Teaching Quilt Classes

I love to teach classes and Fall sees me back in the classroom quite a bit--with beginning students in a 5-week course, and shorter classes of various projects throughout the Fall. 

Yesterday I taught "Bali Sky", the Carpenter's Star pattern from Calico Carriage Designs.  It is a very easy version of the Broken Star pattern, made with half-square triangles and no set-in seams.  It makes a fast project when you need a gift, whether it's a wallhanging or bed-size quilt.

My Sample, 36" square
 

A special treat for me was this was set up so a friend from Switzerland could attend.  I met Anne Francoise in Houston, we became Facebook friends, and when she let me know she was coming to the US in September we arranged for her to attend both my lecture September 10 and this class September 12.  She's also been to Nashville and Paducah and is heading for Chattanooga, where we will see each other again next weekend there.

 

Quilters are great people and folks made sure to welcome her to our events.  On Friday she was on her own and was surprised to be greeted at two quilt shops by women who had attended the lecture the night before or knew she was coming because I told them she would be shopping that day.  She even went to the same restaurant she and I had eaten at Thursday night and had the same server, who remembered her and that she was from Switzerland.  Anne Francoise said she felt like a celebrity, being greeted so warmly at unexpected places. 

All the students made great progress, some making 3" squares, some 6" and some 7.5" for a queen-size quilt:

Anne Francoise' American Memory

JoAnne speeding through the rows

All rows sewn and labeled--ready to pack up

Susan making a Queen size--the star includes deep red fabric--really striking with the black and gray!

Ina working away on a Christmas wallhanging

Kim, a new quilter making her first quilt, a Christmas wallhanging--she made great progress and learned  a lot

Sorry to say, I did not get photos of Yvonne, Pat and Laura working hard on their large quilts--they know to send me photos when they get theirs done.  Everyone did well and will be finishing these projects soon.

The lecture on Thursday night, "The Hard Stuff", went well.  The Madison Station Quilters were welcoming and I saw many friendly faces in the crowd.  I love Show and Tell and saw these beauties:

 

I ended with this image, warned them not to hit the hard stuff until the sewing was done, and gave this bit of advice when working on more challenging quilt patterns: 

It's only hard if you tell yourself it's hard.
Take it slow.
Follow instructions and tips given with the pattern.
Figure out which techniques work for you, there's more than one way to achieve most results.

And:  SUCCESS IS WORTH EFFORT.

Let's quilt!

Barbara