Demo Day

One of my favorite meeting programs is when we have Demo Days.  This is when our members demonstrate their skills and we rotate in a round robin fashion so we all get to see all the presentations. This month's demonstrations were on free motion quilting. Kelly, Leslie and Joanna all gave great demonstrations of what they do with tips and tricks of the best supplies, materials, practice methods and tools to help you.  But the overwhelming message was "You can do this!" "Just give it a try." All recommended making up small quilt sandwiches and having them ready by your machine so when you have a few spare minutes, you can play. They all agreed that the more you did it the better you got.  Joanna even recommended carrying a journal around so you could play around with pen and paper when you weren't at home but had some free time.  It was also recommended to use high contrast thread as you practice, so you could easily see how things were going.  Some advice I received in the past from another quilting friend was to cut those sandwiches the size of placemats and that way you'll have a use for your practice pieces when you're done.  And you won't be too upset when the kids or grands leave stains behind.