Take That Class

I just finished reading Alyce's post about her 15 minutes with Weeks Ringle ... truly inspiring.  You can go over and read the entire post yourself but one paragraph stood out to me in particular  ...  it was in line with attending classes at your local quilt shop vs soaking in information from an online format in the comfort of your own home.

"just keep swimming" says Dory

Mostly I've been going the online route myself.  Firstly, because it is easier to plug in when the kids are asleep rather than arrange babysitters/or co-ordinate with hubby's busy work schedule so I can leave the house for the day and secondly, we don't usually get a lot of the "big names" visiting us here in the most isolated city in the world (hmm, I wonder why?).

... just keep practising ...

But why wait for a big name, when there are plenty of skilled up quilters right on my door step?  I got wind of a beginners FMQ class running at a LQS recently and jumped on the class list.  I'm so glad I did.

I have been teaching myself how to FMQ for a while now ... again, online, when the kiddies are all tucked in ... and to be fair the information out there online is amazing and it's really helped me to nut most of it out and then I know it's up to me to practise, practise, practise.

BUT nothing beats a human being standing over your shoulder, tweaking your machine just that little smidge to make ALL the difference to the quality of your stitches.  A full day of practising to gain confidence in a room full of people at the same level as you.  Confidence to try new quilting patterns because you were just shown how ... how to backtrack properly ... how to get yourself out of that corner ... how to not get yourself in that corner in the first place!

Still a long way to go, but so glad I took that class

Kind words of experience from a human standing in the same room as you .. nothing beats it.