10 Observations from an Online Quilt Teacher

Are you Zooming?

While I admit that I shunned Zoom, Skype, and most online meeting grounds in the spring and summer - I was just done with being online after schooling with my son and what little work I could get done - I have fully embraced online teaching. In fact, I am relishing the opportunities to be with guilds, stores, and students again. I am also highly respectful of groups choosing to meet this way over putting people at risk.

My corporate background is really coming out now - I can make a killer slide show! So maybe my graduate degree and 10 years in the energy sector weren't all for naught when I became a professional quilter? I do have 10 years of experience as a pro in this quilting community too. These sets of experiences combine to make me now and I appreciate it all.

In the past few months of teaching online I think I have learned and improved as well. I’ve also made some observations in my classes. Talking to other teachers has given me some additional insights. I will admit, that I haven’t taken any classes myself, so there is more learning to do. With all that, I’ve got some observations I want to share with you.

10 Observations from an Online Quilt Teacher (Teaching Live)

1. Just like in person, there are good teachers and there are not great teachers. Honestly, it might be the same on any given day. We’re all trying and for some, learning a new platform is not easy. You still have to keep your students engaged, perhaps even more so. You can’t just give everyone a task and then leave them be for an hour. This is an interactive experience. How that works exactly will be different for each teacher and each class.

2. Not all classes translate well to an online, live environment. You’ve got to examine flow, interactions with students, and how the time will be spent. For example, people sitting in silence sewing in their own space is kind of boring online.

3. Have either 2 cameras going or pre-record segments. When you want to do a demo of something specific it really helps to have a close up and/or overhead shot of the work. Being able to switch between these angles makes for a much better experience for the student.

4. Don’t force anyone to be on camera or talk. Keep the invitation open, but respect the wishes of people. Also. no one has to sew or participate if they don’t want to, their level of participation is up to them. This is the student’s advantage to taking the class on their own. They might just want to hang out or they have their reasons for not participating as you anticipated, it’s all good.

5. Take advantage of students being at home - get them to play with ALL their fabrics or supplies they may not have brought to class otherwise. Many students tell me they LOVE having access to all their stuff during a class so exploit that.

6. Own up to glitches and be quick to fix things as best as possible. We are not all IT gurus and things will go wrong. Take the time to learn the platform as best you can and work through anything that is going on. Your internet connectivity is up to you, the teacher. The student’s is up to them.

7. It’s hard to be running a live class AND manage the technical side of things. Using the guild or store’s account and having them manage entry and questions means you can concentrate on the classroom experience. If you are running your own event consider having an assistant or trusted friend managing the back end of stuff for you.

8. People seem to be MORE engaged at home. Honestly, I was shocked at this. I think I’m a pretty good teacher but even I doubted people’s interest in a 6 hour online class. But it works! The comfort of being at home and choosing your commitment to the class, not to mention access to all your stuff, is a huge advantage for students.

9. Recording classes delivered live is not okay, especially if it is done without the teacher’s permission. If we wanted to have a recorded class we would offer a stand alone one to buy.

10. Build in both breaks and chat time. For one, the teacher needs to go to the washroom if it is a long class. And secondly, by making them formal, students don’t feel they are sneaking out of class. At the same time, adding breaks in your active teaching so people can chat enhances their experience.

We are all hungry for connection. Guild meetings, hanging out at the store, taking classes together are all ways we quilters are used to connection. Switching to a solely online environment is new, difficult, and even scary for some. It’s one thing to be a chat or Facebook group, it is entirely different to be trying to learn and actually hang out together online. As a teacher I see my job as a facilitator of this connection, regardless of the class I am teaching. At the same time, I am privileged to be invited in to the shared space. It isn’t a responsibility I, or any teacher, should take lightly.

What about those of you who have taken classes? What would you add? What are some of the good and bad things you’ve seen in your own Zoom experience? How do you like Zoom compared to a prerecorded class? Add your thoughts to the comments section. We would all benefit from the shared experience.

No Travel? No problem! Webinar Opportunities

Oh! The places I went.

Working as a quilt professional has taken me to some mighty amazing places. From the small towns and big cities, quilters are the same. We just to make and create and enjoy the company of others. We are there for ourselves, we are there to make for others, we are there for the fabric. And, if you are one of my students, you are there for me. I consider it an immense privilege to be able to entertain, to teach, all of you.

I miss it.

The travel, while stressful, always came together in truly memorable experiences for me. You’ve brought me to some pretty amazing places and gave me the time to explore just a little. A few times there were language barriers, but quilts do end up being a universal language. Ultimately though, it is the people that make it all worthwhile. Quilters are pretty amazing people. And that’s a universal truth no matter where you are in the world.

