Visit to Amelia Island Quilt Guild

On Thursday/Friday this past week, I drove to/from Amelia Island to present and teach members of Amelia Island Quilt Guild.

There's nothing like a commitment to keep a gal on her toes! Storing quilts as I do in the topmost section of our master walk-in closet, sorting through quilts and getting them down to take to a trunk show involves many trips up and down a six-foot step ladder, as well as strategic folding to fit them into two large suitcases. Of course, the whole process happens in reverse when I get back home. (Whew.) 

Still, I appreciated the chance to share my domestic machine quilting program and trunk show of 16 of dozens of quilts with 53 guild meeting attendees.

For the trunk show and meeting Show and Tell, two members stand on step stools to hold up a quilt - front side first, then the back. 

One of the quilts I'm always happy to reshare is Snowflake Medallion, a traditional quilt I made in 2011 using the pattern by the same name by Emma Jean Jansen of Australia. This is the quilt that in 2012 won "Best Machine Quilting" (domestic) at Machine Quilter's Showcase in Overland Park, Kansas, and won me a Bernina 440QE sewing machine.

The walking foot quilting workshop I led the next morning was well-received.

These two quilters posed with "long tweezers" purchased for the workshop. Indeed, the supply list includes "long tweezers" - as opposed to eyebrow-sized tweezers. One quilter took me very literally and bought these from Amazon. We later learned they're meant for longarm quilters. 

I'd say they're slightly oversized for domestic machine quilting. 😊

In the workshop, we focused on the tools and machine set-up for successful walking foot quilting. For some quilters, that means using only the dual feed or even feed already built-in to their sewing machines. That information was recent new information to me! While I still prefer to use a walking foot, several weeks ago I become aware of the fact that at least two sewing machine brands now either don't make a walking foot for their brand (Pfaff) or recommend using only the dual feed/even feed option in concert with a regular univeral foot (Bernina). See? We can all "always be learning." Linda