Another Way to Beat the Winter Blahs

I discovered another way to beat the winter blahs!

Today was my first class in the new 2011 class, Barns and Hexes, and Stars, Oh My! Everyone came in ready to go, ready to sew, and ready to have tons of fun together. Whew, I really missed teaching quilt class.

My co-teacher, Mary Lee, and I designed two versions of the same basic quilt layout. Mary Lee's quilt features barns, hexes, and stars (inspired by Eleanor Burns' Barn book) and my quilt is more like a star sampler.

We eased into the new year-long class by starting out with 1/2 square triangle blocks. I could really see the wheels turning in the class members' heads. I can't wait until next month to see what they came up with using 1/2 square triangles.

The thing I love the most about Mary Lee's and my classes is that we each create a quilt using a common lay out, but the quilts always turn out completely different. That difference to due to our own personal styles. Although Mary Lee's quilt features checherboards, Barns, Hexes, and stars, her fabrics lean toward bright with pops of lime green and orange. My star sampler is more mellow in greyed down fabrics that are a little edgy.

Our very different personal styles only help to benefit our classes because our students are free to mix and match designs to create their very own quilt. Additionally, Mary Lee and I go about doing things differently as well. For one thing, Mary Lee is right-handed and I am left-handed. If you know anything about left-handed people, we tend to think differently that right-handed people and solve problems in a different way. So, again, our class benefits from our differences.

Not that I want to jump up on a soapbox or anything, but let me just say that the world is a better place for the differences among the people living in it. 'Nuff said.

Have you considered taking a quilt class? Or , perhpas teaching a quilt class? Well, it's pretty much guaranteed to beat those winter blahs!