Class and Lecture Schedule for Fall 2006
Those of you who are on my e-mailing list will recognize this, my Autumn Newsletter. I wanted to share it with anyone who surfs in from Blogland and invite you to send me your e-mail address if you’d like to receive the newsletter!
Hi everyone! Wow what a whirlwind summer has been….first finishing the nativity quilt, then stripping down a chair to re-upholster (and guess what sits unfinished in the living room), then an ultra-special vacation–a Disney cruise and visiting relatives in Florida, then a 5-day dyeing workshop! But I’m ready for autumn to be here, the boys to be in school, and to resume teaching.
I had a particularly wonderful and productive five days at the workshop at ProChem (a dye manufacturer in Fall River, Mass.), and have blogged about it. If you haven’t seen the posts, go check out the fun time we had here:
Carol’s workshop 1
Carol’s workshop 2
Carol’s workshop 3
Carol’s workshop 4
The great news is that I have plenty going on with lectures and classes here in Maine in the coming months. Here’s the schedule—I sure hope to see you at one of these! If you need more information (like locations which I don’t have for all of them right now) just drop me a note by replying to this message. To register for classes, please contact the stores directly: Maine-ly Sewing is at 207-563-8445 and Cote Brothers is 207-782-5922.
Lectures:
Sept. 9, Saturday: Fabric Postcards At Coastal Quilters (at the Lions’ Club on Lions’ Way in Camden, 10 am) I’ll be doing a presentation on the latest rage in the quilting world . As luck would have it, Marjorie of Maine-ly Sewing heard about this and asked me to prepare a *class* making / teaching postcards, and that will be on October 21. The talk at Coastal Quilters is open to the public, so come down to the Coast!
October 17, Tuesday Evening: Trunk Show with a Dash of Color at The Pine Tree Quilt Guild Area 4 meeting in Gardiner (at the American Legion Post Four building right off Brunswick Ave– Rt. 201) . I’ll be sharing my quilts, from my first in 1988 to some of my most recent, and will briefly go over different ways to choose, understand and use color, using examples from my work. Picking colors is often the hardest thing for many quilters, and using one (or several) of my methods, you’re sure to get a better understanding of color and be happier with the quilt tops you make.
Classes:
September 16, Saturday: Fine Finishes at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro (on Route 1): In this class, you make samples of four basic ways to finish the edges of your quilts: straight grain bindings, bias bindings with perfect mitered corners, piping and facings. With these basic skills you can add piping to spice up your regular bindings, make prairie point edges or create a Fine Finish to a curvy edged art quilt and much more. After these four, each student can select from another 16 different edge finishes and learn exactly what YOU want to learn for your style of quilting. By the end of the day, you’ll have a “reference book” of samples and how to make them.
September 21, Thursday: Machine Applique at Cote Brothers in Auburn: Learn everything you need to handle any applique project, using three different techniques: fused and satin-stitched, hand-look invisible applique using the freezer-paper method (and my special get-the-paper-out-easily technique!), and interfacing-underneath applique. Each method gives a different look, so you’ll learn to select the method that best suits your project and personal style. The class uses my Blue Gingko pattern, available directly from me or at Cote Brothers store.
September 23, Saturday: Intro to Machine Quilting at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro: My basic introduction to machine quilting. By learning how to prepare your quilt sandwich well, you’ll have much better results from the very beginning. The morning is spent going over the fundamentals, including basting, batting, and preparing your workspace. The afternoon you will learn to use both the walking foot and the free-motion foot, and by the end of the day you won’t believe how much you’ve accomplished in just one jam-packed-with-information day!
October 15, Sunday: Intro to Machine Quilting at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro: We added a repeat of this class since the one in Sept. is currently full. Marge, the owner of Maine-ly Sewing, is wonderful about scheduling extra classes to meet demand. If these dates don’t work for you, or if you would like a weekday class (yes!!), just let her know!
October 21, Saturday: Postcard Workshop at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro: When Marge heard I was doing the lecture for Coastal Quilters, she asked me to prepare a class, so here it is! We’ll have a BALL playing, using lots of leftover bits of fabric, yarns, threads, embellishments, maybe even Shiva Paintstiks and textile paints, and all sorts of other fun stuff! I’m hoping students will be able to be close to completely done with six to eight postcards by the end of the class. These little treasures can be made entirely by hand or by machine, it is your choice! These cards make a delightful surprise in the mail for a dear friend, or even a lovely miniature art quilt as a gift. I’ll share ways to display these cards, too.
October 26, Thursday: Private Class on Intermediate techniques in Machine Quilting. If you’d like to schedule a private workshop, just drop me a note!
October 28, Saturday: Intro to Machine Quilting at Cote Brothers in Auburn: Please see the class description for Saturday, Sept. 23. Lisa and the Cote Brothers staff will be there, too, if you have the Bernina with the BSR (stitch regulator).
November 11, Saturday: Totebag with Pockets at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro: Be the first to make this tote with personalized pockets…made to fit your stuff! The new pattern is being published in the Janome International Digest Fall/Holiday Issue, which will be published in October and which you can purchase at Maine-ly Sewing (also a Janome dealer). You can be finished (or nearly done) with a totebag in one day, and these would make a special gift as well as carry your holiday shopping in grand style!
November 18, Saturday: More Machine Quilting with Decorative Threads at Cote Brothers in Auburn: So you’ve got the hang of using your walking foot, and you have begun doing free-motion quilting, what next? Want to play with all of those fun decorative threads that you’ve seen but been afraid to try out? Here is your chance to learn how you and your machine handle them, with me there to help trouble-shoot and guide you to stress-free decorative stitching! We’ll test how your machine handles cottons, rayons, shiny polyesters, metallics, holographics, variegateds, silks…. if it goes through the needle, we can try it! And, if you’re game, you can try some bobbin-work as well! You’ll go home with a reference sampler customized to your machine and the confidence to be able to try these wonderful new threads on your next project.
December 7, Thursday: Totebag with Personalized Pockets at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro: Please see the November 11 class description.
Phew! And I thought that maybe my life would slow down a bit this autumn? Not likely, but I’m really looking forward to all these classes, and hope to see you there!
Cheers, Sarah
https://www.sarahannsmith.com
my blog: http://sarahannsmith.blogspot.com/
e-mail: sarah@sarahannsmith.com
my blog: http://sarahannsmith.blogspot.com/
e-mail: sarah@sarahannsmith.com
FiberArt For A Cause team member, supporting the American Cancer Society
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html
September 6th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Hi, I found your blog when I searching the blogger. Thanks for all the information in your Autumn newsletter and when you were at Carol Soderlund’s Dyeing Workshp. I have been dyeing fabric for a year and I am self taught. The workshop would be very helpful for me.
September 7th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Wow, who would have thought there are so many (4 + 16) edge finishes – I’d love to go to that workshop! I live near Camden – but it’s the London borough of Camden, not Camden Maine.
September 8th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Your classes sound wonderful – have fun tomorrow!