I thought it would be interesting to share some of my Creative Hand Stitching Journey progress with you. This isn’t an attempt to get you to sign up – registration is closed for 2023. I love learning about how other people get stuff done, so here is some insight into my experience in teaching a year-long class.
In 2021 Ivete, Andrea and I were thinking about adding more year-long programs to our Gotham Quilts class lineup. At that point we had Quilt Lab, Embroidery Lab, and Color Journey. Labs are crowd-sourced experiences (the group votes on what activity to do next). Journey’s have more of an educational component (based on a book). After much discussion, we decided to offer one on pincushions, where Ivete would lead members in making a different pincushion every month. I was assigned the Creative Hand Stitching Journey, as I love handwork. Andrea was going to offer another year of Color Journey.
What is Creative Hand Stitching Journey?
- Year long virtual class
- Monthly meetings
- We use Creative Stitching by Sue Spargo as our guide
- Private community for sharing (NOT on Facebook)
This was our first year with our Gotham Quilts Community platform, and it was an interesting learning experience for me. I learned how to set up the lessons, how to lead a monthly meeting, and I learned A LOT of embroidery, usually a week or two before the meeting, so I could be ahead of my students. It felt a little like playing with smoke and mirrors, but it was fun. Attendance dropped off pretty dramatically as the year progressed. I think part of that is because the topic is a little bit dry, but also because it is easy to loose your excitement as a year long class progresses. To be honest, I thought it might be because I was terrible, but that isn’t the case.
I did a really deep dive in December, thinking about what worked and what didn’t. I thought the monthly meeting format was good, but there was room for improvement. When we decided to offer the journey again, I was thrilled. I decided to change things around based on my findings.
2022 Challenges
- Cumbersome video (2 hours) to navigate for demonstrations
- No project = less engagement
- Basic stitches not in book
- Stitches presented out of order
2023 Improvements
- Shorter meetings
- Individual demonstrations
- Add stitches when I want to
- Stitches presented in skill-building order
I had a few issues with meetings. First, I would sometimes forget to record them. There is a setting in Zoom to record automatically. The downside is I either have to trim the video, or you get some fluff at the beginning (me setting up, chatting with the first person to log in about other stuff). I decided that fluff beats no recording, although I’m striving to make myself edit the beginnings. I also thought it must be annoying to have to scroll through the 2 hour video to find each stitch demonstration, so I added individual stitch demos into each chapter. The other change I made was to have both a morning and an evening session. Both are short, so I’m spending about the same amount of time on Zoom, but I’m seeing more faces this time, which I like a lot.
The lack of project was an easy fix. I had discovered stitch books, and just designed a project that involved a monthly sampler. That way, at the end of the year we each have our own little stitch journal to show our progress over the year. It has been very well received.
The book doesn’t include some basics, like satin stitch and blanket stitch. No problem. Those are bonuses in the appropriate sections. It’s my class, and I get to add what I want. It feels amazing to be able to decide that.
As we moved through the book last year, there were some chapters that were really short, and some that were absolutely loaded with complicated stitches. I spent some time with a spreadsheet moving things around. Super basic stitches are all together at the beginning of the year. That gives newbies a chance to ramp up, and people who join in February can catch up easily, even if they have missed the meeting.
So far, it seems to be going really well. I had a little bit of a hiccup in February, as I was distracted and didn’t get my demos recorded until late in the month. I was much better for March, and I’m giving myself a little grace. Also, reminding myself that I can just do one or two per day, rather than load up the whole group is nice. I’m really looking forward to our 2024 season, where I don’t have to build the whole class again.
For 2022 I had 19 students who signed up, which was shocking to me. This year I had 20 sign up. I was surprised again that so many people are ready to make a commitment to learning hand embroidery. I’ll confess – I wasn’t super enthusiastic about embroidery before I was given the job to teach this class. The more I do, though, the more I love it, and I think that people notice when I really love something.
The other aspect of this whole experience, which really drives the success, is the fact that I’m not in here alone. Ivete and Andrea will rarely attend a session, but they are a strong presence in how I handle everything. Having business partners who have your back is incredibly valuable. We have overlapping skill sets, which keeps me from ever panicking about anything. I can’t emphasize enough how great it is to be part of this team.
So, there are my thoughts on running a year-long class. I am absolutely loving it, and I feel like just getting in there and giving it a try was totally worth it. Have you thought about teaching a class with this format? I would be happy to chat about it with you!