YEA!! Volume 2 is in the house! We just got back from Quilt Market and did a couple of book signings for Volume 2. We talked to many shop people who are using Volume 1 in the classroom with really great results. We were really excited to hear the progress and success of their students.

Carrie just finished quilting her quilts for Volume 3 and her quilting is wonderful. I can't believe the progress she has made. Like Lesley, she makes all the tops first, then settles in for the quilting marathon. The last two were almost twin size, so she really got a workout. I am really excited about Volume 3 - will be out next March. There are about 20 projects!

We would really like to hear of your success and progress if you are working through the series. Lesley is great about posting regularly on her blog showing her progress. How are the rest of you doing? C&T forgot to put the blog address in the 3rd printing of Volume 1 AND in Volume 2, so this is going to be much slower to get the address out to everyone without access of all the book buyers to the blog site. Please spread the word.

I am now working on the quilt designs for Volume 4. The quilts are getting more difficult, more beautiful, and lots more quilting. I can't wait for the quilting part.

Happy sewing!

Harriet

Hello out there to anyone checking in. It seems I can't get my thoughts together more than once a month. If anyone needs any help or information, please let me know, as that would make this easier and more applicable to those reading it.

I just checked in on Lesley and am really excited about her progress. Her problems with quilting Asian Nights though brought up some things that I would like to address. I really need to do this on the Machine quilting blog site, (heirloommachinequilting.blogspot.com) but no one knows about it yet, so I will start it here.

I had a lecture at the store a couple of nights ago - my 10 top tips for being a better quilter. What struck me about the audience was that they all wanted to learn to do their own quilting, but didn't want to put a lot of time into the practice and learning process. Just get it done. I got a bit like a mother, but I think it started to sink in by the end of the evening. Let me review some of the points that I want you to think about.....

1) Quilting is a skill very different from piecing. Piecing is pretty quick to come along and get under your belt. Quilting is a skill that not only takes time and practice, but involves a multitude of other subjects that are very foreign and unknown to most new quilters. Marking tools, batting choices, size of the quilt choices, threads, and on and on.

2) It takes at least 20 minutes to warm up before free motion quilting is comfortable and your muscles get the hang of the motion. Way too often, we just jump in and start to see improvement - on the quilt - after 20 minutes or more of quilting. Warm up off the quilt until you are comfortable, then go to the quilt. Work on stitch length, tension issues, and thread choices on the warm up piece. My warm up pieces are about 45" x 30".

3) Make sure you test your marking products to be sure they are easily removed from the quilt top after quilting, or don't rub off during the quilting process. Pouncing chalk is very easy to mark with, but rubs off very easily with all the movement of the quilt while quilting. Yellow has sulfur in it, so avoid using yellow or test it thoroughly. For more information, refer to the marking chapter in Heirloom Machine Quilting.

4) Start to learn about the battings available. Your batting choice can really affect the end product, as well as your experience quilting the quilt. Although cottons are thinner, if they are heavily needlepunched and/or have a scrim binder added, they can become very stiff as you quilt them, making it difficult to manage in the machine. If you have never used Mountain Mist products, look into them. You can get a batting pack of samples from my web site with Mountain Mist samples in it to play with and test. Also Cotton Classic. This is not needlepunched and is very flexible. Most quilters choose their battings by the feel of the batt, not the construction. Bamboo is an example of this. It feels very soft, but bamboo batts are needlepunched and most often have a scrim, making them no different after the quilt is quilted than a cotton like Quilters Dream, at a whole lot higher price tag! If you make the batting samples, you will see how they feel to quilt them, as well as what they look like after washing, before committing a quilt to a particular batt you know nothing about.

5) For those of you going through the Quilters Academy book, I would strongly suggest that if you are learning to quilt at the same time you are learning to piece, that you stick with the quilting suggestion we offer at the end of the book. We choose these designs based on Carries quilting ability, which was beginner when we wrote that book. She is now quilting the quilts for book 3 and is into feathers and harder stencils. You need to be patient and learn to stay on lines and keep your stitches even before getting into harder quilting designs. You might think that some of the quilting designs are boring, but we are letting you learn to manhandle the bulk of the quilt with easy quilting before you have to worry about staying on a line AND manhandle the bulk. I know everyone is very impatient with this process, but respect quilting for the skill it is. Take your time and work within you abilities so that all your new quilt tops reflect your skill at the time.

If you have any issues with machine quilting that I can help with, please post at heirloommachinequilting.blogspot.com where it is more appropriate than here. I am happy to help anyone that wants to be a better quilter.

We have the preview copies of Volume 2 and are really excited about the new book. C&T plans to ship them the 3rd week of May, and we are likely to get them ahead of anyone else, so if you want an autographed copy before Amazon or anyone else has them, let us know.

I would love to hear from more teachers that are using the book in the classroom. I met one in Greensboro, NC a few weeks ago and she is having so much fun, as well as great success with beginners. The students are very excited too. Please help us by spreading the word about the books. Word of mouth is the best advertising. Thank you!!!

Harriet

I was so excited to hear from Annie. I had such a grand time in Ohio with all the wonderful ladies in my classes. I was certainly jazzed in each class by the enthusiasm and work ethics of my students. No whining and diligent work and great results.

