I love taking classes. I love walking into the classroom, getting my supplies sorted, meeting like-minded quilters, and readying my mind to experiment with something totally brand new in fabric and stitch for the day. Nine years ago I took my niece, Lindsey Murray to a weekend-long class with Susan (“Lucky”) Shie. I had just put one of our dogs down, a very old Pekinese we had adopted named “Gizmo,” who was the most ornery creatures ever to live. Ever. For instance he slept at the foot of my bed, and I slept hunched in a fetal position every night because if I extended my legs, he would bite my toes off. But alas I went to Susan’s class so sad and teary that I had lost Gizmo, so I made a little Gizmo quiltlet using Susan’s techniques. I like to consider this a more primitive, folk art-y, heartfelt piece rather than admit I can’t draw worth a you-know-what… 
Despite the fact this is far from a masterpiece, the class was a lot of fun, Lindsey was bitten by the quilting bug, and I learned some processes that I have since used in other works.
Several years later I took a class with Rosalie Dace of South Africa. I had admired her art quilts for a number of years, and she was a wonderful, inspiring, and very patient teacher. I loved just listening to her in her beautiful, melodic South African accent talk about her design process. I also bought a quilt from her, and to this day it’s one of my very favorites. It’s called “Beach Walk” and I am sure you can figure out why:
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Thanks so much!
Thanks, Pokey.
I still have the piece that I did from that class! I still laugh everytime I see my attempt at drawing a beaver and a stream. Good times! 🙂
Ha! And I can’t believe it was nine years ago. Time flies,
I KNOW! crazy, crazy.
Now this is funny. My first quilt class was back in 2004 with Susan Shie after I read an article about her in Quilting Arts and learned that she was giving a workshop in Montreal. I had just lost my old cat Alfred and did a piece about him and I still have that piece as well!!!
Line, that is such a coincidence…
Love the quilt about Gizmo. Our dog used to do the same thing: if we tried to reposition her on the bed she acted like “Cujo”. Yikes! Good thing she is so cute.
Took the survey. Hope you get loads of helpful feedback.
Wish I cld afford to take classes! At this point in my life (retired and on a fixed income) I have to learn by looking at all the wonderful things online! Sometimes I just look and then mimic it as best I can. I loved your Gizmo art! What a neat idea. Thats for sharing!
It must be the pekinese breed because we had one that would sleep under my bed as a child and it would bite my Mom if she came to kiss me goodnight. 🙁 It didn’t take long for us to decide to trade dogs with my grandparents. They had a lovely dopey basset hound we named Queenie that we loved for many years.
Good luck with the survey and I hope it gives you lots of great ideas for classes.
Lisa, this is funny to me!
Learning how to use ‘natural-dye’ including indigo. Admittedly a process-junkie!