I had another great privilege this week via our local quilt guild, the West Michigan Quilt Guild. Every two months our guild brings in a teacher and this month was two days of classes by the wonderful Sue Nickels. Sue is a traditional quilter and has been involved for over twenty years in teaching machine quilting. Her classes and lectures routinely sell out when she is at the national conventions.

     Two classes were offered: Machine Quilting Essentials and Machine Quilting Flower Basket Appliqué. I took the machine quilting class since my next goal is improving my free motion quilting skills. Sue is thorough and very attentive to detail as is evidenced in her workmanship.

Sue Nickels beautiful quilts

Sue Nickels: Day 2 Demo

It was nice to spend time with traditional quilters and a traditional teacher as their craftsmanship is so amazing. I have to say I was a little discouraged at the end of the machine quilting workshop(something else to work on….:) and Sue immediately gave all of us a pep talk. I think the biggest thing I took away is that machine quilting is a learned skill.

 I will take her advice on the the 3 P’s she coached us with : patience, perseverance and practice.

I can’t imagine drawing a design and then quilting it, but you never know. I never plan that much when I quilt. But I was very happy to gain a little knowledge in machine quilting and happy as can be with Sue as a teacher. If you ever have the opportunity, don’t hesitate to take her workshops!

Wonder how many years I will need to work on this skill:).