Those who can, do.

Those who can, do.
Those who can't, teach.
paraphrased from George Bernard Shaw

I have always found the best teachers are those who not only "can," but actually do, and are thoughtful and articulate enough to share their wisdom and experience. It is with that spirit that I endeavored to teach, alongside Shirley Frank, an advanced class in the use of the Innova Long Arm software system that they call Mach3, or Autopilot.
It was a 3-day class for people who are using this amazing software system associated with Innova's professional long arm machines. We gathered in my quilting studio and reviewed all the system is meant to do, and shared our tips on how to make it do weird creative things in addition. The group varied from 4 to 7 people by day, which seemed perfect; few enough to meet individual needs, but many enough to have creative ideas streaming.
In addition, there may have been a bit of shopping from the bolts of staples that I keep on hand, mostly for backing, but also for fun. One of the students managed to find one of my favorite bolts of Dear Stella fabric, which I call "Ginger Sailors," and so I bid good-bye to a few yards of this beauty, amongst others.

Meanwhile, I've been stretching my quilting muscles by experimenting a little with off-label uses of the software, (have you ever met me?) and come up with some tricks and twists. Here are a few glimpses of the fun I've been having.

 This was my interpretation of Joyce Lundrigan's (Methodist Hill Quilt Studio,) Double Wedding Log Cabin. It was a breeze to piece, and a delightful challenge to quilt. It came out better than I'd hoped and I learned a lot along the way.

This crazy wholecloth was an impulse quilt that Shirley and I pulled off the night before our class. What made me start such a project the night before 3 days of classes? Nothing other than poor judgement, but there it is. It finished at 1:30AM after a lot of "learning," and I'm still not sorry. One of these days I'll reload it, put some cornerstone quilting in, and then maybe hang it. Which side is up though? Which color? It is, if you didn't recognize it, a Karlee Porter design, which I highly recommend. Just not when you haven't the time to figure out the intricacies of it. Really.