Four Days of Instruction at Quilt Canada

I taught four classes at Quilt Canada: two days of free-motion machine quilting, and two days of dyeing. I was quite pleased and surprised that all of my classes ran, and two of them were full with 20 students. 

To be quite frank, this was the most physically challenging teaching event of my career. Events took place at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. University campuses tend to be great sprawling communities unto themselves, so there is a lot of distance to walk. Add in the need to transport a lot of supplies, especially for a dyeing class, and the need to stand all day and walk to lunch and dinner, and all of this on hard concrete floors, and you have a recipe for aches and pains. I am happy I survived :-)) In fact, when the President of CQA, Judy Kelly, got up to speak at the Saturday night banquet she joked that she hadn't seen her ankles in some time (due to leg swelling). We are a mostly over-50 crowd, so I'm sure these types of venues are hard on all of us.

The first day's class was "Beyond Stippling With Confidence". We had a class of 20 and brand spanking new sewing machines from Janome :-)

Yvette brought her finished hosta duo piece from my Windsor class this past March.

Look who I found in class: Patti Carey, the VP of Northcott Fabrics!

These photos are from Day 2, "Beyond Stippling, Beyond Confidence". Adele is working on doodling her feathers here.

Feathers stitched by Patti.

All in all I have to say that these were the most skilled students I have ever taught free-motion to in my 11 years of teaching free-motion quilting. I think all they needed was a bit of confidence.

Day 3's class was "Introduction to Fabric Dyeing". We had 20 students again. Lots of supplies needed for this class. Between the two days of dyeing, I supplied about 160 meters of fabric, and 35 kits that included the supplies needed. The Local Organizing Committee for Quilt Canada was thoughtful in collecting all the pails, jugs, kitty litter trays, old towels, etc. to make life easier for students travelling to the conference. 

Look who showed up in this class! This is my friend Daphne Greig, who is also a national teacher, book author and pattern designer.

The fourth class was "Dye Another Day". I was so busy that day that I forgot entirely to take pictures. It was great fun too.  

Thank you to all the keen and eager students that registered for my classes. It was wonderful to meet so many interesting people from around the country.