Teaching New Quilters

 For more than 30 years I have taught beginning quilters the basics of quiltmaking. More than 1500 students have come through these classes. 

Some learn this is not the sport for them. Some get head-over-heels addicted and eagerly say "What's Next?!" And some of these folks, mostly women, become lifelong friends.

Choosing a project for the beginner is not easy. The quilt has to be interesting and inviting. It must teach some basic principles but not be too hard. And it must be able to be completed during the length of the class by most students. 

My newest class is being offered at a brand new quilt store in my local area. Sweet Home Quilting and Supplies. Owned by Robin Price, a student who became one of those lifelong special friends. Robin is an INNOVA dealer and will offer longarm services as well as rent time for people to quilt their own quilts in her store. Classes for projects, including some that use wool, will be offered, along with exciting new fabrics and quilting supplies. 

I wanted a Basic project, that can  be completed in 3 weekly classes, 3 hours each. Keep it simple! 

Twelve 9 Patch blocks will be taught by my favorite "sew first" method in the first session.  Simple sashing and borders follow in session 2. Finally, during the 3rd session we will discuss quilting, by domestic or longarm machine or even by hand. A binding demo tutorial will be discussed in the last class but must students won't remember that info  nor need it until the quilt is actually quilted.

A great follow-up to this Basic class is my much more comprehensive Quiltmaking 101 class taught at another local shop Patches & Stitches. When classes resume there, hopefully in January 2021, this 5 week class moves on to Half Square and Quarter Square triangles and lots more detail for precise piecing:

For many years this was the Quiltmaking 101 Sample--and it got lots of new quilters hooked. It is based on the Glad Creations pattern, Mix and Match Stars. It was a real stretch for most students to complete this top in 5 weeks but most did: 

Before that I had another favorite beginning quilt project. These 6" blocks were fast for students to make and they had a wide variety of blocks to choose from, making each quilt unique to the maker. It came from the book Blocks and Quilts Everywhere, by Debbie Caffrey, out of print now. 

There were a few other beginning class quilts over the last 30 years but I don't have photos of them and must have given them away because I can't find them either. 

The original class featured a sampler quilt many beginning quilters made in the 1980-1990's. It is from the book Teach Yourself to Quilt by Leisure Arts. My quilt is long gone, no idea what happened to it, but Ricky Tims made this in the early 1990's and had it on set a few weeks ago when he taped The Quilt Show. So here is Ricky's first quilt, the Sampler on the right:

If you took this class with me, oh, a hundred years ago, I would LOVE to see a photo of your finished quilt!

Do you still have your first quilt? Do you still like it? What did it teach you?

Some things change, colors and fabric styles go in and out of fashion, but the passion for quiltmaking lives on. We know that making quilts is just one of those things we MUST do, for lots of reasons. I love bringing more excited quilters into our Tribe.

Let's quilt.

Barbara