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.

I've taken several classes offered by my Guild and I think I would limit it to 15. If there is a great demand, then you could always have a second class. Check with your Guild to see if they have policies on payment for classes. Ours charges a fee of about $10. The fee helps keep members honest. If they pay $10, then they actually want to take the class and will show up for it. A free class gets alot of signers but they won't feel commited to showing up.

The classes I have been to range from 20 to 30 people. I guess it depends on how much one on one time you think you may run into. As for the micro-quilting, I would need a lot of teacher time. I just cannot get the hang of it. Good luck with the classes.

Since it is your FIRST ... go small!
Better to have a lot of happy people, than to fall flat on your face and have a room of disgruntled quilters.
You already KNOW that they will tell all, about their experiences, good or bad!!!

While you have a lot of teaching experience, keep in mind that yes, some of the skills are transferable, that it IS different.

Being that you have NEVER been to a quilting workshop before, maybe you would be best to START by attending a few to see how they are done. Not meaning to emulate them, but you can learn a lot of what to do (and not do!) and get a better feel as to what the participants want and expect and how they react!

Of course, this is JIMHO ... and I only know you from what you have put out on this thread.

Perhaps you'd be better to ask your questions to your Guild members. They know you, your abilities, how previous workshops have turned out and how the potential attendees relate to you within your local community/guild. Surely, they can guide you better than the rest of us, as they have more direct knowledge!

Yes, I definitely know this is an issue. I think the guild will likely require a $10 or $15 payment from attendees for the space. But most of the workshops our guild has cost $50 or more, to pay the instructor.

Sadly, I can't. Our guild only does them on weekdays, and I work (and they are really expensive). I've been to a few classes at stores, so I've seen how people teach quilting, I just don't know how it's done outside of 'sales pitch' mode.

I think 15 is probably the right number, and then maybe 10 for micro-quilting. That's really manageable, even if I get a few people who ignore the skill requirement (I once went to an 'advanced' free motion quilting class; we spent 50% of the time doing stippling loops, beyond basic: because two women were 'advanced quilters' but had never done free motion ever. I was so mad! It was a huge waste of time. I'm an advanced FMQer but I'd never go to an advanced applique class!)

My teaching experience is academic (both school and outside of school extra skills), athletic (ice skating to adults and toddlers), and crafty (knitting lessons to small groups) so I think I should be able to handle quilting.

Another consideration: Is it possible to have a teaching assistant, someone else to help you with the class attendees. If you go over it with the TA first, then you won't feel as stressed. Since you have teaching experience making a lesson plan to share with the TA and attendees would also help.

If this is a 6 hour workshop, you may want to go over a few things first with the group like keeping food water coffee away from the work area, assess the quilting abilities of the students so that you can group the less experienced ones together, maybe keeping cell phones off when you are teaching but can be on while they are sewing etc. I like to have 6 to 10 people in a class. That is just my personal preference as I don't like to be in larger groups.

One way to make sure everyone realizes that these are two stand-alone classes is to charge two registration fees and have separate sign-up sheets.