Cathe

Like Tippy, I prefer to start with a "Traditional Quilting" class - using templates, scissors, hand sewing, etc. I teach it as a 9-block sampler class, with different skills in each block. It's so good to start with real basics and not just jump into rotary cutting.

I used to teach it in a six-week class. The problem, as someone said, is that you often don't get to the quilting stage! That is why I stretched it out to 8 or 10 weeks, meeting 6 times with breaks between sessions so everyone could get all their blocks done in time to be ready for the layering-basting-quilting class. Again, we don't really get to the binding. I demonstrate it and give them handouts and make myself available, if possible, when they are ready to bind.

I don't use knots in hand-piecing, either, Tippy. I teach the method where you start about 1/2" from the end of the line, sew to the end, backstitch, turn around and go back the length of the line, backstitch at the other end and then turn it around and sew back toward the center again. It's so nice and strong and flat! (and easier to do than describe! LOL)

mpspeedy

I have been sewing since I was 8 and quilting since I was 16. One of the most important lesson I learned was good sewing basic information like straight of grain. I have taught a few small quilting classes. I like to start off with a small handquilting project with a square of solid fabric marked for a simple quilt design. If the person enjoys or masters that small project they will go on to learn the rest of the techniques involved. In my mind it is not a quilt until it is quilted. I have seen so many UFOs that were peiced or even appliqued beautifully but never quilted. I am assuming that most of you who have items longarmed do it because you are not interested in the quilting part. That is fine but that is not the way I feel. I recently had a king sized top longarmed. I actually purchased the top from a vendor at our guild show that sold tops made by poor woman as a fund raiser. I am going to give the quilt to my step-daugher for her 20th anniversary. She is a nurse and literaly washes all of her bedding with the sheets. A handquilted item would not survive her attempts to sterilize everything in her house.
I use handquilted items in my house constantly and I machine wash and dry them when necessary but not everytime I change the sheets.

Most quilting classes I have seen offered stop before the sandwhiching and quilting process even starts. It is not my favorite part but like food prep and clean up it is part of the process that is necessary to a meal or to a quilt.
To me quilting is a relaxing passtime. A good excuse to sit and watch a movie or TV program and not feel quilty because my hands are busy.