quilting skills course part one
Saturday saw me on the train with my sewing machine, off to Bath for a machine quilting course at Country Threads. It’s only 11 minutes on the train from here to Bath and takes longer than that to get to the station from home.
But sometimes the fates are against us. There were 8 of us on the course and we were going to practice machine quilting techniques, with the morning dedicated to using the machine for stitch in the ditch, walking foot and quilting bar techniques and the afternoon to free motion quilting. At least that was the intention!
Country Threads occupies a Georgian Town house and the classroom is in the basement. There is a window looking onto a little garden, but as you can imagine in a basement, it is not the brightest room. And when the newly installed, state of the art halogen lights failed, we were plunged into semi darkness. Despite our best endeavours, and we were a handy bunch of ladies, we failed to restore the lights and poor Val who ws leading the course had to call it a day, with the promise of running it again for us in a few weeks time.
It was such a pity, but before we packed up Val was able to demonstrate some machine quilting by sitting at a table in the basement window and all of us gathering around. She is such a skilled lady and I learned more about machine quilting by sitting watching her for a few minutes than I have in all my experiments alone. I can’t wait for the repeat of the course but in the meantime I am trying out some of the things I saw her doing.
I was also privileged to have the input of the other ladies on the course and Val into how to take the next steps with Laura’s quilt, not to mention a whole fabric shop full of gorgeous material to choose from for the border and back. I am so thankful for the time , the kindness, the opinions offered by everyone and now I have the very things I need to complete it. I just have to wait for a new delivery for some fine black cotton for the inner border and then I can get on.
Oh no what a shame, and after you having to lug your machine on the train, hopefully all will go right next time
as soon as I read your first line – i had visions of you on a commuter train stitching with the sewing machine in your lap. I hope all goes well for the next attempt at the lessons! is Lauras quilt a secret while it is in progress, or are we going to get a peak?
what a shame, I agree with paula,are we going to get a sneak preview?
Oh what a shame – but it sounds like you still got something from the day anyway. Let’s hope the rescheduled course goes a lot better!
It sounds like you had a great time, even though the class didn’t work out. I’m glad she is going to reschedule the class for you. What a bummer, though, to expect to learn so much and then have it not work out. Am I making any sense?!? ;0)