We had a big class at Quintessential Quilts in Madison this spring. Check these out! (Pssst... I'm up to March now!)

Hey, did you know that I'll run private tuffet classes? This one happened to be at my house, but I now have a space in Madison where I can teach small private classes! So if you have a group who wants to make a tuffet, contact me! This particular group is a craft collection of moms from my daughter's school.

Hey, I have finally reached the current year in my tuffet post backlog! Time to celebrate! (woohoo)

This post is brought to you by Quilt Play in Grayslake, Illinois. Yes, this Cheesehead made her way across the border, and not for the first time! Quilt Play is an awesome, modern shop and I want to buy everything there. 

Last December (yep, I'm still catching up on tuffet posts), I visited Attic Quilts in Beloit. We had a fantastic class and made a boatload of tuffets! Since I was there, Attic Quilts has moved to a new location across the street, and I can't wait to visit their new shop!

Sheesh.... I need to learn to line up my photos so the tiles on the floor don't look like our tuffets have been hitting the bottle...

We had a very nice class (including a mother-daughter pair) at Quintessential Quilts in Reedsburg. Here's what we made!

Check out these great tuffets made at Patches and Petals in Belleville last fall. This is a great shop with lots of character. It's worth the drive if you haven't been there before!

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again: I'm terrible about updating blog posts! So right now i'm sitting in a Starbucks and will be writing several of them, posting every few days, to try to keep up with tuffet posts. I'm really sorry to those who have been in the classes and may have been waiting to see your tuffet featured. These posts are from a long time ago! So let's take a trip down memory lane.... We'll start with an October class at Quintessential Quilts in Madison... look at these beautiful tuffets!

I'm not sure why I don't have a top-down photo of every tuffet in this group. Mysterious. But they're all great!

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I'm way behind on posting.... so with that said, way back in SEPTEMBER (yes, September), I visited Olive Juice Quilts in Onalaska, WI. What a gorgeous shop! If you haven't been there, you should definitely go! Lots of modern fabrics, tons of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and a huge classroom/discount area. It's worth the trip, whereever you're coming from!

Here's a glimpse of students at work on day one...

And here they are with their finished tuffets! All of them came out so beautifully! I am often told by people that they didn't think they'd be able to make a tuffet; that it would be too difficult. I can tell you that they're NOT. Sure, there may be skills you learn that are new to you, but you CAN do it. As a teacher, I've seen students make hundreds of tuffets -- and do you know what? They all get done! The only time I've not had one get finished is if the student didn't finish their homework, and even then, sometimes we've been able to get them done. Don't let fear keep you from signing up for a class. 

I taught for the first time at the lovely A Touch of Amish in Barrington, Illinois last month. The staff here is so friendly -- I really felt welcomed. And I have to say, if you use an Accu-quilt Go, this is the place to get dies because they have a ton of them! Wait, what? Did I get a photo? Well, shoot, that would have been useful. Oh well. Trust me on this one, though. 

Oh yes, we made tuffets! And check out the punchneedle button!

More tuffets! This time from Quintessential Quilts in Madison. Since I've brought them up, I just wanted to mention that Quintessential Quilts very generously offered to donate some backing fabric for the Madison Modern Quilt Guild's contributions to the Quilts for Pulse project. This happened months ago, and their generosity was mentioned at our meeting, but I wanted to personally thank them myself. Thanks, Quintessential Quilts!

Anyway, on to our small tuffet show. But hey, I remembered to take some photos during class this time! They're all of people stapling, but hey, it's a start.

Sorry. I am trying to catch up on blog posts and so I'm doing them all at one time (did you know bloggers can do that?) and I'm getting a little punchy with the tuffet post titles. Aaaaaanyway, another group of tuffets came out of Mukwonago in August. Quilt-agious keeps pretty busy with them! 

I had a wonderful time teaching tuffets for the first time at Attic Quilts in Beloit, Wisconsin, several weeks ago (yes, I'm behind on blog posts again). I have to tell you, I had no idea that downtown Beloit was so vibrant! The shop is right near the square, and there was music playing and the whole place just seemed so festive! And so were the tuffets!

I'm not sure how many of you know this, but Quilt-agious in Mukwonago was the first shop I taught tuffets at (in fact, it's the first shop I taught at in Wisconsin). So of course I love to go back there to teach. It's still a fairly young shop (a couple of years old) but you'll find a great assortment of beautiful fabrics if you go there. They have an especially great Kaffe Fassett collection, and lots of patriotic and modern fabrics. 

And of course, they have great tuffets! And great tuffet students. Here's the latest batch...

I've just scheduled two more tuffet classes at Quilt-agious this year, Sundays, October 16 and 23, and Thursdays, November 17 and December 1. Call them at (262) 363-3066 to sign up!

Since we moved to Madison, Wisconsin from Richmond, Virginia, I've been wanting to teach beginning quilters. I just love sharing in their excitement and enthusiasm for this this wonderful hobby.

So, I've started teaching a beginner class at Mill House Quilts in Waunakee. Check out the progress made by my students! This was a long class -- eight weeks. 

