Lessons from the Road I traveled

Road 2 CA was such a great experience, and the overall theme I was exposed to was that everyone was so willing to share what they know, and help others learn.  Yes I did pay for classes, but in my opinion each instructor was more than generous with their help, tips, tricks and knowledge.  So on that note I want to pass  on some of what I learned.

My first class was with Judy Woodworth and was called Dancing through the Sashing.  Judy taught us how to quilt the entire quilt, sashing, blocks and back to sashing without stopping.  For me this is a big deal, since I am the queen of stops and starts, complicated quilting paths and backtracking.

This is the actual page from my notes during class, so I hope you can understand what I drew.  The idea is that you would start in the upper left corner, quilt across the top, echo back to the beginning and then work your way through the sashing, jumping into the blocks, back to the sashing, another block, and so it goes.  I like this idea, but it goes a little against my SID rules, even though you could SID as you go, I like to do all my ditch work first, Anyway, ditching or not, this idea was an eye opener to me.

Another drawing from my notes in class, here Judy showed us how to quilt a flower design across the length of your quilting area,  and end up back at the beginning.  If you follow the black line on the lower diagram you see that I only echoed two or three of the petals in the flower, moved on to the next flower, and on my way back across I echoed the lower half of the flowers.  (Red lines)  Again, this may be a no brainer to many, but for me it was an AH HAA moment, and gave me a whole new way to look at my path of travel.  

I am applying this principle to the quilt on my frame, and it has made such a positive difference in how I plan out my quilting path.  It all just makes so much sense to me now and I hope I was able to explain it clearly to you.  Thanks for joining me, and happy quilting.

Esther