With A Little Help From Some Friends

I have been working on developing a class to make small mirrors to hang on the wall and today called on the TTT Gang to help me identify its strengths and weaknesses (in other words, they agreed to be my guinea pigs!) These are 4 of the patterns we were working from today. It was a great day because I think I learned more than the friends who were helping me out. When we are the creators of patterns or books or whatever, it is often difficult to step back and view whatever it is objectively. And that is where other people's observations are really helpful.
We started off the process with everyone marking the frame outlines on their fabric with chalk and then applying the gold paint dots. While that was drying, they then cut out their applique pieces and got them ready to fuse to the fabric. They then heat set the paint, fused the appliques and started the blanket stitching. After this was finished, they added quilting and trimmed away the excess batting. You can see that everyone was hard at work and doing their best to finish their assigned tasks. What I didn't realize was that it would take so long to choose which pattern to do and which fabrics to use for the chosen pattern. Most of them did not actually get to the quilting stage of their mirror--there just wasn't enough time. And the TTT Gang came up with some great suggestions on how to handle that. Everyone felt that it would be better to offer just one pattern with a kit already made up and ready to go--and I think they were right.
We did have two finished projects at the end of the day. I didn't get a photo of Betsy's but it was actually a "non" mirror--She made a 10" square to either put on a table or to hang on a wal--with no mirror in the middle. Sheila finished hers and was adding some "bling" as I left for the day. It turned out quite nicely and I loved her color choices. I know the clips all around the edges of hers may look a little strange, but they are holding the front and back edges together as the glue dries.
The hardest worker of the day was, of course, Callie cat who ensconced herself in my basket of batik scraps and batted at Lucy's tail as she went by. All in all, it was a great day and I feel confident now--that with their helpful suggestions and hard work--it can be a great class.