Annie has started a blog to record her progress, and I agree with her that this is a wonderful way to start a community of students of Quilter's Academy. The camaraderie that could be developed and the support system could be wonderful. I know that I enjoy checking in with Lesley and adding any tidbit of info I can to help things along. I would love to have the opportunity to do this for anyone working through the book. It gives me a direct link to students that don't have an opportunity to be in one of my classes.

We just received the preview copies of Volume 2 yesterday and Carrie and I are really excited about this book. Now we just need to see the graph paper.

Please go to Annie's blog and check her out - annnonomus.blogspot.com - and please pass on this blog sight to anyone you know that might benefit from it, or wants to go through the book. We can handle it much like homeschooling!

Keep in touch

Harriet

Thought it was about time to add something to the blog. As you can tell, I am not up to speed on this. Just wanted to let you know that we just got the preview copies of Volume 2 today, and Carrie and are really pleased and excited about this book. It will take you through more complicated looking quilts without leaving strips and squares in the blocks. We turned in Volume 3 March 1 - everything about triangles, flying geese, and on and on.... and are finishing all the quilting of the quilts for that book. Then on to Volume 4! We are hitting a wall a bit - this is an amazing amount of work in a very short period of time. We have a couple of weekends planned out of town in April, so that might help.

We will have Volume 2 in the store before most everyone else - we hope early May - so if you want a copy early and signed by Carrie and me, you can pre-order them from us. Call 303-424-2742 to place your order.

I started a Session 1 class at the store today, and again was reminded at how important pressing is. It can make or break your quilt top. A good iron - our very favorite is the Reliable Digital Velocity - and a Big Board are SO important to good ironing and control of the seams. After ironing is straightening (be sure to tear the ends to be able to actually see and work with the crosswise grain) the fabric and cutting accurately. If you haven't tried the 2 1/2" x 12 1/2" rulers - we especially like the Creative Grid rulers - try one for cutting. The narrow width really helps you hold the ruler without slipping when cutting strips up to 2" wide, which is most of the quilts in the books. If you have any problems finding any of the supplies we talk about in the book, please feel free to call our store and order what you need. 303-424-2742.

We don't have everything on the web site as we are in the planning stages of rebuilding it, but the girls at the store can help with anything you need.

If you can't find a foot narrow enough for your machine for the scant 1/4" seam allowance, try the Little Foot. It comes in several different shank sizes and might help you with your seam allowances.

I have had several people contact me that they were going to start the book as a course and set up a blog like Lesley. Please send me your addresses if you do this so that I can keep track of your progress.

As we come up against anything I think needs to be shared from the current class, I will add it here as we go. Would love comments from any of you as you are working through the book.

Harriet

I want to share with everyone a new quilter that is working through Quilters Academy Volume 1 on her own. I found out about her when she let us know she had found the errors on the directions for Townsquare. Lesley bought the book and has been working through it just as we had hoped people would do. Her blog is a diary of her progress, and I am so proud of her!!! She lives in Tasmania, Australia, is brand new to quilting, and is on the final. She can't wait to start to add borders to all the quilt tops - yes, she made them all! - and get to quilting them. Talk about a teachers dream come true in a student! I would encourage everyone to visit her blog and give her a big pat on the back for a job well done. The blog address is: patchnblock.blogspot.com. She has photograph of her step by step progress and her finished tops. You will love the skill improvement you see as she goes, and her insight as she finished each class. Just wanted to tune everyone in to her - how inspiring!
Harriet

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

Volume 1 Errata found so far

Below is a list of the corrections that a few of our readers have brought to our attention so far. We apologize for these problems, but they are a good way for you to check to see if you are able to catch them. The Townsquare project on page 63 is going to be turned into a mid-term exam, giving you a chance to see if you can work out the correct answers. We have had several students tell us they thought this is how we set it up. We wish we had of thought of that, as it is a good check on your progress for making your own recipes.

Please email us with any questions you may have about these or other things in the book.

Corrections for Quilt Academy Volume 1

Page 12 In the note box, it should be 112, not 12

Page 41 Harriet's Triple Rail Fence Project:
Make sure you read after the * on the bottom of
the page, starting with "* To determine how many strip sets.... "
The yardage is not wrong, but if you just cut the number of strips we tell you to cut it
will seem that way...

Page 64 2nd paragraph from bottom in first column
Four four-patch units per block = 2 segments for each unit = 8 segments. Each segment is a 1 ½" cut. There are 8 blocks and 8 segments each = 64 units total. Each 42" strip yields 28 units 1 ½" wide. 64 ÷ 28 = 2.28 strips needed, rounded up to 3 strips.

2nd column
6 strips 1 ½" wide dark green
3 strips 1 ½" …….
3 strips 1 ½" ……..

Page 65 center column- #5
Make two stacks of 16

center column - #8
Make 32 of these……

Page 81 - this is fairly obvious, but the 18" side of a fat quarter is the lengthwise grain and the 22" side is the crosswise grain

Page 87 - we have been told that there are a few confusing things here. After step 2, we meant you need a total of 36 segments for rows 1, 2, 4, and 5 - not 36 for each.
Rows 2 and 4 - there is no need for white strips
Under Making Block A - For Row 3, you need 1 strip blue, 2 strips pink and 2 strips white.

Page 90 17 – B blocks