Quilt University

I've just completed my first Quilt University course - Machine Quilting.  It lasted four weeks staring April 15th, followed by three further lessons released at weekly intervals on Friday evenings 6pm local time.  The lessons containing instructions for what we needed to work on were well written and the tutor was available via the discussion forum every day.  Questions seemed to be answered very quickly and were available for all to see.  There's also a class gallery where students can post what they are working on, or examples of finished projects or problems which need advice.  Also I've done some work on machine quilting and attended a Philippa Naylor workshop, there were still some bits and bobs I found useful being information which was new to me.

There is a more advanced class to sign up for at the end of this month, but I'm too busy to do it justice right now so maybe I'll catch it when it comes round next year.

I think the courses offered by Quilt University are good value for money and let you work through at your own pace.  The classroom closes about 3-4 weeks after the last lesson so you need to print out the lessons as they become available if you can't finish it in time.  You can click here to find out what courses are currently open for registration.

The picture is a sampler of different techniques I have practiced during the course.  The central motif is a continuous line design marked with a stencil.  Around the centre is meandering, stippling, freehand lines and some pebbles.

Smooth lines and not getting yourself stuck in a corner you can't get out of will come with practice and I need plenty of that.

The Janome Horizon 7700 QCP really does the job with free motion quilting.