Sew Saturday ~ Quilt Class 101

Welcome to my second Sew Saturday post.  Did you see the card I posted on Monday?   I must have quilting on the brain because I did not intend to make a "sewing" card, but...

Don't you love when your hobbies overlap?  :)

Most of what I know about sewing and quilting has come from books, trial & error, and friends/family sharing what they know with me.  I had never taken a "formal" class before last week.  I will be taking a total of 3 this month!  Two of them on free motion quilting, then a fun one on making a Star Shadow quilt.  I have several quilt tops made, but they've never been quilted together.  For those of you who aren't quilters, a quilt is made of a quilt top (the pretty part), batting (the fluffy stuff in the middle), and quilting backing all sewn together, then a binding is added.  I can quilt the layers together as long as the quilt isn't too big and I sew in a straight line, but that is boring.   I haven't found anyone local to do the quilting for me, so I decided to take a class to learn how to do free motion quilting.  This way I can quilt the lap quilt I am making later this month.  

The free motion class comes in 2 parts.  Part one was last week.  For the most part, it was just review for me.   I'm looking forward to next week when we really get into the quilting.  Although I'm already afraid I need a bigger machine.  We had to come to class with a few things, including a practice "quilt".

Right away I was impressed with this teacher because of course we need something to practice on that we don't plan on keeping or showcasing.  We (I) are going to make mistakes, and this is perfect for a perfectionist who hates making mistakes.  ;)   Just because it was a practice piece doesn't mean it had to be ugly.  I knew I liked the colors I was working with I would be more likely to practice on it.

Our instructor had us divide our quilt into different sections to try different techniques on each.    Sewing (semi) straight lines was the easy part.  So was "stitching in the ditch" as that is basically the kind of quilting I have been doing.

There was one part I messed up on and the instructor showed me how to fix it.  I was glad for that because it is a mistake I make often.  She also explained why some common problems happen and how to avoid them.  That part was great, because even though I didn't have those problems on this little piece, I usually do on my bigger quilts.

Next she had us use stencils.  I did better on that than I thought I would.   Not perfect, but good enough for me.  :)   I traced another stencil to practice on later.  (You can see it in blue.)

We put our free motion foot attachments on and "wrote" our names in cursive, then worked on stitching lelelele in cursive.  I was terrible at writing my name, but at the end of the "r" I started going freeform and loopy.  The teacher said I did great on my "stippling" but that I wasn't supposed to try that yet. lol.   What surprised me was that I really liked how my l's and e's looked.  I didn't think I would be good at them, but I really like them, so I'm happy that I am on my way to being able to make loops and scrolls.

When I came home I made another practice quilt and actually practiced on it.  I was getting frustrated because my stitches were being pulled, so I left it and went to my laptop to look for fabric.  :)  Then it dawned on me that I had forgotten to put my feed dogs down.  :D  I went back to my machine and put them down, then tried to raise them and nothing happened.  I thought I had broken my machine.  Turns out all I needed to do was turn the dial and they lifted.  :)

I know all this is probably pretty boring for you.  I promise it will get better.   Next Friday is quilting 201.  You can see the picture above of what we will be making.   Then on Saturday I get to take my first real quilt class to make a quilt top.  I can hardly wait!  One lat picture for you.  This is another class being offerred by the same teacher as my Quilting 101 & 201 classes.  I wish I had signed up for this one.  I love log cabin star look this one has.

Creative Blessings,
Heather North