Glory Quilts - Classes

Hello! I am so glad, as always, to be returning to Chewelah for another season of quiltmaking with all my friends! I hope you have finished up all those old projects and are ready to start some new ones, because I have an exciting lineup of classes! I have new and ORIGINAL designs and techniques for beginners and experienced quiltmakers. Be sure to go to Akers soon and sign up for classes - they fill up fast! Classes start on October 18th!

The first Glory Quilts Block of the Month Club went well. Some ladies kept up each month and some preferred to wait and do them all at once. This is the time to finish them up!! We are having two assembly classes. Please sign up for either one:

October 18, from 10 am - 4 pm OR October 30, from 10 am - 4 pm.

Bring a sack lunch.

The 2004-2005 Glory Quilts Block of the Month Club will start in November. There are 20 slots for the Club, and it will cost $20. You will receive a pattern in the mail each month (NOT at the beginning of the month, but somewhere in there!) and there will be a class next October (which you will have to pay for) to learn to assemble it. It will be a twin size quilt with ideas for making it larger. I think I am going to use five-patch blocks this year! You can sign up with me while I am there.

One really exciting development this year is that I am offering several truly original designs. I plan to eventually package and market them for retail sale, but if you take the classes this year, you will get the pattern FREE!

The first is the Glory Quilts Tablerunner! I have made prototypes of this one in every possible color scheme, from Americana to Batik to Rustic to Harvest to Christmas... It's very versatile and easy to shop for - you need a feature fabric, two coordinating near-solids, and a background. It's rotary cut and strip pieced - very fast and easy to assemble. You can whip out a few of these for Christmas gifts! Because I hope it will be a popular class, I am offering it in two time slots - you can sign up for the one that fits your schedule!

Stacked Bricks is a great classic quilt pattern that uses up a lot of scraps or can be made beautifully in a planned color arrangement. It is particularly attractive as a Christmas quilt, but I like the scrappy sample I am sending to Washington, too. It was made by a student whose house burnt while she had all the little bricks cut and sewn but not assembled. HUNDREDS of them. Her mother hand washed the smoke smell out of the bricks and my student finished the quilt. Now THAT is perseverance!!

In one session, you will learn how to quickly cut and sew the bricks. You can make your quilt whatever size you like!

The Turkey Tablerunner! Some of you have already done this. It does have a lot of little pieces, but it's foundation pieced! This charming little tablerunner is a great gift - or keep it for yourself. I backed mine with Christmas fabric, so I can turn it over and use it longer!

Tote bags are always so nice to have - and they make nice gifts, too! These are fully lined and have pockets! The waffle weave fabric makes nice soft straps, and you can even put it on the bottom as shown here (although that takes longer and we probably won't get that done in class!)

Another new and totally original Glory Quilts pattern - the Shining Star! A friend and I made this quilt top in less than two hours, even while I was still in the experimental stage. It is SO COOL! This size makes a nice big throw quilt, or you can add two more rows to your star (which wouldn't take long at all!!) and have a queen size bed quilt!! The waffle weave makes a nice border, especially after it's all quilted.

It's sort of like a Half Log Cabin block, in a star shape. All rotary cut and speed pieced - no special rulers needed! It is GORGEOUS in batiks. Don't miss this one!!

Many of you have asked for a workshop in how to choose fabrics. Not just colors, this class will cover all aspects of fabric selection and use - especially when you are combining them for a quilt! I think that even experienced quiltmakers will find useful ideas in this hands-on workshop.

ANOTHER new and original one from Glory Quilts!! This one is a variation of the Indian Star pattern that I have presented over the past two or three years. I have been playing with variations of that one, and this one just delighted me because it's even easier than the original!!! The stars seem to twinkle at you, because they alternate large and small diamond points. It LOOKS complex, but ask anyone who took the Indian Star quilt or tablerunner class - it's MUCH easier than it looks! I hope that those of you who made the original will come back to learn how to do this one. I look forward to sharing some other design options, too! My wall quilt has 8" blocks - you will receive the pattern for the 6" block also. Please come!