On day one we talked all about fabric selection and I gave them a challenge where I assigned them a focus fabric and they had to pick out coordinates. They weren't always given the fabric they would have chosen themselves, so it's a great exercise.

The next several classes focused on making the different blocks themselves. Then we had a "putting it all together" session. Finally, we ended with quilting and binding. Two of the students took on the challenge of trying free motion quilting for the first time!

I really got to know this group of quilters and am happy to call them friends as well as students. If you're interested in learning to quilt, check out my classes. 

We had a great time making tuffets at Quintessential Quilts in Madison! If you haven't been to QQ in a while, you should check them out -- they've expanded their space and added fabric and a beautiful classroom. They share a parking lot with Target and Michaels behind East Towne Mall. Tell them I sent you! ;-)

I'm happy to announce that I'm teaching classes at Mill House Quilts in Waunakee! These are all new classes and different from what you've seen from me so far. I'm excited to be teaching at this shop, which has been around for quite a while but is under new ownership. 

I'm also teaching the ferociously popular Fold N Stitch Wreath pattern. Here's my spring-y version. This class will be held on Thursday, May 5. You know you want to!

We had fun making more tuffets at Quilt-agious a couple of weekends ago. What can I say, I love that shop! And it's the only area shop that has a certified TuffetSource instructor (that would be me). Unfortunately, I'm better at teaching people how to make tuffets than I am at getting photos sometimes -- I'm missing one from this group. But on to the show!

We had a busy couple of Thursdays at Quilt-agious in Mukwonago! I had three classes -- tuffets, a Lone Star quilt class, and a t-shirt quilt class. Those were some long, but fun, days! 

First up, tuffets! Here we have Elaine's first and Herni's third tuffets! Nice job, ladies!

Next up: Lone Star quilts! We used the QuiltSmart foundation for these. The panel makes it easy to sew the diamond shapes without having to worry about wasting too much fabric. You can get these panels in a small or large size. For the first class, we work on the diamonds. For the second, we put it all together.

I don't have photos of the t-shirt quilt class, but since it's a technique class, there's not too much to show. But we had fun!

We had a sweet Valentine's Day at Quintessential Quilts in Madison! Our small group persevered through the snowy weather. It's hard to believe it's supposed to be 51 tomorrow!

The high was -2 the day we finished these tuffets at Quilt-agious in Mukwonago! But though it was frigid outside, we stayed warm and had fun inside.

I'll be teaching tuffets at Quilt-agious again Fridays, February 5 and 12, from 1 to 5 pm. Call the shop at 262-363-3066 to sign up!

I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be hosting a tuffet retreat this summer at the Jones Mansion in Mineral Point, Wisconsin! The dates for the retreat are June 24 - 26, 2016. If you've been wanting to make a tuffet but live too far from me to take a class, this is a great chance for you to make a tuffet in a weekend. If you don't live in the area, that's okay, we'll help you get to and from the airport and even help ship your tuffet home! 

The Jones Mansion is gorgeous! It's a three-story home with seven bedrooms, plus a great work area. The town it's in, Mineral Point, is known for its art galleries and shops. 

Included in the retreat are most meals, lodging, a full tuffet kit, and expert instruction. You can even choose to make more than one tuffet if you'd like!

I've written up a FAQ which should give you all of the information you need. If you have other questions, please let me know and I'll add them to the list!

Registration is here. Sign up soon! Spots are very limited and some are already taken!

This last group of tuffet photos defies categorization. Actually, with the end of the year craziness, skating trips and competitions, people making their second (and third, and fourth!) tuffets, and everything else, I'm so behind on tuffet posts that I wanted to get them in before the end of the year. These tuffets were finished at nearly all of the shops I teach at, as well as my house! Some of these tuffets feature alternate layouts, and some are made of interesting materials such as ties, minky, and leather!

Before we get on to the photos, I want to thank the shops that have hosted me this year: Bungalow Quilting and Yarn in Ripon, Patches and Petals in Belleville, Quilt-agoius in Mukwonago, Quintessential Quilts in Madison and Reedsburg, and The Electric Needle in Madison. When you shop for quilt fabric, sewing machines, yarn, or notions, please consider one of these shops. They've all been wonderful. If you can't shop at one of these shops, please shop at a local (or small online) shop. Remember they won't be there any more if you don't shop at them! 

​On to the tuffet photos!

Thanks for looking through all of the wonderful tuffets in this post! And thank you for your support throughout the year. It means a lot to me. 
​
I'll see you in 2016!

We had a couple of repeat Tuffeteers in Belleville this past November. They are a lovely aunt and niece duo! If you've already made one tuffet, the second one goes much more quickly.

 A fun group of ladies gathered to make tuffets (over a month ago, I'm ashamed to report -- I've been swamped with skating costumes) at The Electric Needle in Madison. Their tuffets were gorgeous and their enthusiasm was great! First a few photos from the first class (which I'm not always great at capturing):

And the finished tuffets...

I love seeing the different fabrics students use in their tuffets. This time we had a group at Quintessential Quilts in Madison. What a fun group of ladies! I love the camaraderie that develops in tuffet classes. People work together and give opinions and share in their wonderful creations.