Diet Monday..... or is it.....?!

I'm not sure but I think this diet Monday thing as taken the way side! Not that I've been diligent about doing a post, never mind the diet! lol

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to take two (2) longarming classes at Cowles Quilting with Sharon Schamber.

The Franklin County Quilter's Guild was hosting Sharon for a few days. I was also extremely fortunate to be able to attend Sharon's trunk show and actually got to touch and feel her quilts. I ended up helping Sharon that evening after our Friday class. She does amazing work, I mean the details!!!! She's also not afraid of passing her small pieces around. I came out of that meeting in awe of her work! Back to my class.

Sharon offered a wide array of classes, three (3) of which were for longarmers. They were hands on at Cowles. I took Feathers to die for on Friday and Monday was Filling the Spaces.

What's nice about Sharon's classes is that you are given a CD/video of the class. My learning continues after the class is done!

One of the most important piece of information I walked away with from these classes was, control of your machine. It might be obvious to some, but for me, it was like a light bulb had suddenly turned on.

She demonstrated her method for gaining control of her machine by using a piece of foam and weight, (hand made bag filled with rice). If you're interested in seeing how she controls her quilting machine, you can join her free area and view the various free videos.

Another important piece of information was this:

A drafting stool!

It makes custom work a lot easier!

I can gain control of my machine by leaning my forearms against the rollers. With that nifty Bitty Ruler I wrote about the other day, ditch work is so much fun!

I quilted the Women of Influence quilt sitting down the whole time. What a difference it made. I could actually quilt for longer stretches of time. We're talking pretty much until the wee hours of the morning. Many a nights, I went to bed at 2:00 a.m.

I cannot wait to finish hand sewing the binding so that I can blog about it.

Well, that's it for now. I need to get off this computer and write my lesson plan for tomorrow's class. I've been teaching a nine (9) part beginner's quilting class. It's quite the time consuming class, but fun! I'm enjoying it!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day! Cheers!