyone is settled into their work and I can get things set up. So make your lunch and dinner plans that day accordingly.

The fabric requirements I provided the shop may have been a bit sketchy for some of you if you were unable to purchase the pattern, because I said "see pattern." If you weren't able to buy the pattern when you signed up for the class, please know the pattern is back in stock at Bearpaws and available for purchase. In the meantime, though, here's what you'll need.

To make the full-sized quilt, which is pretty large, you'll be making 24 hat blocks. For each block, you'll need a fat quarter. In order to get good contrast between the hat pieces, select 8 light fat quarters (in my quilt, that was the white/off white prints), 8 medium fat quarters (again, in my quilt, that was the yellow prints), and 8 dark fat quarters (the blue prints in my quilt). The fabrics in each color range should blend well together because you'll be using a piece of each of your eight fat quarters to form the backgrounds of the hats.

To make a smaller quilt--and I'd recommend either 12 blocks or 15 blocks--you'll need as many fat quarters as blocks. Again, you'll likely want to select three main colors in a light, medium, and dark range. In other words, for a 12-block quilt, you might want 4 yellow fat quarters, 4 light blue fat quarters, and 4 red fat quarters (this is a sample suggestion for colors here--just as long as there's definition between the colors and an equal number of lights, mediums, and darks, you should be fine).

For the smaller quilts, rather than have a mix of fabrics in each background, I'll suggest you use a unified (all the same fabric) background as I have here in these shoe blocks:

The pattern does not include sashing between the blocks; I've added that in mine. You can chose to make yours either way. I've also added a border to my quilt--again, the choice is up to you. I used felted wool to make the leaves in my quilt; if you want to do the same, Bearpaws may have green wool available but not out on the shop floor--ask Lindy or one of other gals if they have any put away. I also made yo-yos for the flowers in the hat brims, and I used a Large Clover Yo-Yo maker for those; the shop carries the yo-yo makers, but I'm not sure whether or not they have that size. Still, other good alternatives would be yo-yos in a heart shape or larger yo-yos--ask me in class where the yo-yo makers are kept and I'll be happy to help you decide if there's something in stock that you'd like to use. You'll also want to raid your button jar or box, but if you're short on great buttons, you might want to check Lindy's stash of vintage buttons.

Besides fabric and regular sewing supplies, please bring freezer paper, a rotary cutter with a nice, sharp blade, a large-ish ruler (I like to have a 15" square in addition to my 6" x 12" ruler--I'll try to remember to bring my 15" square in case anyone wants to borrow it), and a small cutting mat. There ARE cutting mats on the back tables you can use, but a small mat makes a nice surface for piling and carrying your hat pieces. As an alternative, you might want to bring a piece of sturdy cardboard or a pizza box. I will also have freezer paper available if you don't already have some in your stash.

The good news is that the new refrigerator will be delivered Friday, so I'll be shopping, cooking, and baking Friday night--no need to worry that I'm going to give you food poisoning along with whatever I feed you on Saturday! I'm looking forward to the class--see you at noon on Saturday!