I will take any class Kathy McNeil teaches. This video amazed me! Kathy is a high achiever in general and she has done it again! This film is a 10 out of 10 in the skillful communication of how to compose an applique quilt from start to finish! With her great range of experience and stunning store of knowledge, she shares a vast amount of material. Her lesson planning is flawless. She obviously spent many hours preparing detailed samples of each step of construction, including the ghost trapunto shapes and bits of embroidery, which she works through on film. I expected I would love this video because I am familiar with Kathy’s teaching. She taught a 2 day Landscape Quilting workshop in Tampa, Florida in January of 2015 at the Feather Princesses applique guild. Her warm and polished teaching style with her positive and encouraging nature, won her many fans in our guild. She truly dazzled 18 students with her superior instruction. Just like our guild members, I believe you will be delighted with what Kathy teaches you. Her techniques may be applied to all your applique quilts whether folk art, traditional needle turn, or art quilt.. You will gain the skills to make your quilts more visually interesting with better fabric choices, more skilled color blending with the use of paint crayons, attention to creating depth, better transitions in layering, and many more topics. The paint crayons she demonstrates will stretch your stash. Learning to use them from Kathy and practicing on your own will save you money in fabric as well as saving you time shopping. Just like in class, in this video, Kathy pours herself into teaching her students. It is a dream come true for me because I now own on video some of her vast knowledge about creating stunning applique quilts. I don’t have to rely on my memory and the notes I took at her workshop. Each chapter is crammed full of information. All of the information translates easily for use in other applique projects. I am as impressed by the quality of AQS’s iquilt production team as I am by Kathy’s talent and teaching skill. They make a great partnership. I enjoyed watching this film. The video is clear and crisp, just a lovely film to watch. Each demo is perfectly captured on film. And, the audio is easy on the ears too. Navigating through the entire class is a breeze. I give it a 10 in all areas of production, design, and ease of use. I fell in love with Audubon Christmas, as many people did, the first time I saw it. Like Kathy, I have always loved the white embossed Christmas cards. I purchased the pattern in January 2015. As expected, it is large, detailed, and well made.. As I reviewed it, I began to problem solve how I was going to approach starting, and began to gather the necessary fabrics. Over the months, studying the pattern, and looking for the right bird colors and textures in fabrics, I wished I had Kathy at hand to guild me through it. Boy was I was impressed to learn that for $35.00, Kathy was available by video, to shepherd students through both the planning and construction of this quilt. She covers each step so completely, explaining each aspect of the choices she made in all of the blocks that I feel confident I can do this. Additionally, she includes instruction about the larger more general subjects of hand applique, machine applique, and free motion machine quilting. And, she demonstrates how she accomplished each on sample blocks of this quilt and not on an unrelated or overly simplified version of these blocks. I believe even the most hesitant student can be a success using this video! You get a real bang for your buck working with Kathy. I look forward to watching this video again! It offers so much, I believe I will learn more each time I see it.
