What we have here is a failure to communicate...

Today was my hawaiian applique' class.  Let me begin by saying that with the right students, this teacher would have won awards with her extensive handouts, her background knowledge of the state history and all it's flora and fauna.  The fact that missionaries brought the art of quilting to the islands, and tried to teach the natives to piece quilt.  That the natives responded by forgoing piecing altogether and invented their own form of applique'.  The meaning behind every shape and placement for every pattern of hawaiian applique' was discussed, to the point that you can tell who designed a pattern simply by certain key elements they always include in their designs.  The first hour of class was show and tell.  I don't remember what all we saw and were told... My eyes glazed over after about 10 minutes.  But that's ok, because everything talked about is included in my 11 page handout.  Oh, and lest I forget to mention, she had brought hawaiian music cds with her to lend atmosphere to the class.
Now, before I go on... I have to ask, where was the logic in wanting to teach natives of a garden paradise island how to make coverings worthy of the frozen recesses of alaska?  Could it have been the fact that the poor missionaries arrived and found an audience totally lacking in any need of their assistance?

But I digress... back to the class.
As I said, with the right students, this could have been an awarding winning class.  However, for myself and the one other student attending (yes, there were only 2 of us), this was a total waste of both time and money.  I came into this class stating that the only reason I was taking the class was to learn back-basting.  Yes, I have been shown back-basting once, and have watched a few you-tube videos, but I thought here was a chance to really get the theory and technique down pat.  The other student came in with fabric and a pattern that the employees at this LQS had told her this teacher would be happy to help her with in this class.  The teacher looked at the pattern and stated she had no idea how to do it.  The student stated in no uncertain terms, repeatedly, that she was not interested in a class on traditional hawaiian applique' as she had learned it years ago.  At this point, I stated once again that I was only taking the class to learn back-basting.
Now, the fun begins.  Ok, so here's the supply list we were given when we signed up for the class.

• 5/8th yard background fabric
• 5/8th yard motif fabric
• Sharp scissors
• Applique' needles-sharps
• Thread to match motif fabric
• The recommended book for the class
• Silk pins
• then listed were 2 additional optional books
• The last line asked us to wash our fabrics before class.

We were told that we needed to cut each of our fabrics 22" square.  Please note the total lack of any measuring instruments in the class supply list.  Luckily, I'm "Old School" enough that I simply folded one corner down diagonally and tore my fabric from there.  Why did I need to tear it when I was told to bring sharp scissors?  Because I was silly enough to think the scissors needed for an applique' class would be... wait for it... Applique' scissors.  You know, the little ones with maybe a 2.5" blade.

Next we had to fold our fabric into an eight layered triangle, (no, sorry, I don't think I could describe it even with a giant bowl of Cherry Garcia on the line) and iron the resulting triangle.  

At this point, a new song came on the cd... a traditional hawaiian singer doing a cover of... wait for it... Styx!  Yes, we were treated to a Don Ho clone singing Sailing Away.  

Now we were to trace the pattern from the book, (you know, the recommended one, not a required one).  At this point students A and B asked what they were to trace said pattern onto.  Teacher gave us #24 printer paper.  Now, this is the nice thick printer paper that most of us do not buy because we're cheap.  You could not see the pattern thru this paper to trace it.  Teacher pulled her already cut out pattern and allowed me to trace it onto the paper.  

Pattern traced and cut out, it's now time to pin the paper pattern to the 8-fold fabric triangle and trace around it onto the fabric.  This was a challenge since silk pins are available in a variety of sizes ranging from 1/2" in length to 1 1/4".  Trying to pin all those layers with tiny pins without any shifting was a game-show-quality activity.

Finally we have all those layers pinned and marked, now it's time to take our trusty scissors and cut out the intricate pattern thru all layers.  At once.  With aforementioned tiny applique' scissors.  This took a while.  At this point I stated once again that my only reason for taking this class was to learn back-basting.  The teacher did not know the term and asked me to describe it.  After my detailed description, she stated that "she had never heard of it, and she had been quilting many years".  I should have taken a clue and given up then.  The back-basting method would have shaved at least an hour off the process, which has at this point been going on for 2 hours.  Opening up the fabric snowflake and laying it onto the background, we were to get it centered and aligned and pin it down.  Then using a harpoon of a needle, we basted the whole thing down and took all the pins back out again.  We had been in class over 3 hours at this point, and the other student and I both decided to call it a day.  The teacher seemed disappointed that we hadn't wanted to spend another hour sitting there with her sewing so she could show us how to do needle-turn.  Both of us are quite adept at needle-turn and told her so.

The funny thing, on our way out of the store, the other student leaned in to me and whispered that a different LQS is starting an International Sunbonnet Sue BOM tomorrow morning.  I responded with "Oh, I know!  I'll see you there!"  I refrained from mentioning that this is the LQS that asked me to do the samples for some of the blocks for this BOM.