As you know I’m a member of The Quilt Show and many of the quilters have come over to facebook (here’s a link to my artist page) as well. I love being friends with these quilters for so many reasons one in particular is that we get to share information and grow as quilters and I get to grow as an educator. I’m excited to finally get to meet so many of these quilters and put voices with their lovely faces.
When I submitted to Quilts, Inc. in Houston to teach “And Now What?!” they asked and I agreed to let them change the name to “Designs in Machine Quilting” for their venue. I also submitted two photos one of the original Serendipity and one of the drawing/mindful meandering I did prior to quilting Serendipity. You can see both of these here. One of my TQS friends sent me a private message essentially saying that this is listed as a Beginner level class but after seeing the photos of the drawing and Serendipity she wasn’t so sure and just wanted to check and make sure.
I’m going to answer her question in 2 ways 1) personal experience and 2) direct info on the class itself.
1) When I started quilting years ago I would get to the end of piecing a quilt, look at it and think, and now what do I do with it? Over the years with a lot of help from quilters both near and far I’ve learned how to figure that out. There is only 1 quilt that stumps me right now and in part it is because it’s for a friend of mine who I think very highly of and want to do it right.
After teaching machine quilting a time or two beginning to understand what students need I asked students to bring in quilts that we can discuss as a class. I make sure to tell each person these are just ideas mean to spark your creativity and help you through the process of figuring out what to stitch out on the quilt surface.
2) Designs in Machine Quilting (And Now What?!) is a beginner level class. My intent is to share with you the process of practicing machine quilting motifs. If you can draw it out on paper you can stitch it out on a quilt top. Through the class we look at available space on paper and fill it in with motifs that you can later use as a resource of ideas for your quilts. Hopefully you will carry on and practice on paper as a way of figuring out the stitching path for a new to you quilting motif.
I’d love for you to consider taking any of my classes in Houston.
This morning I challenged Maggie to do something with her Kaufman Radiance. I have some coming in the mail for a special project. Check out Maggies blog to see what she did.
Happy quilting!
Teri
I misread a word in paragraph “2)” re: learning how to figure out how to quilt that lovely quilt top that is making you feel guilty. Rather than ” available”, I read the phrase as “the valuable space”. Makes one think.
available space and valuable space in this context are, for me, interchangeable.
I like how you misread!
I read the article in Quilt Life. Well done.
Thank you Miss V!