How many in a workshop?
I am going to be teaching a quilting workshop for my guild. It will be a 6-hour workshop, broken into two 3-hour modules (that complement each other, but stand alone): shadow trapunto and then micro-quilting. I'm requiring "confident beginners" for the quilting segment- attendees must know how to run their machine to free motion quilt, but I don't expect them to have ever tried anything other than a large stipple or a loopy meander pattern that beginners tend to do.
How do I decide how many people to have in the class? I feel like anything more than 20 is too many, but I'm wondering if it would be better to cap it at 15? I have a lot of teaching experience, but not with quilting. I'm really worried about time management if I have to troubleshoot beginner quilting issues like eyelashes and tension; but not so worried about time management with the techniques I am meaning to teach.
Maybe I could offer up to 25 spaces for shadow trapunto, and then 15 spaces for micro-quilting. Assuming some people would be confident enough to quilt their own piece without additional instruction? As long as it is clear the workshops are separate, it wouldn't be like I'm 'kicking them out'. I think....
Do you think limiting a class to 15 is appropriate? What size are quilting workshops usually? I've never been to one before; I've done a few classes at a store and those range from 2 people to 20 people it seems.
For this workshop, I'm donating my teaching to the guild, and any fee to the attendees will just be to cover my material and handout costs. Since it is my first quilting class, they will be guinea pigs. If it goes well, I'll probably start charging attendees.