I have now received the first mailing of this new Club.

This new Design Club has been created by Donna McCauley a Westalee Accredited tutor in the USA. Which is designed to use Westalee Quilting Rulers on traditional quilt blocks. I want to try this club when I saw the first announcement about it from the Houston Quilt Show. I was very luck that my hubby purchased the year subscription to it for my Christmas present, during the Black Friday Sales, when it was first put on sale in the USA.

This is the quilt that will be made during the year of the club size approx. 60” x 60”.

 

It is being run over a year and you get a mailing once a quarter. You have the option of either paying a year subscription or paying each quarter.

• 1st Release – Includes: Notebook, 3 Templates / Patterns / URL link to Videos. This was released at the end of December 2019

• 2nd Release – Includes: 4 Templates / Patterns / URL link to Videos. Due for release late March 2020

• 3rd Release – Includes: 3 Templates / Patterns / URL link to Videos. Due for release late June 2020

• 4th Release – Includes: 3 Templates / Patterns / URL link to Videos. Due for release late September 2020.

I will be blogging my journey through this design course over the year.

Currently this is not available via a UK supplier but hopefully Cotton Patch will be supplying it at some point, so you are only able to get it via

USA – Sew Steady – https://www.sewsteady.com/product/essence-of-tradition-design-club/

USA – Donna McCauley – https://dmquilting.com/products?olsPage=products%2Fessence-of-tradition-design-club-full-year

Australia – Punch with Judy – https://www.punchwithjudy.com.au/shop/Essence-of-Tradition-Design-Club-Full-Year.html?fbclid=IwAR3xpSlwgBIkv9QvCsbfPn_I-ictCHaPi8Gr4BXb5rJfKZTE8aBXBPbsfKI

(I am not associated with any of the above web sites)

In the first Mailing you receive.

• Crosshair Ruler 8”

• Stitching Line Discs

• Flying Bell Curve – 5”

• Spin-e-Fex 13 – 5.5”

• Artisan Marquis Curve 85

The Work Book and Index, material requirements.

The Set of Instructions for the first three blocks

The Templates plus a cross hair ruler drawing spacer disc and some wipeable marker pens for drawing on acrylic sheets

Design drawing of all the blocks that we be included in the club. The drawing spacer discs and the pens can be used on this to test out other designs with templates that you already own,

 

I have unpacked and put everything together and watched the videos, so here are my first thoughts,

OK the cost of the course is high $450 USA (or $150 USA per quarter) or $550 AUD (or $220 AUD) I was lucky to purchase it during the Black Friday Sale so I paid $350 USA. But I did some checking and the retail cost of the rulers that are included in the price is approx. $300 using the prices on the Sew Steady web site. I say approx. because some of the rulers are from sets, so I had to approximate the price of a single ruler.

This is not a course for a Beginner. As the videos do not include any information on how to set up the foot or tension etc. So if you do think about doing this I would suggest that you do a beginner course either with one of the accredited tutors or an online one.

One little slip up is that the section tabs supplied are letter size paper, but all the information is on A4 paper so you can not see the tabs when the folder is closed. (This has been reported to Sew Steady and I am hoping they will resolve this by sending out the correct size tabs in the second mailing).

The rest of the mailing will include the following

2nd Mailing

• Instructions for the next 4 blocks

• 6” Spiral

• Spinning Wheels 27 – 5.5”

• Spin-e-Fex 8 – 3.5”

• Ying & Yang

3rd Mailing

• Instructions for the next 3 blocks

• Spin-e-Fex 4 – 3.5”

• Spin-e-Fex Feathers 8 – 5.5”

• Snowflake 1 & 2

4th Mailing

• Instructions for the last 3 blocks and putting the quilt together

• Hexagon 1”

• Honeycomb

• Mini-Fills Bricks

I have been out and purchased my material for the main quilt, I am going to do it in a selection of blues, lilacs, purple and black sashing,

I have also sorted though my stash and found some Greens that I am going to use to create a smaller test quilt using just the first 3 blocks. 8 blocks (3 Log Cabin, 3 Flying Geese and 2 Dresden) using the same on point layout, which should end up approx. 40” x 60”. I will also be sorting through my templates to see if I can try out some different quilting designs.

My next blog will be on the creating and quilting these first blocks. Both for the test and main quilt.