My, How Things Have Changed

Recently, I was preparing supply lists and class handouts for an upcoming class I am teaching for the St. Andrew Bay Quilters Guild of Panama City, FL.

5 EASY PIECES/PIECES OF THE PAST CIRCA 1875

5 Easy Pieces

Pieces of the Past Circa 1875

These quilts are similar in design but not the same. The dark version is a replica of an antique top I bought at a yard sale 30 years ago. That has a bit of an interesting story to it, read that HERE.

I completed both these quilts in 1995, hand-quilting the dark one and having someone else hand-quilt the light one for me. In those next few years I taught these quilts in classes a few times. Fortunately, I kept my teaching folder for that class. I was surprised how much has changed today.

The supply list included template plastic, sandpaper, glue, 1/4" graph paper--we started out drafting the pattern!!! Here are the things I found in that teaching folder--one of the sketches is true "cut and paste", and I printed with a dot matrix printer:

Today, if you try to offer a class that has the word "Drafting" in the title or Description, no one will sign up. Most classes today are "project" classes--step-by-step how to make that exact quilt.

I love to teach quilters how to "fish"--to teach them skills to plan their own quilts, whether from antique quilts or quilts they dream up themselves.

In 5 Easy Pieces that I will be teaching later this year, we will concentrate on the simple construction of the light version--the dark one involved LOTS of set-in pieces to truly replicate the original. There is a work-around that makes it easier, I will teach that too.

The class handout will include layouts I printed quickly and easily from Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8) and paper patterns for paper piecing,. an option for students. I use this class as a way to teach at least 4 ways to make Flying Geese units--students can try them all or concentrate on the one they like best--the quilt has a lot of geese:

Calculating fabric yardage was a snap with EQ8--my old notes have pages of my math calculations for how I figured out the yardage in 1995.

I often tell today's students that I learned to quilt BEFORE THE INTERNET and am proof that it was possible. We have so many wonderful resources available today at our fingertips--I would not want to go back.  But having the skills I learned in those early years has stood me in good stead.

My goal as a professional quilt teacher is to share as much of my knowledge with all those who want to learn it--so they can pass it on to future generations. My calendar is full this year and getting that way for next year and that makes me happy.

This class will be a lot of fun and students will learn lots of great tips for the 3 basic skills we need to piece great quilts:  the Cutting, the Sewing and the Pressing. I look forward to joining my friends in FL later this year--this is a repeat engagement--we had a lot of fun and very happy students the last time I taught there about 2 years ago.

Let's quilt!

Barbara