Allison Aller of Allie’s In Stitches is a world-renowned crazy quilter who makes absolutely incredible quilts!
And it’s one thing to make incredible crazy quilts – but to bring it off with ease, and to make it look so dang fun? Well, that’s Allie.
Hers is a blog I follow faithfully. She always has something to teach or something cheerful or beautiful to show or talk about.
And she has an awesome garden and grows killer tomatoes.
Well, it just so happens that Allie has joined the Craftsy community. If you haven’t heard of it, Craftsy is a website that offers high quality online video classes for affordable prices. Most of the classes have to do with things like regular quilting, knitting, sewing, cake decorating and the like.
But finally, something a little more embroidery-ish has worked into the mix – Crazy Quilting with Allie Aller.
I’m excited to see crazy quilting on the list. It may mean that surface embroidery is not far behind. And that means wider coverage and promotion of embroidery, right? And that’s what we all want, right?
With Allie as a teacher, you’ll learn the foundations of crazy quilting and beyond Really Well! I joined the class, and I’m so impressed with the materials and the instruction. It’s fun!
While I know I’m not destined to be a crazy quilter per se (the extent of my crazy quilting is this piece, which features goldwork and real metal threads on a crazy quilt square), there are topics in the class that I wanted to learn more about. For example, tricks on piecing together fabric pieces, tricks on appliqué, on floral embellishments and the like – these are techniques that, although I don’t use them in my everyday stitchy stuff, will some day come in handy for me.
Besides the whole piecing, appliquéing, “quilt” aspect of crazy quilting, the class covers embellishment. Allie spends quite a bit of time in the later lessons on embroidered seam treatments, where you see her working out various decorative seam treatments and teaching you the stitches along the way. She also covers aspects of ribbon embroidery – even the beginning stuff, like threading the needle and anchoring the stitches and so forth. This is golden information that can be applied to all kinds of surface embroidery beyond crazy quilting, and it’s all very clearly presented.
If crazy quilting has ever attracted you, but you’ve been intimidated by selecting fabrics, piecing fabrics, and all the technical aspects of crazy quilting, I think this class is a good (and affordable) way to learn.
Advantages of Craftsy Classes
Once you’ve signed up for a class on Craftsy, you always have access to it, so you can come back to the class whenever you need a refresher. This means you can work at your own pace, fitting the class into your busy lifestyle whenever you want to. Or – if you’re super-duper keen – you can gobble the whole class up all in one sitting!
You receive a lot of great printable class materials, like templates, step-by-step instructions, and a downloadable copy of Allie Aller’s Crazy Quilting, which I reviewed when it first came out. It’s a beautiful book – inspiring for the crazy quilter, but also for anyone who likes surface embroidery and embellishment.
If you’re hankering to add crazy quilting to your embroidery repertoire, come join me in Allie’s class on Craftsy. You can read the whole class description here.
And – joy bliss – the class is on sale right now. Normally, it’s $39.99, but now it’s $29.99, which covers class access, materials, videos, interactive area for chatting, questions, feedback, etc. It doesn’t cover materials. They do have the option to buy a materials kit if you want to, but you can also work with whatever you have on hand.
See you there!
