Yesterday I taught the APQS Beginning Longarm Quilting class to a big group of new APQS owners. I love teaching this class but there is always so much I want to tell them and just not enough hours in the day! This class runs from 10-4 and I still get to the end and think I wish I’d been able to squeeze in more info. With all the snow/slush/ick on the ground my students were gracious enough to agree to ditch their shoes a the door and take the class in their socks! I should have gotten a photo of us!

Anyway, I’ve added an Advanced Beginner class that will debut March8 from 10-4  and will be taught the day after the March 7 APQS Beginning Longarm Quilting class. If you buy a new or used APQS machine the Beginning Longarm class comes with your purchase. I do have lots of people with other brand machines who take that class for $200. Or, even people who buy an used longarm from a private individual who take the class to get up and running with their machine. By the way, you can sign up for these classes over on the class page.

The Advanced Beginning Class, $200, will pick up where the APQS Beginning Longarm Class stops. This class focuses on how to do basic custom quilting and will be mostly lecture/demo.

Learn easy custom border/corner/sashing treatments. See how to “read” a quilt top and interpret a quilt top to select the best design. Learn how to turn a quilt and explore some approaches to feathers that are perfect for the beginning longarm quilter.

Discover easy ways to do cross hatching both straight and curved. We’ll spend time focusing on ruler work and how to use templates as well as ways to do stitch in the ditch work.

We’ll discuss common problems with quilt tops and how to solve them.

One of the topics we’ll cover is how to center a quilt top on a pieced backing that has a special focal point you’d like to position as accurately as possible on the frame. I thought you might like to learn more about this technique now and on one of the forums I frequent there was a discussion about how to do this.

The Advanced Beginning Longarm Quilting Class will be taught March 8 at the APQS Louisville showroom inside Quilted Joy studios. It is $200 and will run from 10-4.