I was teaching in Arizona last week and wanted to report on what made the class really go smooth - Big Boards! Are you ironing on a regular ironing board with a squishy pad and cover? If you don't know about Big Boards, they are 22" x 60" and is made of hard plywood. We put a think layer of cotton batting (like Hobbs Natural) on the wood surface and then cover it with a heavier cotton cover. The hardness of the board helps the iron really push the seam allowances over themselves without distortion. The softer ironing boards and pads can cause quite a bit of distortion. Also a good heavy iron is really helpful. We LOVE the Digital Velocity by Reliable. Have had them in our classroom for a few years now without a bit of trouble. The 20 students in Arizona kept saying by the end of the class that they now figured out it is really about pressing and trimming! If you are working through Quilters Academy Vol 1. let us know how you are doing.

We are editing Volume 2 next week and it should be out in May. We are also finishing up the writing and the quilts for Volume 3 and REALLY excited about this book! Once you get the precision down in Volumes 1 and 2, the designing and fun with triangles in Volume 3 will be really exciting. Imagine - you will be learning to achieve beautiful piecing AND design your own original quilts!

Happy sewing

Harriet