Monday, March 30, 2009

City and Guilds, Vicariously

I don't know how many people in the US are familiar with the City and Guilds certificate program, operated in the UK. Linda Kemshall, who contributes to Quilting Arts Magazine offers on-line courses connected with City and Guilds. This seems to be a serious, in-depth program of skill building in all areas of needle arts. There's a series of assignments to be completed, each of which is evaluated by instructors; the course culminates in a final project, also evaluated. I have been interested in this program since first reading about it, so it was exciting to discover that Helen Conway is documenting her class work in a blog dedicated to this subject. She also includes links to some other blogs about City and Guilds. Her class is just getting underway but I think it's going to be fascinating to look over her shoulder while she works. Helen's other blogs, From Down the Well, and the humorous Quiltland Chronicle are well worth reading too. Take a look.

I enjoyed the comments on my triangle misadventures. It's heartening to know that other people do this sort of thing too; when I've watched others at guild sewing days, everyone seems to have their pieces perfectly organized. The block is one of Judy Martin's, from an old Quilters' Newsletter. It's called Carolina Basket. I started cutting it last summer, put it aside and came back in November, and then again last week. The big time-lag is part of the problem, although I'm not making excuses.

2 comments:

Libby Fife said...

Kay-Thanks for the link to Linda Kemshall's page. I do have one of her books-it has a lot of great info in it. I had heard about the City and Guilds program-looks very interesting. Lucky us that there are lots of ways to obtain education.

Liz in Kansas said...

I just read all of Helen's blogs. They are great! Thanks for the links. I'm afraid I don't have the attention span to study something in as much depth as C&G. Even something I love! Too many other fun things to get into.