Long time- no see!
It's been some time since we have posted on our blog- mostly because we have been busy planning Volume 5 of the series.
For those of you following and working through the books here's the skinny on Volume 5...
Volume 5 will be all about Medallion quilts. But you don't have to love or even like Medallions to enjoy this book- more than anything this book is about pieced borders. So if you have always wondered how to make a pieced border fit your quilt- we can help you.
In this volume we will go in to the math and techniques for creating a pieced border to fit your quilt perfectly!
And if you happen to be into Medallion quilts- we will walk you through designing your own as well as sharing a number of new and old Medallion quilts with you!

Something to look forward too! We are just in the final stages of writing and making the quilts- we will turn the manuscript into C&T in June and it will likely be available for you to purchase late summer of 2014.
In the meantime- keep working on the projects and exercises in Volumes 1-4! And let us know if you have questions! We are always available to help!

Thanks! & Happy Quilting-
Harriet & Carrie

Quilter's Academy Volume 4 is here!! For all of you who have been waiting, the wait is over. This latest edition of the Quilter's Academy series will take you to new heights in building your toolbox of piecing skills.
This volume focuses on 60° an 45° diamonds, this includes hexagons, 60° diamond stars, LeMoyne and other 45° stars, Winding Ways and four great variations on Log Cabins.

We hope you enjoy this volume as much as the others.
Harriet and Carrie are hard at work on volume 5- it will be out in 2014.

Thanks! And enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Harriet and I have spent part of these couple holiday weeks designing some blog post series that we hope you will find fun and informative as we progress throughout this new year.

So, check in often, we will tackle a new topic about once every two weeks... and PLEASE don't forget to post your comments or email us if you have questions.

Wishing you success in all of your quilting endeavors this year and a prosperous and Happy New Year.

Happy Quilting-
Carrie

Merry Christmas!!
Can you believe that Christmas is nearly here, and after that the New Year.

This is just a quick note of thank you to all of you who have been following the blog and working through the Quilter's Academy series of books.

Harriet is not traveling quite a much as normal in 2012 and so she is planning on putting on her thinking cap and designing new classes and bootcamps as well as a teacher training seminar, and we are considering branching out into videos.... what format (web based or DVD's) we aren't sure yet, but we will keep you posted on the developments.

Again, just a quick note of Thanks and wishing you a Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year and happy quilting!
Carrie

Hello....

Long time no posting! Harriet and I are apologize for our silence this past year- things have been a little nutty!!
So Volume 3 of Quilter's Academy was released this spring to great reviews and we are excited to announce that Volume 4 will be available May 2012- so look for it in your favorite quilt shop next spring!

As there have not been any recent emails or posts giving Harriet and I something to write about we have been pretty silent, but we just had a pancake breakfast and show and tell at our store this past weekend (October 21, 2011) and one of our local students who is working through the series on her own at home came to show her work at the show and tell and we wanted to share her work with you.

Debbie is currently working through Volume 2 of Quilter's Academy. She is an experienced quilter but wanted to refresh her memory and improve her piecing skills.
With that as her starting point, she has been taking the projects that we assign in the books but adding her own spin to them....
Like in her rendition of the "Card Trick" quilt from the cover of Volume 2. Debbie was going to do the card trick block, but them found the pretty yellow... it didn't look so great as a large piece in the card trick block, so she found another block with the same feeling as card trick but that allowed the pretty yellow to shine- between her block and the great window paneing she has made the quilt all her own... here are her results:



For her next project she worked on "Confetti", but for her, a table runner was more useful.


And finally, "Navajo Dreams". Debbie chose to use LeMoyne Star blocks instead of the album blocks Harriet used in the project quilt, but look at the result.

Thank you Debbie, for the inspiration!

Debbie, and many other "home school" students are going gang busters with their projects and we are so proud of all they have accomplished- especially in the the "thinking outside the box" element we encourage in the books!

Debbie's quilts are a great example... so you like the layout of one of the project quilt, but aren't taken with the colors, the blocks... whatever... use the skills you have learned in the books and create your own.

Remember, post your comments or questions and we'll answer you, here on the blog (if appropriate) so everyone can learn from the question.

Keep quilting and we'll look forward to hearing from you!
Harriet & Carrie

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