Salt Lake City trip
Jeanne Butler
September 20, 2010
Sue Hansen and I were in Salt Lake City from September 5th – September 11th. Sue worked on genealogy and I attended the Handiquilter University long-arm classes. We flew in a few days before my long-arm classes started I worked on Dear Jane blocks in the hotel room while Sue did research in the genealogy library.
I did a marathon training walk on Tuesday. I was able to walk 13 miles in a lovely nature preserve.
The classes I took were HQ Basics, Pantographs, Taming Threads and Tensions, Fancy Feathers, and Trapunto. My long-arm classes went okay but I was exhausted by the last day. I’m not sure if it was the mental fatigue or that I was sick. Probably both. A few women were taking the next series of classes and I thought more power to them. I am planning on taking the next set of classes next spring. I learned a few new things. Each class we had techniques shown to us and then immediately went back to our long-arms and practiced what we just learned. I know I didn’t need to take the classes to learn these techniques but it was very helpful to have someone standing right there to give you tips.
The most useful class was about threads and tensions. We had a list of threads that we went through and adjusted the tension and stitched until we got it right. We used 8 different kinds and I found out my machine can even use metallic and invisible threads. The second most useful class was pantographs. I had a class on these at Long-arm University but we all shared two different long-arms and only sewed for a few minutes on the techniques. This class we did a wall-hanging size and we had to space borders. I learned a lot and hope to do a few pantographs. The feather class was a disappointment. We were supposed to do a different type of feather. I tried to do them the way we were supposed to but the feathers I do on my own looked much better. The trapunto class was something I already knew how to do. It was a relaxing class for the last day. We were also shown how to sew a bag on the long-arm but it would be a lot easier on a regular sewing machine.
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