Beginner Quilting Class

Oh joy! I just discovered that I won a book from The Quilt Shoppe Bingo Blog. I did my super-excited dance in my bedroom, then went to my roommate's room to tell him and show him my super-excited dance.

"Guess what, guess what!" throwing my arms around like a cheerleader on speed. "I won a quilting book, I won a quilting book, hey hey hey hey!"

My blog also got listed on the Blog Roll of the day, and I got a follower! Hi! *waves*

Ok, now down to quilty business. I took an Intro to Quilting class at my LQS last night. I love my LQS. It's Quiltique in Henderson and they are the nicest ladies ever. I'll do a post just for them one day. Tami Bradley taught the class. She's a local long-arm quilter here in Henderson and she does really amazing work. She was an awesome teacher, went through all the selections of thread and batting and demonstrated some continuous line quilting ideas. Then she let us loose on our sewing machines and wandered around helping us.

Confession time: This is the third time I've signed up for this class, but only the first time I actually got my butt in the seat. Long story about thinking it was a different day and the next time thinking it was a different time. Hangovers had nothing to do with it, I swear. Anyway, the first time I signed up I bought my Bernina walking foot ($160). I got home all excited to quilt my first quilt, opened the box and stared in horror.


It was Frankenstein Foot. Seriously, I was so afraid to even touch this thing. I didn't want anything to do with it. I read the instructions. They didn't help. I looked in my quilting books to see if any had a picture of what I was supposed to do with this thing. They didn't. I googled it. Nothing. So it sat in my drawer for a year. Now, I'm moving and finally taking care of my unfinished business.

This is how it works. You see that black piece that looks like teeth, or tweezers? That piece hooks around that little knob you screw when you want to change the needle. Then...(wait for it...) you put it on like a regular foot! Who knew?! Nothing to be afraid of!



There's some extra bars in there if you want a guide to do evenly spaced quilting, and an open-toed foot to see more when you're stitching. I really don't know why I was so afraid of my walking foot. I was so happy when Tami finally explained everything to me. I put it on and started quilting my project (an old table runner I use to practice quilting). She came back a few minutes later.

"How's the walking foot working?" She asked.

"Oh, it was boring. I replaced it with my free-motion quilting and that's much better."

Just goes to sew!