Why I Teach

Having recently returned from a great quilt teaching trip, I have been thinking about why I do this. Travel away from home, spend time with strangers, stay in hotels where sleep is not often the best, and spend hours over many days preparing for that kind of trip.

There are unexpected good surprises, like the call from the hotel front desk that a package had been delivered for me. I loved this guild already and hadn't met them yet:

And more expected things--happy, successful students showing off their work.  Women of the West Alabama Quilt Guild, Tuscaloosa, AL, with their morning efforts making Western Sun. In the afternoon they worked on Flying Geese sashing, learning a variety of methods. Don't they look happy?

How about the next day? More women, and some returning, made lots of 3" blocks as they learned secrets to great piecing with Charming Sampler:

More photos from the two workshops. The students were enthusiastic, friendly, eager to learn, and satisfied with the class--except this Yankee still talks too fast sometimes:

Charming Sampler blocks--Becky B

Charming Sampler blocks--Paula

Rose, workshop coordinator, as she introduced me as the "world renowned Barbara Black"--what a  hoot!

Our temporary Design Wall

All you Guild folks--take note of the 3 x 5 cards taped on the table in front of each person's spot--Rose made these name cards so I would know everyone's name--this is brilliant! I like to call people by name and nametags on chests are often too small to see. She added 4 small pieces of fabric to each to use as "leaders/enders", a bonus nice touch:

                                             

I love Show and Tell. Before Western Sun began, Paula B showed me her Wild and Goosey, finished just the night before. She wasn't sure what she was doing in Western Sun, which has LOTS more flying geese sashing, but she was there. Wild and Goosey is a Bonnie Hunter pattern available in her book Addicted to Scraps: 
 

                                                     

Finally. at the end of the second day this happened: 

They presented me with a guild t-shirt, making me an honorary member

In 2014, I retired from H&R Block, turned 60, had my Red and White quilt  featured as the Commemorative Quilt for the 40th anniversary of International Quilt Festival, had 3 quilts juried into AQS Paducah, and 3 quilts featured in the book 500 Traditional Quilts. The experience in Houston was beyond words but I tried to sum up what that meant to me with this post: Red and White--the Wrap Up. If you only read one of my past blogs, I encourage you to read this one.

As I came home from Houston I thought about what the rest of my life would look like. I wrote:

 I did not expect that this experience would make me even more certain I will spend the rest of my days making the best quilts I can and teaching as many others as I can to quilt.  There is so much inspiration at Festival and I am eager to piece and quilt to my heart's content!  Baby quilts are next up!

Our first grandchild was on the way, oh, joy! And I would now have time to travel and teach quilters who wanted to learn the things I have learned over the many years I have been a quiltmaker.

Travel is hard, yes, even more so today. But quilters I don't know are not "strangers", they are friends I haven't met yet. 

My goal for every class is that EACH student, regardless of skill level, will leave class thinking "I learned more than I thought I would". And they have to have FUN, that's important too.

And occasionally I get a wonderful reminder from a student that I seem to be accomplishing my goal. 

The day after my visit to the West Alabama Quilt Guild, I received this email:

We were so thrilled to have you. It was even better than we anticipated! I learned many things I had never even heard of and feel confident to venture out to try more complex blocks! Many in that Saturday class have been in awe of the more adept quilters and I’m sure they, too, will be inspired to quilt more. After that crisscross block, we are invincible!

Rest assured, we will be asking you to come again!

While I have taught quilting locally for almost 35 years, I  have been "on the circuit" for about 10. I will do this a few more years so if your guild or shop wants to have fun while learning how to improve your  skills, contact me and we can make that happen. 

Let's quilt,

Barbara

Quilt-In was Fun!

Yesterday my guild held it's first Quilt-In, a twelve hour retreat, including breakfast and dinner, 4 optional classes, open sewing time, an onsite  quilt shop vendor who brought fabric to sell and lots of time for socializing with old and new guild members.  Twenty-nine smart people took advantage of this opportunity and by lunchtime the talk was "What are you going to teach next year?" and "We HAVE to do this again next year".  So, yes, it was very successful.

I taught a class on hand piecing, the Antique Rose Star.  The template comes from Material Obsession in Australia and the quilt is featured in the book, Material Obsession 2

Here is my sample: 

Class was fun, some of the 16 students had never hand-pieced before, some said they did not like templates but were willing to give them a chance, and all of them had a good time and several said they learned more than they expected to.  That is always my goal--I try to incorporate as many tips as I can throughout my classes.  Because I had used both hand and machine piecing in this quilt, I demonstrated how to machine piece the units at the end of class.  It was a fast-paced 3 hours--next time I teach this it will be a four-hour class, students will get at least one major unit done in 4 hours.

Here are some scenes from our classroom:

Sixteen surprise gifts I  brought--fun to share my excess notions

Cutting and marking the small kite pieces

Everyone kept hard at work

Using the template to cut those pieces

Part of their kit included 3 colorful Ziploc bags to stay organized--the bags were a hit

Biggest pencil case I've ever seen

My demo pieces

First block laid out

Making those small stitches

After lunch, which we ordered in, I had free time to sew.  I was thrilled to get 4 of my 9 sets for the "baby" Color in Black and White quilt finished.  The big quilt has blocks 28" x 24"--the baby has blocks 14" x 12":

I wrote about the big one here and here.  This week I will add the border I decided on for the large quilt, stay tuned for photos of it. 

The day was fun and productive and the food was excellent--our 2 chefs did a great job.  It was hard to stay mindful of my healthy eating plan and I did cave on the Key Lime pie, but it was worth it.  Back to the straight and narrow today.  I've lost 20 pounds since the end of tax season so I'm headed in the right direction.

Everyone should get a chance to sew with friends and learn new things.  Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Class Just for Fun

Yesterday I took a class with my guild buddies--a scrap class that was fast and fun.  The instructor, Elaine Poplin who blogs as Messygoat, is a guild member who had adapted a Bonnie Hunter free pattern, String-X, to create a great quilt made from whatever scraps you have on hand.

I didn't "need" to take another class OR start another project but I wanted to support the instructor and when the supplies called for lots of scraps in various sizes, I looked around my studio and THERE was a big bag of said scraps--just waiting.  I opened one of the 6 closet doors to my stash and THERE, at eye level, were 3 fabrics that would do quite nicely for the background pieces.  So I paid the nominal fee and went to class.  Twenty five of us enjoyed the day, the friendships, and whipped those scraps into blocks.

Here are a few shots from the day:

My tablemates, Sharon, Annie, Deanna

The Featherweight table, 3 of the 4 machines

Julie comes prepared for class:  pressing table to the side, lots of thread, caddy full of supplies--everything but the kitchen sink!

 

Denise getting ready to square up her block

 

Elaine with a sample block



Half the class at the end of the day

All in all, it was a good day.  Eventually, I'll get back to this project--a few things are more pressing at the moment.  This would make a great charity quilt--very fast and you're using up what you have on hand.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara