Teachers

I was originally a self taught quilter.  Over the years, I have had many teachers who taught me different ways to quilt.  Some were very good and some not so good.  I did learn something from each one, even though it might have been that I didn’t like to quilt the way that they did.  Four people have had the most influence on my way of quilting.

Enjoyment – Doreen Speckman taught me to enjoy quilting.  She was an awesome teacher.  I remember her teaching in her bathing suit on a very hot day.  We ignored the heat and  laughed all the way through class.

Applique – I had several classes in applique.  It wasn’t my passion, although I liked to do it.  I went to as many applique classes as I could hoping the I would learn to enjoy the hand work.  Nancy Pearson taught at the Vermont quilt Festival.  She opened my eyes to color, technique and the love of applique.  We learned how to make twisted ribbon.  The piece that we made in her class was supposed to be a wall hanging, but I enlarged it and made a queen size bed quilt.

Stipple quilting – After I pieced and appliqued the quilt, I hand quilted it with a stippling technique taught by John Flynn.   I called the quilt “Basket and Butterflies” because I quilted orange butterflies amongst the stippling.  The sub title is “It’s John Flynn’s Fault”.  Because I had made the quilt with techniques learned at Vermont, I submitted the quilt into the Vermont show.  It was my first entry into a regional quilt show.  It not only won a blue ribbon, but also won a ribbon for best hand quilting.

Piecing – The teachers who had the most influence in my piecing were Ann Gallo and Sue Rabin.  The are amazing teachers.  One would start a sentence and the other would finish it.  It was like one person in two ladies.  I learned so much from them.  There way of flip and sew is different than anyone else.  While in the class, we went into another area for a demonstration.  I did not know at the time, but one of the ladies picked up my flip and sew piece on the way by to demonstrate how not to sew it.  I had cut off both pieces.  The following is their way.  I always do it this way now.

The object is to have a small triangle on the corner of a larger square.  You will use a large square and smaller squares for the corners.  Draw a diagonal line on the back of the smaller square.  Line the small square up with the corners and sew on the diagonal line.

 

 

Most instructions tell you to cut the corners  1/4″ away from the sewn line and press the triangle out.

 

Ann and Sue’s way is to cut the inner small square leaving the large square intact.  No matter how accurate you sew, the triangle might be a little over or under the line.  When you add this piece cut this way to another in the block, it will still be an accurate cut.

 

When these triangles were pressed back, they did not go to the edge of the larger square.  If they were cut off the regular way, the piece would be too small.

 

When these triangles were pressed back, they went beyond the edge of the larger square.  The Piece would have been too large.  Trim the overage and the piece will be the right size and be square. I learned so much from Ann and Sue.  More tips will come at a later date.

Have a great day and happy quilting.