Creating Lessons

For the next few weeks my goal to to create a few new quilting courses.  But to do that I have to design and figure out all the requirements of the item I would like to teach.  Since moving from across the country ment donating almost all my reference books and fabric, creating new classes has become a test of my mental recall.

One of the quilts I made years ago was a swirl table topper (or hanger) that had blocks arranged in a circle and spiral outward. So I sat down with pencil and paper and here we go.

Not sure I should have gone with the paper method of applique. Even with a whole lot of pinning I had problems keeping my squares, square.

Figuring out the size of the squares as I went along ment a bit of trial and error.  They had to just touch at the tips and stay aligned along the first circle.

As you can tell I got a few of the first squares a little skewed.  The next row went a little better and was much easier to calculate the size.

Still having problems with making the paper applique squares, square.

Thank goodness that as I am adding new blocks, the first seem to straighten themselves out.  Although I know this is an illusion, I'm hoping that as I go they are less noticeable.

This is how far I've made it in 2 days of figuring out and sewing.  It is a very cool design and once done hopefully will create a more defined illusion of the blocks spiraling outward. 

Pretty sure I am going to have to try this again only next time will go back to my favorite fusible web applique which, for me, is a lot more accurate. 

I think that taking more time to hand applique (not one of my favorite things to do) would have made the squares easier.

So the trials and tribulations of creating new instructional classes will continue for the next unforeseeable future.