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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Guest Quilters and My First Class

The quilting studio has been hopping lately.  I've had several guest quilters stop by to try out the new machine. It's fun to see others come in and try out the quilting machine.  I spend time practicing new patterns and working on my skills but really don't have anyone that has the same experiences as I do on a quilting machine in my daily interactions. So it's fun to see others to come in and try it and see how much fun they have trying their skills out and discussing the ins and outs of what I do.  It's fun!
My good bicycling friend, Susan, came out on a Friday night earlier this month.  She wanted to see what I do and excited about.  She stayed for over an hour playing on the quilting machine and trying out the different patterns I have.  
Susan practicing her patterns on Pantovision.
Yesterday my husband's aunt (does that make her my aunt in law?), Lisa, and cousin, Sarah, came by to drop off some quilts for me to practice on.  They gave the quilting machine a practice run.  I think Lisa may be seriously considering a run as a quilting lady in western Kansas.  I may have encouraged her in that endeavor more than Dustan's uncle would have appreciated. 
Sarah admiring previous guest quilters' work and Lisa in the background quilting away.
In other news last Saturday I taught my first piecing class.  Now that I'm a longarm quilter I don't call the making of the quilt top quilting since it confuses that two process.  Putting a quilt top together is piecing a quilt and sewing the three layers of a quilt together is the actual quilting.  Semantics, really.
I had 3 people enrolled in my class.  It was scheduled through UFM here in Manhattan.  It was an all day class where we made a lap sized log cabin quilt. Participants brought their sewing machines and a few basic supplies.  Included in the class fee was the fabric.  I bought the fabric and had it all cut so all the participants had to worry about on Saturday was sewing.  I think things went well and it was a big change from my kindergartners. I also pieced together a lap quilt as I went as part of my examples I was using to show the class.  Although I had two choices of fabric I ran out of battery on my phone so I only got a photo of the quilt I ended up piecing for my example.  The other fabric choice was shades of grey and looked really dramatic in my opinion.  
My finished project from my class.
I am currently putting together my competition quilt for the Machine Quilters Showecase in Wichita April, 2-5th.  So that will be consuming my time in the near future.  I also have several practice quilts I'm working on and need to get finished quilting so that will keep the machine hopping.  If you are in the area you should stop by and give the machine a test run.  It's a lot of fun and it might put you in a quilt state of mind.

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