I usually take my good 'ole "Mug Master" (made by the Co. that makes the "Bucket Boss" organizer for construction/garden buckets.) See at:
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My DS works for an electrical supply company and got several as a promotion gimmik years ago, and gave me one. It doesn't have a bottom, so it fits nicely over a spaghetti sauce sized can. I put a plastic bag in it to catch scraps during class (easy to pull out and dump when done.) Coming and going from class, it holds all my lil gadgets (seam ripper, tweezers, lil screwdriver, etc.) in the pockets around the edge, and I put my rotary cutter, scissors, pencils, (bigger stuff) in the can part. I keep it right by my sewing machine at home, too! No more huntin' for the lil stuff that gets easily lost, plus a great scrap/snipped threads holder. ME-Judy
KathyA explained to me about the "not quite 1-inch" masking tape; it's about the cutting blades; instead of putting the tape channel between the blades, they put the blades on the edges of the 1" measurement.
*sigh* I know a woman didn't design that. ;-D
Class supplies: sheez-looweeze! I'm thinking a small U-Haul trailer or a large Sprinter van would come in handy.
And more that you can bet your boots a woman didn't design. Take a board called a 2 x 4 for example. There is nothing 2 or 4 about any of them and, of course, ¼" plywood has never seen that measurement either. For no reason at all (I'm betting) the covers on my Berninas are held on with screws that have 6-pointed star heads instead of something easy. Got 'em on that one, by golly. We found a cute little tool set at the home improvement store that carries several 'sort of' screw drivers with star tips. Good old Singer used to make the area beside the thread take-up lever where you could just swing it open. With my cool new tool, now I can open mine to remove a cantankerous thread. How sweet it is. Polly
"Sandy Ellison" wrote in part >> KathyA explained to me about the "not quite 1-inch" masking tape;
I agree. The whole class was like that though. She went to demo but her machine was so dusty that it coughed up lint balls and stopped. So rather than say...ask a student if she could demo on their machine she made us stand there while she dismantled her machine and cleaned it out.
She had us bring about 4 kinds of thread but only had us quilt with one. We had to bring many quilt sandwiches but only used a couple. She held up a bunch of products that we'd spent a lot of money on and said "if you have trouble with your threads, try a drop of this one." and so on. She could have done those commercials without us buying them all. We could have later bought what we needed or interested us.
Classes offered for the guilds by local and not so local teachers keep going up and up in price. Some of the teachers are worth a lot but many are really not worth what they charge. As prices go up it would be nice to see the good pro's come to the top too. There doesn't seem to be a lot of new ideas or really good advanced basic type offerings. Maybe my guild is sort of in a slump. Is that just here or is that the way of things?
I once taught in a shop and had my requirements list hijacked by the shop owner! She added all these things to my list and handed her list out to those enrolling. Her excuse - "Well these things are handy to have and it's good for sales"!
I apologised to the class for the long list without further comment and never taught there again. In fact, I never even shopped there again.
It was a full class and everyone had a good time and was thrilled with their finished project. And I am sure the shop owner was happy with her sales. But I know at least one lady did not do the class because she found it too expensive. I was so angry over the matter that I could barely be civil to the shop owner, and I was too stressed by it all to really enjoy the classes. Normally I love teaching.
Part of the problem is that a guild books a teacher to hold a workshop that will encourage the maximum number of attendees, often. This means needing to have a fairly basic class, to encourage new quilters to attend. Sometimes it would be nice to have a more advanced class, but that means a couple of things:
Some newer quilters would be discouraged from attending.
Some people who may have been quilting for a while, may not really be as advanced as they should be for the class. But think they are. These are the students who can bog down a class.
There is also the dichotomy of whether the group, or individuals are interested in a "Technique" class, perhaps with a small project included, perhaps with just ideas of what can be done with the technique. Or a "Project" class, which may not really introduce a "new" technique, but may include some different ways to do "old, standby" techniques in a specific project.
Teachers who travel from another city/state/country may also be promoting products that they sell. Such as patterns/books and so on. Classes in quilt shops are there to promote sales in the shop. That is a fact that will not go away.
As a teacher, by the way, I tend to teach some classes that are pretty straight forward Project classes. But I use that project to teach what may be some different ways to do certain things. I really enjoy teaching Technique classes, with a sample that is one of many options for using the technique. I usually scour the shop for notions and such that helps make doing the project easier, and do mention them. (For example, in a paper foundation piecing class I suggest the "Add-a-Quarter" ruler. Bring in one from the notions area, to show, and bring mine for students to use if they don't have one yet. They usually buy one right there and then, IF they think they will continue to do this type of piecing.
Different teachers do things differently. I try to think like a combination of a student, a teacher, and a business person who needs to make money to stay in "the game".
Pati, > Classes offered for the guilds by local and not so local teachers
There may be things you didn't say but I thought you did, so I just go ahead and give you credit... or blame.
Masking tape is one of my basic quilting tools. My take-along sewing kit will fit into a sandwich-size zip-type plastic bag w/ plenty of room left over. ... I haven't actually taken any classes altho' I did pay for a couple of demos at the lqs when I worked there; first one I forgot so missed it, the 2nd turned into a chat/demo thing so I didn't learn anything new.
I have such mixed feelings here. There were many times when I took classes when I could not afford to buy anything and was hard pressed to pay the class fee. OTOH, my beloved sister who lives thousands too many miles away is going to take a beginner quilting class. How I pray that she will be blessed with a good teacher. Polly
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