Adventures in teaching - part two

Ok, on with the rest of the classes I taught this year.

 

These equilateral triangle quilts are from the equilateral triangle quilt class I taught at Stitchbird.

 

This is yet another class I taught twice this year, once at Stitchbird and once at Nancy's Stitch Studio.  Unfortunately, I only have photos from the Stitchbird class, but they were both great fun and my students did an amazing job.

 

The next few photos are from the free motion quilting class I taught at Stitchbird.  This was a two hour technique class, and so much fun.

 

I think free motion quilting is one of those things that is really nice to learn in person.  It's truly not that difficult, but having a little bit of encouragement and someone to make suggestions can make all the difference.

 

My students did amazingly well in this class, busting out a few of my favourite designs and then moving on to coming up with their own.  Awesome!

 

Last, but certainly not least, is my Garden for Birds class.  This one runs over six lessons, and is a form of sampler quilt, with students tackling a variety of blocks, piecing and applique. 

 

This class is always a blast to teach, because the quilts people produce are always so different from one another.

 

A few cats crept into these quilts, as well as other more creepy crawly creatures...

 

I would not have thought of doing an all solids version of this quilt, but I love how graphic and modern it turned out!

 

Another cat!  And I love this warm autumnal colour scheme!

 

The quilt above was made for its maker's third baby, who I'm sure will love it!  A couple of people in this class (and in other classes) had only just started sewing.  I love seeing people's confidence grow as they get to grips with sewing, and I'm always delighted when I get to the end of a class and know that people are converts to quilting!  

In this class, everyone started quilting their quilt by the last class, which I really strive for.  I always think it's nice, especially with a first quilt, to at least start the quilting in class.

So, that was my year of teaching.  It was pretty busy (not least because I was flat out at work at the same time), but so enjoyable.  Do you have any questions about teaching patchwork and quilting?

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Adventures in teaching - part one

I've done quite a lot of teaching this year, and I thought it might be nice to share some of my students' work here.

First up are the ladies who took my Modern Baby Quilt class at Stitchbird.  Over the course of four sessions we covered cutting, piecing, assembling the quilt top, basting, quilting and binding.  Everyone did amazingly well, and got to the point of starting the quilting on their quilt in the last class. 

This quilt is super simple, which is perfect for beginners, but has enough happening that class participants can really put their own spin on it with fabric choices and quilting designs.  Seeing the different choices people make is one of my favourite parts of teaching.  While my students were working on this quilt, I made my own version (outside class time, of course).  You can check it out here, together with other previous versions here and here.

Next up is some of the work that came out of my foundation paper piecing class, also at Stitchbird. The pattern I've used here is, of course, Artisania's Lil' Fox pattern, and you can see my class sample cushion here.

 

 I actually ran this class twice last year, because there was so much interest after the first class, and it was a lot of fun.  It is a technique class, so only takes two hours, and participants leave with a partially completed fox block and the skills to finish it at home and tackle other foundation paper piecing projects on their own.

 

I know that a few of these foxes have made their way into finished projects - like these cushions made by Kerry and Bridget.

Another class I taught twice this year was a class based on my Soft and Stable Tote Bag tutorial.

I taught this one at both Stitchbird and Nancy's Stitch Studio, and had a blast each time.

I know, as a student, that it's so satisfying to come out of a class with a finished project, and my participants left each class with a fully completed tote bag each, which was awesome!

I was going to share all of my class photos for the year in a single post, but writing it up, there are a lot, so I think I will spread them over a couple of posts.  Come back later in the week for part two...

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Upcoming classes at Nancy's Embroidery

Nancy's Embroidery has just released their 2015 class syllabus, so I'm excited to tell you about the classes I'm teaching there this year.  You can download the syllabus and check out all the classes here.

My first class at Nancy's is an equilateral triangle quilt class.  It runs over a series of three two-hour lessons, on Sunday afternoons between 1.30 and 3.30, on the 8th, 15th and 29th of March.  I taught this class last year and it was really fun seeing all the different variations on an equilateral triangle quilt.

Next up is my Garden for Birds quilt class.  I had such a blast last year teaching this quilt - the participants all used completely different colour schemes which was awesome to see.  This class runs over a series of six lessons, between 6.30pm and 8.30pm on Monday 6 and 20 July, 3, 17 and 31 August, and 21 September.

My last class at Nancy's is one where you can learn how to make my super simple tote bag using Soft and Stable It's a single day class which runs from 10am to 4pm on Sunday 2 August, and participants should be able to finish the bag in the class.

I will be at the Nancy's meet-the-tutors evening on Wednesday 11 February, if you want to have a chat about classes beforehand.  Otherwise, please feel free to ask here or by sending me an email!

If you're local and interested in any of these classes, but have questions, please feel free to let me know!