Knowledge and Skill Building... Filling Station At Sea

After years of teaching Painted Quilt Art, I wanted to set people free to get tops quilted.  Fear stops us all so easily.   A full class of  cruise students participated in the first ever Filling Station class.... which first provided students with demo'd samples of specific free motion stitches that visually stabilize, harmonize, and / or move your eyes on a quilt top.  20 machines all humming like crazy playing and practicing many of the quilting stitches shown on more recent posts.  Each went home with samples ( a sort of stitched library)  of different stitches they NOW know how to do and  as such will assuredly be more comfortable tackling their own art quilts back home.  Machines on this cruise were provided by a Janome dealer. These were high end machines with lots of great features/tools for quilters.

One proud student with her sample ' stitched library.' Not mandatory, but perhaps helpful was the use of different color  threads for each type of stitch... e.g..  

visually stabilizing... ( mostly straight or right angled stitch patterns) 

visually harmonizing... (mostly curvy happy stitch patterns) 

move your eyes patterns ...  (stitch patterns that usually include sharp angles) 

 One incorporated many inspired stitches visually suggested on the ships elevator doors. I had the same inspiration in viewing the ships metal doors.... just no time to play as a teacher... but maybe something in the future.  as always... sooooo many ideas, so little time.... a quilter's burden, I know!

This class seemed to be quite a success.... Due to my traveling/competition schedules, I  seldom  get to teach  locally but will teach a class on this subject in Oct 2014 ( Oct 11- Orange Quilt Bee- Orange California) orangequiltbee.com... for contact info.      Not on their site yet but the date confirmed. Call them if interested.
Other quilting cruises with varied instructors can be viewed on World of Quilts Travel site.  (  see link list on the top left.)