CAS49OR

It is a good idea to use hubby as sounding board. My hubby is a mechanic, reads schematics all the time. He is also better at special concepts, and seeing which way something should turn to work out correctly. That comes in handy if doing paper piecing. I think I've mentioned previously that he is great at wanting me to buy all the tools I need. Since he buys more than he needs!

lorraine43

After all the quilt classes I have taken they never showed us how to sandwich the quilt. I had to learn by trial and error alot of error!!! :roll: :roll:

kayutanurse

I've taught a beginner's quilting class. If you write down everything that you want to teach then look at it from the point of view of a beginner, you have a better idea of how much to add. I forgot to mention the 1/4 inch seam from the beginning and had to back track! It's easier if you can have someone else read it, too. Good luck!!!! I'm sure you'll do fine!

CAS49OR

I posted on some other thread about how disappointed I was in the quilting books I bought. They had errors in them. As a newbie trying to do something, and then have to figure out the mistakes........ Enough said.

Maybe, get a few neutral friends to check out your criteria, give you critique.

madamekelly

Press, measure, cut, press, measure, assemble, press, measure, and press again for good measure. Make sure you explain the difference between pressing and ironing! (Would have saved me hours of aggravation!) First project needs to be useful and in colors they like. Keeps the frustration down. Nothing frustrates me more than wanting to take a class, and being told I must use the teacher's choice in colors. I have yet to take a class, for this reason.

quiltwiz

I teach beginners and do a four block sampler with rail fence, pinwheel, ninepatch, and log cabin. If only doing one block , imo, it would definitely be the rail fence. I personally would do a beginners class on "How Well Do You Know Your Machine?"
Most machines are simple enough to figure out, and you would be doing yourself a favor in the long run. You would also do a little rotary cutting along with it, to get them started. Then send then home to practice their 1/4" seam before offering the quilt class. Has worked for me for 15 years now.
Good luck. Teaching beginners is wonderful!

quiltwiz

I taught a six week class and usually gave them two weeks inbetween class 5 and 6 to catch up if necessary. They went home with a quilt that was sandwiched and ready to quilt. I demonstrated machine and hand quilting so that they could get and idea of what they wanted to do...and my phone and email were always open to them at any time after that. We usually got back together in about three months ( set the time then) to show and tell.

My time

I was so lucky with my first quilt class because our instructor was great. Here is what she did for us. She showed us the importance of the 1/4 inch foot. She made sure all our seams were accurate. She taught us the do's and don'ts of rotary cutting. The difference between pressing and ironing. She showed us all the tools she used to get started on a project. She also gave us each a piece of muslin about 1" by 3" that she called a tail. This helps feed the fabric through the feed dogs and prevent those little nests at the beginning of a seam. We made 9 patch pot holders. I know it sounds simple but it has made my quilting very successful.Hope this helps.

Jagsd3

The only thing I would add to what has already been mentioned would be the importance of measuring when putting borders on. For instance measuring thru the center and top and bottom dividing by 3 to get measurement of each strip.

Sanhope

When I teach watercolor art... I start with my goal is to make this fun and do-able. If they have fun and can do any part of it they will continue.

Teach what you love. Congradulations on the opportunity.