Earlier this year I decided to join Karlee Porter's Free Motion Frenzy autumn class. This was an online quilt training that lasted a few weeks. There were 4 online sessions, spread through 8 weeks and you get a panel to practice all the designs that are discussed in the class on. The reason to choose Karlee's training was the fact that she is the artist behind the Graffiti Quilting techniques, that I find quite mesmerizing and impressive.

The training comes with a bundle of things, including the panel that will be worked on in class, scissors, a coloring book from Karlee and some other bits. The panel is not cotton, but polyester. I had never tried to quilt polyester fabric before, so that was interesting. During the training, the backing that Karlee recommended to use was minky fabric or some other warm backing (like fleece). I went ahead and tried minky, but as I was cutting it to measure I realised that I couldn't be in the same room as minky being cut due to my allergies, so I had to throw that fabric away and make a mental note to never try to work with it again. I tried fleece next. Fleece I could cut to measure without having to breathe it in, which was an improvement.

The polyester top felt ok to the touch and so did the backing. When I started quilting, however, the whole quilt sandwich felt like I was sewing on cardboard, so I didn't really enjoy the experience. It was good to try, though, because then I know what I like and I don't like for the future. This training was indeed one of discovery of my own quilty likes and dislikes.

The thing I liked the most of this training is the variety of designs that were presented and how Karlee explained her creative process. The thing I liked the least was that the lessons had many people in them and they were not interactive, it was more like a webinar where questions are answered by the presenter. She got to all the questions though, but it felt somewhat impersonal and crowded. I never got to meet any of the other participants beyond sharing some content on a facebook group.

I have ended up donating the quilt top from this training to a friend that is starting quilting and I have been trying the designs on my own quilts. I am much happier and productive now that I am back on cotton.