Handi Quilter Education Workshop 

Want to start finishing your quilts? Or maybe know better how to use your quilting machine? Then these series of classes are for you! While these classes are geared primarily towards those who own or would like to own a long arm, we also have classes for sit-down machines as well. Check out the page for a complete listing.

Megan Best has always loved fabrics, and made her first quiltwhile in high school. She continued to foster this love throughout her education, achieving degrees in apparel design and merchandising/textiles.

Thousands of quilts later, she still loves to create.  Megan's career in the fabric industry includes experience in fabric stores, retail management, quilt shop ownership, and as a professional longarm quilter. She excels in both computerized and free-motion quilting, winning many ribbons at local and national shows.  She loves her HQ18 Avanté® and HQ Pro-Stitcher®.  Megan's teaching career includes experience as a college instructor,a quilting teacher for local guilds and retail shops, and an instructor at national and international machine quilting shows.  Megan lives in NW Washington, has two children, and a very supportive husband. Visit her at www.bestquilter.com.

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Register for 3 or more classes and Save 15%! -    3PLUS
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Class List:

Wednesday, October 15 

9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.      Threads, Needles, Tension
2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.        Sixteen Tips for Sweet Success     

 Thursday, October 16       

9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.        Backgrounds, Borders & Blocks
2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.         Introduction to Pro-Stitcher

 Friday, October 17

9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.       How Do I Quilt It?
2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.         Quilting Circles & Curves

 Saturday, October 18

 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.         The Fun of Owning a Longarm Machine
2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.            Trunk Show and Handi Quilter Open House with machine and product demos (tentative schedule)

   2:00 p.m. - Trunk show - about 1/2 hour or less
  3:00 p.m. - Microhandles demo - 10 minutes - move to machines
3:30 p.m. - Ruler Demo - 10 minutes - move to machines
4:00 p.m. - Pro-Stitcher demo - 

1. TNT: Threads, Needles, Tension (3-hour class)

Overcome the fear of setting tension or trying new threads. Learn the basic relationship of needles and threads to each other and to the machine – and open up the world of specialty threads for exciting new applications.

Skills Featured:

• Basic theory of stitch formation

• Relationship of needles to thread to machine

• Proper threading and tension

• Properties of threads

• Specialty threads and how to handle them

 

2. Sixteen Tips for Sweet Success (3-hour class)

Do you want to quilt your own tops, but don’t have space for a longarm? Are you quilting now on a sewing machine, but frustrated with the space and uneven stitches? Learn how the features of the HQ Sweet Sixteen® solve these problems, and discover handy tools for finishing quilts – large or small – with ease.

Skills Featured:

• Basic machine features

• Free-motion quilting

• Stitch regulation

• Using rulers for designs

• Pattern application

 

3. Three Bs: Backgrounds, Borders and Blocks (3-hour class)

You are the queen of your quilt. Learn to add texture and fluidity to your quilting by changing the size and spac­ing of freehand designs. See your quilting come alive as you gain confidence in each application.

Skills Featured:

• Drawing designs before quilting to build muscle memory

• Continuous quilting paths for blocks

• Combining simple designs for great borders

• Simple sashes and borders

• Using rulers and templates for borders and sashes

4. Introduction to HQ Pro-Stitcher® (3-hour class)

HQ Pro-Stitcher is an intuitive computer-guided quilting system designed especially for use with Handi Quilter longarm quilting machines. You do not have to be a techie to use the step-by-step functions, designed by quil­ters just like you. Whether you’re considering a quilting business or simply want to finish your own quilts, come see what elegant and precise quilting is possible with HQ Pro-Stitcher.

Skills Featured:

• Overview of basic features and menu

• Working with built-in designs

   Resizing and repeating a design to fit a specific area

 

• Importing, saving and customizing designs

• Cropping and nesting edge-to-edge designs

5. How Do I Quilt It? (3-hour class)

Largely a collaborative class, this is an opportunity to bring quilt tops that have you stumped and leave with multiple design options. Learn how to select, resize, preview and apply designs; explore border options; and discover new design resources. Give your quilt tops new life with designs just waiting to hop on.

Skills Featured:

• Selecting attractive and appropriate designs

• Properties of designs

• Resizing and auditioning designs

• Border design options

• Design resources

6. Quilting Circles and Curves (3-hour class)

Learn the tricks for making half circles and flattened circles, as well as making perfectly curved lines. Create beautiful quilting designs using swags, clam shells, ovals, arcs and half circles. Then discover endless ideas for filling internal and external spaces with additional designs.

Skills Featured:

• Working with rulers and templates

• Using clam rulers and filling in the clams

• Measuring and filling a border to perfectly fit designs

• Straight lines inside curved lines

• Curved crosshatching

7. The Fun of Owning a Longarm Machine (3-hour class)

Do you want a faster way to finish quilts, but not sure if a longarm is for you? This overview of Handi Quilter longarm systems covers the basics and takes the mystery out of longarm quilting. User-friendly and designed by a quilter, for quilters, Handi Quilter longarm machines make finishing quilts fun. And no more basting quilts.

Skills Featured:

• Basic machine features

• Loading quilts

• Setting tension

• Applying designs to a quilt

• Simple machine maintenance

7. Trunk Show and Entire HQ Demonstration (3-hour class)

We will be having the afternoon to see some of the great work that Megan has done and the thoughts that went in behind it.  Then we will get a demonstration on each machine over the course of the afternoon.  A schedule will be posted a little closer to the workshop.  You can come for all afternoon, or just the parts that interest you.  If we run out of registration space, contact Jay to see if there is a way to fit you in this afternoon.

Register Now!