TeresaA

I took a beginner class from a very unknown lady who went on to be a fairly well-recognized published author. She was all the bad things, arrogant, syrupy smile, singled people including me out, wanted everything her way. The experience was bad enough that I never took another class and no I didn't buy any of her books, and didn't even finish the quilt (a hand-pieced sampler).

But I learned a few tricks in that class that I'm so thankful to know in hindsight. The teacher learned to quilt from her Grandmother (a prolific circa 30s quilter) and brought some of her techniques to the class. In the olden days, people didn't mess around with fancy sewing machines and threads. For many, quilting was a utilitarian thing and needed to be done quickly, so they were good at finding speed techniques.

Honestly, at this point I wish I could find this woman again for a class. I might sit in the back, LOL, but I would listen and see if I could pick up a few more tips to change my quilty world.

By the way, my fave tip was tying knots for hand quilting. Lay the needle on the thread in the place where you want the knot. Wind the thread around the needle a few times and pull the needle through. This works much faster than it sounds here and creates a good little cylinder - shaped knot that pops through the top layer easily and remains in the sandwich very nicely.

Come to think of it, I did actually try one more class, taught by a well known author. She was nice enough, but it was so boring, I fell asleep and didn't go back (didn't ask for a refund either). I'd take the rude teacher over her any day.