If you are a teacher, do you make class samples? I don't normally make any such thing because I don't teach projects. But on occasion, guilds who want to sell my class (usually to more traditional quilters) ask me for class samples. I am sorry to say that my experience has not been good; some time ago I sent one off and never saw it again. I do have samples for my Cinderella Quilts class to show what can be done with a UFO bloc...but it is a different story for Free-Form Qulits. One guild asked me specifically for a class sample for the Free-Form class and I didn't have one. As it happened, I needed to do some therapy sewing yesterday (it has been that kind of a week) so I decided to make a small piece out of the usual suspects -- the leftovers in my box. By last night, it was all done but the facing - but I am going to send it off without facing or sleeve and will leave the orientation up to them. Maybe it would look better in this direction...or not. But here's the dilemma: I don't want the class to think that this is what we are making, because it is not. My fabrics & my leftovers = a unique small piece. It took me all day to work it out, and I had all the units sewn together and sitting here (except for the stripes). Their mileage will certainly vary. Does this mean I have to send another totally different piece along with it? Maybe a before & after UFO block-- or just an after. This will give me an excuse to do more therapy sewing tomorrow, while we are having another storm and flood. Sigh... OTOH - maybe I should iron this free-form quilt top and send this off as another possible example. I had all these random blocks and decided to use them a while ago. Since I don't have a baby who needs this, it is sitting around till I need to finish it -- only after somebody's baby is born.In that case, it could easily be a class sample along with the other one. That way, nobody will have expectations. No expectations, no disappointments. Next week, it is back to the studio to work on my 25 more scarves. Now I know why they say "be careful what you wish for."
