Welcome to the Quilter's Academy Journal

Hello!
Harriet and I are glad you visited... we established this blog as a sort of question and answer forum for all of you who are working through the Quilter's Academy book series.
It is also a place to find a list of the errata from the books-
You can find those by looking back through the archived blogs.

So, welcome, and please post a comment if you have any questions or topics you would like us to discuss.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Volume 3 coming in spring

Volume 3 is due to be released this spring - I think in April. It is totally about triangles and very detailed. We actually went over on page count, but C&T graciously allowed the text to stay and have given the book a few extra pages so that we didn't have to eliminate anything. You will be working with 8 different methods of half square triangles, quarter square and 3-piece triangle squares, four methods of flying geese, and feathered stars. There is an amazing amount of information in the book, and a lot of really pretty and fun quilts. I'm giving you a heads up to hopefully motivate the home study quilters to get through the first two Volumes so that you are ready to go when this book is released.

I do hope that if you are enjoying working with the Quilters Academy books that you are sharing your enthusiasm with your friends and quilts guilds. The biggest problem all authors and publishers have is to get the word out about books that really need to be in the hands of many. I was dismayed that almost every quilt guild I was at last year, the number of members that had not heard of the books at all. There is no way I can travel with enough books to supply to those who really got excited once they found out about the series. Local quilt shops also didn't seem to have a clue. There are not enough advertising dollars to get books in front of everyone, so we rely on our students and readers to help. Please write a review for your guild newsletter, do a review at a meeting, tell your quilting friends, etc. to help us continue to help struggling quilters improve their skills and truly learn to piece and quilt.

Thank you for your support and enthusiasm. Please post what you are doing so I have an idea of how people are using the books and what your successes are.

Harriet
I can't believe that it has been 2 months since we posted anything. Needless to say, I am not a good blogger. If you haven't checked out Lesley lately (patchnblock.blogspot.com) you will be amazed and I hope very motivated to keep up your work with Quilters Academy and Heirloom Machine Quilting. I got a lot of wonderful Christmas cards from students sharing their successes using my books and it was the best gift I could get. As I am trudging through getting Volume 4 written, it is really evident how important it is that you work through all the books as they are written. I am making a quilt for Class 430 in Volume 4 that is 60 degree diamonds that create 15" stars. So far, every point is coming out spot on, but only because I am checking every strip set one strip at a time, pressing to get exact seams, checking and double checking each 60 degree cut from the strip sets, and carefully aligning each seam as the segments are joined. I am making one star an hour, so think this is coming along really well, and I love the look - 20 fabrics in all.

I hope that everyone working through Quilters Academy have a desire to make these wonderful, but more complicated and time consuming quilts in the near future. Remember, we are not looking for perfection, but excellence. Perseverance really pays off, as demonstrated so perfectly by Lesley. She is my inspiration when writing, as I want to make sure the instructions are complete and explicit enough that she can continue to excel on her own. I know all of you can do it!!!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and wish you the very best for the New Year. Make more quilts!!!!
Harriet