I was really glad I could get to the IQF – Chicago quilt show this spring for all 3 days.
On the first day, I had a few hours and saw some of the quilts as well as some of the vendors.
I had a class in the afternoon and I was first to sign up and ask to be teacher’s pet so I was the helper for the class. I had the ribbon to add to my nametag and afterwards I got a pin. (So much un-Wow factor there!) I checked with the Education office 45 mins before class was to start. Soon after one student was able to buy the class from someone else but came without even a pair of scissors! She got a quick class list and went shopping. On top of it, she had never taken a quilt class!
This was very interesting sort of class. Nothing I’ve ever done in my 30 years of quilt making! It looks like wonky piecing but technically is applique.
At these classes, the machines are provided by a mainline dealer and there is a rep for every 3 classrooms. The rep gave an overview of the machine AND…. we found out the our carefully chosen specialty threads (on class list) wouldn’t fit in the machine. It wasn’t a brand I’d suggest in the first place but that put a damper on things a bit. I happened to have 1 spool that could fit in the machine so used that. A few others had the rep wind their thread onto a bobbin to use as the top thread. I think most in the class just had to use the regular sewing thread. Oh … Brother, not for me! Had I or we all known, at least I would have brought a piece of tape, paperclip, and paper cup from SBx and made my thread work! LOL!
Karen Stone was the instructor and had a long wait in the SBx line so was late for class.
Then the Education coordinator came to talk about other classes and the evening activities (ie trying to sell tickets) and the sewing machine rep came and talked too long. (I guess maybe I should fill in the email survey…) Finally it was class time but about 2:20, instead of 2 as we had all been waiting for.
The class was titled, “Remainderings” and as she taught we finally figured it out. Very fun!
Karen gave a bit of an intro but mostly we just needed to watch her get going. I like how she taught us 3 steps and then let us work on that. She was right at our table or we’d congregate in a group of 5 or 6 around a machine while she’d demonstrate the next step again. We needed the beginning steps learned before we moved on and she taught that well in class. Once we all had a few pieces of the first half accomplished, she taught the final 2 steps. I think all of us had one block completed through all the steps by the end of class. Not that having “just one” block was a negative! We had many blocks in various stages to jump right back into when we got home.
My first finished block.
Some of my pieces in progress when it was time to be done.
One of Karen’s blocks
Other students’ blocks. The reason I needed to carry the 2 rolls of blue tape to the classroom — to hang our blocks on the wall! Ha!
The blocks Karen had made to show us how they all go wild and play fun together!
I jumped right back into real life when I got home. Maybe this weekend, I can sew some more on my class blocks. I think it will make a very fun quilt!
and sew on... 