I've given lectures and taught classes on beginning quilting many years ago and even in my early 20's I did demos for the local craft stores on the weekends introducing customers to the wonderful world of crafting and painting. I haven't had the pleasure of teaching in - uhmm let's just say a few years - BUT it's not anything like riding a bike...
I was asked to do a demo/lecture/make-and-take for our local quilt guild (ECMGQ) Saturday and I did alright the first half which was the lecture/samples part although I did mix up the order in which I had originality practiced, I do believe everyone was interested and stayed awake even if they all where staring at me wondering if the trembling was a start of a seizure.
Then when it can time to do sewing demonstration I was all thumbs! I even used the rotary cutter incorrectly - very lucky I didn't cut my thumb off!! Twice I placed fabric in the wrong place and played it off as 'Do you see what I did wrong here?" I just couldn't get it together.
After the sewing demo part everyone went to their machines and started creating blocks. This is when I think I shined - can I say that after what I just told you?!? I love the one-on-one approach to teaching, this is where I feel the most confident! I really enjoy seeing the smiles when the student gets it.
I really need to work on my confidence and demonstration skills before doing this again, but in the end I did have a lot of fun and made so many new friends!!!
As you can see here we all had a 'LOVELY' time - pardon the pun :)
the 'LOVe' pattern can be found here by Kelby Sews
