The Martha Pullen Love Of Sewing Retreat

I finally got to meet Martha Pullen !!

And she is wonderful and hilarious 

and I almost cried because I am 

such a giant fan!

I asked her to sign my my article in

Sew Beautiful magazine

and now I am going to frame it.

If you ever get a chance to 

attend any of her retreats

or seminars,

I hope you get to hear her "Spanx" routine.

OH MY!!!
So funny!!

But more importantly than her hilarious stories,

she generously shared her business philosophy

and love of heirloom garments.

I was so happy to take a serger tote class with

Kathy McMakin!

I am smiling so hard, 

my eyes are almost completely invisible!

She taught some incredible serger 

techniques and was so friendly!

The next class I took was for a wallet

made completely "in the hoop".

I love my sewing machine,

but oh my!

We all created these wallets on the Babylock Ellissimo Gold 

Embroidery and sewing machines.

What a blast!!

These are amazing machines!

 

Martha taught the class on lace shaping.

It really is so fun and much easier

than it looks. 

I met Alicia Welcher,

one of Martha's licensed teachers,

in this class, 

where she was assisting.

I was beyond thrilled to find out that

Alicia is practically my neighbor in my new town!

I also was so excited to take a serger Hipster Bag class

with Missy Billingsley.

Oh my goodness!!!

Missy is incredible!!!

She has fabulous patterns and videos

and she completely got 

me excited about sewing with sergers.

I have two older sergers but have been

pretty unimpressed with them.

I am definitely going to save up for 

a new Babylock serger now!

This is the Hipster Bag we made

in Missy's class. 

She taught us how to make a "Fancy Band" 

and even how to put in a zipper

on the serger!

Ahnalin has already tried to snag this little bag from me.

This is a table folder we made using

a "Sashiko" machine. 

I love it!

I didn't finish the serger tote, 

but I am almost done with it.

This event was sponsored by

Meissner's Sewing Center,
which has 3 locations in the Sacramento area.
The Meissner staff is incredible!
I signed up for their mailing list
so that I can hear about events in the future.
I plan to attend a Janome seminar
at Meissners  this summer.

All in all, this retreat was a fabulous gift.

My parents and my Hot Rockin' Hubby knew

how badly I wanted to go to this

retreat and they worked together to make it happen

for me. 

 I am so incredibly grateful!

I have never been to anything like this retreat before

and it was a treat from the second I arrived

until the last second. 

I think I am hooked. 

Now, 

time to get back to the real world!

I have to make a costume for

Ahnalin for "Pioneer School" by Wednesday.

And pictures will soon be up 

of Ahnalin as "Jane Austen" 

for her 3rd grade history project.

I had better get busy.

Happy Sewing!