What wonderful ideas! Certainly gives me many places to get started.

FMQ - I don't usually use initials because I'm new enough to know how confusing they can be. But never remember what FMQ stands for - free machine quilting? Fast motion? whatever - so I used the initials. I just know it means using a domestic machine to do more than stitch in a ditch (SID) or diagonals - that may have another name, too. I'm tired of SID and diagonals!

Maybe you could ask the LQS who was going to teach the class. Sometimes, if you contact the Instructor privately, she/he will give you a private session in your home and you could split the cost with 1 or 2 friends. A couple of the Instructors used to do that when I still owned my QS.