Planning to attend a workshop soon, hoping to sharpen your skills and expand your horizons? Good! Just don't leave your manners at home in the drawer with your extra thread and fabric.

The following are some tips, which will help a workshop or program run more smoothly for both the instructor and the participants:

1. Be on time.



2. BYOSB (Bring Your Own Sewing Basket) Try to have all the necessary items the class calls for. Borrowing takes time and can be distracting. Of course, we all know that quilters are the nicest people and will almost always share.



3. Check before hand to be sure your sewing machine is working. Valuable time can be lost if you have borrowed a neighbor's machine, and you don't know how to thread it. It is not the teacher's duty to know how to thread or operate every machine made.



4. Be prepared to pay a class fee or kit fee ... and exact change will really make you popular! Usually these kits are well prepared and are aides to save you time and trouble. The function of a workshop is to teach you the basic process in a limited time frame. Most likely, the teacher has timed herself to see that this can be done with previously prepared templates and fabrics.



5. Read and re-read what the class offers. If you are to complete a 30" square wall hanging, the fabric requirements you have been given are for this size. Please do not expect the teacher to take the time of the rest of the students to help you figure the yardage for a king size quilt that hangs to the floor! Remember, the others have paid for her time and attention also.



6. Do not sign up for a class, appear, accept the printed handouts, and then change your class ticket for a class later in the day or the next day. Tacky, tacky! Also, you will be a distraction to everyone in the class.



7. It is common courtesy to ask permission of the instructor before photographing her samples and work. This is also true if you want to tape the program.



8. Because the teacher has most likely copyrighted her work, you must not photo copy it and publish under your own name.



9. Don't waste valuable time talking during a lecture or class instruction. And if you must leave the room, do so as quietly as possible.



10. The crime of all crimes is to tell the teacher that you know a better way to do it. Remember, the others in the class paid to learn her techniques, not yours. However, when she comes by your table, you may want to show her your method in a quiet way. Most teachers are open to new methods and she may ask you to stand and share your technique if she feels it has merit.



11. If your guild is having a salad lunch in conjunction with the workshop, or if you are merely "brown bagging" it, give the teacher a chance to chew and swallow. Please remember that lunch is not "Question and Answer Time".



12. Because you paid for a workshop, you do not have the right to make copies of the handouts and pass them on to your neighbors. Because they will not have received the correct instruction along with the pattern, they may make something that is less than attractive. And this will reflect on the teacher’s ability. Most instructors will tell you workshop participants that the pattern is for their own use, and if they want to teach the technique, they should create their own patterns.



13. Most programs and classes are on a prearranged topic or technique for which the guest speaker is well known. It is not polite for the audience to ask about her technique for how a completely different technique is accomplished. Don't expect to pick her brain for free! She will know you are doing it and won't appreciate it. She may reply, as a professional chef on the Phil Donahue Show did recently when asked about a special technique, "Oh! Oh! That's easy!.. I give private lessons"

I've been a program chairman and quilting teacher for the past several years, and these are just some of the aggravations I have observed. I'm sure you can add lots more to the list.

Remember the Golden Rule and treat the instructor, as you would like to be treated if you were in her shoes. After all, she loves what she is doing, or she wouldn't be doing it. But we all know that life in general and quilting in particular is more fun when we show our love and care for each other.