And if you can believe it.... ANOTHER original. This is a techniques class - you don't have to assemble your blocks into the wall quilt unless you want to. I am really excited about these spectacular stars. They are ALL rotary cut and strip or speed pieced! It's a technique for treating diamonds like squares but , well, diamond shaped! The very intricate looking blocks are really straightforward cutting and sewing. I even pieced the backgrounds, to avoid insetting corners. (If you LIKE to inset corners, you can do that part the old-fashioned way.) This class is especially for quilters who have some piecing experience - you need to be comfortable with rotary cutting and sewing an accurate 1/4" seam allowance. No special tools are required for these truly "SUPER STARS"

I really hope that many of you will take advantage of this class. I think it's one of the most innovative piecing ideas I have had EVER.

While most of these projects are suitable for beginners, this class is specifically designed to teach you the basics: threading and using your sewing machine, quilt planning and organization, rotary cutting skills, pressing blocks, setting blocks together to finish the quilt top, preparing the layers of the quilt to be quilted, machine quilting, and even a brief lesson in binding. The quilt is a nice lap or crib size. You only need to choose two fabrics and a backing. The pattern is provided.

This beginner's class is planned for the person with no knowledge of quiltmaking or rotary cutting. If you need to purchase tools, you may wish to wait and do so at class, because I will be discussing some of them. You will need your prewashed fabric for the first class - please feel free to stop by and ask for help with selecting fabrics!

This class is back by popular request! The three-dimensional leaves and simple piecing for the Maple Leaf blocks make a GREAT tablerunner! It's so fun to choose fabrics for autumn leaves.. batiks are perfect! You probably have some in your stash already... reds, browns, greens, purples, oranges, and vivid yellows. The class includes a lesson in the free motion machine quilting known as stippling. If you already know how to do this, you can just get to work on finishing up your runner!

Well, just FYI, we are making the classic traditional Lone Star quilts this year. You can make the big bed one or the wall quilt. They are both constructed the same, but obviously the big one is more time consuming. Not harder - just bigger.

We have so much fun in this class! Dinner, snacks, and beverages are provided, and we sew from 4 pm to well past midnight. You need to sign up early for this class. It fills up fast!!!

You probably won't get the borders all sewn on, but you should be able to achieve the rest of the quilt top in class!

Here's a fast and fun quilt project that a true beginner can put together in no time at all! The basic quilt is a twin coverlet or large lap size - 58" X 70". With the addition of borders, pieced and plain, it rapidly becomes a much bigger quilt. I have made the samples in flannel, but it's also beautiful in batiks or yarn-dyed plaids or brights or seasonal prints. This is a fun all-day class. Bring a sack lunch!

I bet everyone knows at least one little or big boy (or girl!) who would LOVE a boot quilt! The boots are VERY fun to make, too - You will see new combinations all the time. In this one-session class, you will learn to make the boot block. You can take it home and make a whole quilt or pillows or a tote bag or wall quilt or whatever you like! It's a fun project.

A student made this sample. She wanted a smaller quilt, but she was having so much fun that she just couldn't stop.

This one-session class is an opportunity to bless the less-fortunate children in the Chewelah area while having a good time quilting! You probably have enough scraps to make this small stocking, and then you will fill it up with your choice of small gifts and leave it at the store. Debbie Akers is making arrangements for a local charitable organization to distribute them where they will do the most good. I had a group of teenage girls make these here in Wisconsin. They filled their stockings with candy, toothbrushes, Beanie Babies, fun pencils, costume jewelry, matchbox cars, etc. It's a great project, and you will appreciate the simple instructions for making very attractive crazy-quilted and fully-lined stockings. You can take the pattern home to make more for your own friends and family!

I wanted to do this one last year, but it didn't fit on the schedule. I really like the three-dimensional corners that frame a picture. Any large scale print could be used for this charming and speedy quilt. I used Christmas scraps, but it is delightful as a child's quilt, with animal motifs framed in each block. It would be a good way to use those novelty prints - perhaps for a man's quilt! Fast and fun project! One session.

I plan to stipple all over the quilt, leaving the triangular corners free, so the 3D effect is enhanced.

Come and learn the technique of hand quilting! In this class, we will cover quilt preparation, marking and planning designs, selection of thread, needles, thimbles, etc. and spend some time practicing. Fabric and batting are provided. Even if you usually do machine quilting, it's nice to be able to hand quilt those special projects!

I use machine quilting for almost everything now. It's so fast and it can be very attractive. It takes practice, and I have some helpful ideas and handouts for you. We will cover straight-line machine quilting, but the main focus of this class is the free-motion "stippling" that you will see on most of my handouts.