As a teacher and entertainer I loved the moment in someone when they ‘got it’ best. As an improv teacher I’ve seen people struggle with the open endedness then the turn around as something comes together in a beautiful, albeit unexpected way. Or the visible relief when they don’t have to have it all figured out in order to sew. Or the joy in a simple little trick that will make all their sewing easier. Or the laugh when we all realize that we don’t need to take ourselves so seriously.

While I admit that online learning deprives me of those moments, it does nothing to diminish them for everyone else. I’ve played in the online world and always wanted to do more. So let me tell you I am working on it. You know, in between all the homeschooling and running and business and keeping everyone loved and mostly happy.

In the meantime, I’ve opened up some webinar opportunities. This way you can get me in the comfort of your own own for either some sewing/demo presentations or for a lecture/trunk show style presentation. Book with a group of friends, your guild, your store, or even just yourself! We can’t be together just yet, but I can at least show up in your sewing room.

Does this mean I will have to INTERNET to my list of places?

Quilt Bravely - Say Hello to Prints as Background

This is the second in a series of posts encouraging you to be different, quilt different, quilt bravely. To bend or even break some rules while pumping up your creative voice. You have the creative confidence, I’m just here to remind you of it.

Most of the first few quilts I ever made - some 2 decades ago - were pretty colours with a white background. For those first few years I couldn’t imagine how I would make a quilt any other way because it just looked so perfect to me. Well, I’m not sure what changed, but it’s been at least a decade since I made a quilt with a plain white background!

To be clear, I was almost never using plain white, a solid. No, I was using that lovely stuff called White on White, or what we used to refer to as WOW prints. A pretty shiny white ink on white fabric. Now, of course, the whites were never all the same and this row of fabrics in any quilt store will read from bright white to eggshell to cream.

Side note: if you ever find that white ink to be too bright, use the wrong side of the fabric. You get the idea of the print without the glaring brightness of the ink.

Then I discovered low volume prints. There weren’t as many then as there are now, but they definitely existed. More often than not that can still be located in the black and white section of the fabric store. Only now you can get a lot more choices of coloured ink.

I do find that people are afraid to use prints in a background, worried that they will overwhelm the design. Or, they are used and the design disappears. Here are two fundamental lessons to making sure neither thing happen.

Antonio’s Quilt

Mod Tree Quilt, pattern in Modern Patchwork

Value Matters

Value is the relative light and dark of a fabric. The key word being relative. It is about what the fabrics look like next to each other. If you want your design to stand out, then you need good contrast between the main design components and the background. This matters especially so when all the fabrics are prints. It isn’t enough to just have colour contrast, or maybe you want a monochromatic look. Either way, making sure the value of the background prints contrast with the design elements is important.

You also want to make sure that your background prints are all of similar values. They don’t have to be match match perfect, but aim for similar. This leads to the next key lesson.

Sewing Machine Quilt, check out Pattern Drop

There is Peace in Pattern

Texture Matters

Texture is the look or density of the print. Is it a sparse, large scale print with negative space between design elements? Is is a dense text print with little space. Side by side, the dense print will look darker.

It isn’t that you have to pick prints where they are all the same density, but knowing that some will pop while others will recede allows you to balance their use across a quilt. And if you have one print that really seems to be taking over the background you can do two things: remove it, or add more similar prints, so nothing stands out on its own.

Compose Yourself from The Essential Guide to Modern Quiltmaking

Smooch

Colour can make a difference in backgrounds. Be willing to experiment with pale colours instead of white. Pick multi coloured low-volume prints instead of black and white. Mix grey with black and white. Or heck, make your main design elements a light colour and your background a delicious, dark print.

Have fun playing with prints. They are a pure delight. And we have such amazing fabric designers in the world providing us with endless inspiration.

Check out the first in the Quilt Bravely Series: Creatively Contrasting Binding.

For more details on using low volume prints as background make sure to check out my book, A Month of Sundays. It gives you all the lessons!

Neutral Values Quilt Top

Woah! Major back pain/sciatic flare up here. I spent last weekend either laying on the floor or rocking on my feet - in between ballet recitals and year end parties. I needed a creative boost. And, frankly, something to do that was distracting. Since I needed to stand a lot I spent some time on the design wall.

You see, this is the nice thing about so many quilts under construction. I needed a set of blocks for some design wall play and was able to pick from a few stacks. I chose a bunch of half square triangles. They started life as sample blocks in my Values class. Always make samples that coordinate and eventually you have enough for a quilt!

It was just a stack of random blocks. I asked my sick, bored kid to count the blocks, then I played around with an idea until I could make it work with the blocks I had. In my time on the floor I lay below the design wall to contemplate options. While standing I could move things around and eventually sew here and there. I’m really happy with the way it worked out. It isn’t that big - only 55” square - but for now I’m adding it to the list of quilt tops. But if I teach that class again this coming year I might have more blocks to add to it!