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

While we are addressing issues, I overlooked adding yardage for the large 9-patch blocks for the quilt Four Patch Chain on page 70 of Volume 2. The yardage should be 2 2/3 yard of white. Carrie and I are really hoping that everyone using these books are truly doing what we are teaching and figuring each quilt on your own to develop the pattern and yardage for yourself and to really understand the process before you start. We apologize for any thing we have overlooked, such as this, but also hope that if you are truly studying this as a college course, not using the book as a typical pattern book, you will discover these issues and know that there is an error and also know the correct answer. This is the whole reason we are doing this. We are not trying to get off the hook for our mistakes - believe me, it is humiliating to find the errors after the book is in print. We read the books a minimum of 7 times and think we have found the problems, only to find that an obvious problem crops up - like Townsquare in Volume 1. However, as Lesley stated in the very beginning, she knew she was right and the book was wrong because she did her own math and her numbers were right. That is truly what we want for everyone. By doing this, you are getting closer and closer to being able to take a photo and dividing it down to a block, a grid, a recipe, and a yardage chart - all on your own. The step after that is to design your own original quilts and be able to write your own instructions.

I will share with you that one of the hardest parts of writing instructions is that you have no idea what your readers do and don't know, and what they do and don't do as far as following instructions. This being said, there will always be problems with the written word and having everything perfectly understandable for everyone. We really want to teach our readers to contemplate and analyze the quilts and the patterns, not just follow the pattern.

We would like some feedback on this if anyone has any thoughts.
Harriet

Volume 2 Sashing Instructions

Well... there seems to be some problems with the sashing for the Cabin in the Cotton quilt on pages 43-48.

Using the formula on page 85, you get a sashing strip that is 25 1/2" long. However if you have cut your side setting triangles the full 8" as stated in the instructions for this quilt, you will have a quilt top that is not even at the outside edges.

My quilt was this way when it was completed because I then trimmed the quilt down so that the binding would be right at the edge of the corner of the sashing, meaning most of the fabric that hangs over on the side setting triangles is trimmed away.

This not being well explained has caused some issues, here are a couple of thoughts/ considerations for you to take into account.

First, if you know that you are not going to add another border to your quilt or don't want your blocks to "float" in the background, only add 2" to the measurement of the block to get the needed size for the side setting triangles... in the case of Cabin in the Cotton you would then be cutting 7" squares in half twice diagonally (see page 47, at the top).

If however having an uneven edge on your quilt makes you crazy, you can amend the formula on page 85 to read this way:
(Finished block size x number of blocks) + (cut sashing size x number of sashes) + 1/2"

By figuring using the cut size of the sashing, you add extra inches to the length of the sashing as well as the 1/2" for seam allowances, giving you more sashing length to play with and space for trimming.

I apologize for the confusion this may cause or have caused and hope this will help.
Carrie