Quilting with Friends

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure to sew with some wonderful people - family and friends. As I was viewing some pictures on my camera, I realized that I never posted the pictures of their progress here. DUHHHHH

Better late than never. Right?

Here's Mary and the jacket she worked on while here. Can you say CUTE!?!

 

Here's Karen's batik quilt. She had the fabric cut but totally pieced it while with the group. Wow! It's pretty big too. I can't wait to see this quilted. I think we should all wear shirts to match out projects.  :-)

 

 

Paula was busy, as she made a bunch of purses. I really like the fabric combinations! The small clutch is Ann's and it is adorable. 

 

 

 

I had a picture of Janet's quilt but I took it with my phone and now I can't find the adapter to transfer it to the computer. Sorry Janet! If you had left the quilt here for me like I suggested, I could have taken a picture.  :-)

 

Becky spent the day cutting out the pieces for a Mitten Tree Skirt by Button Stitch Designs, which is simply adorable but has lots of little pieces.

 

 

We had a bunch of fun and I can't wait until we can do it again!

 

While looking at pictures, I saw the picture of Darla's quilt before she's added the borders. I think it is beautiful and soon after I took this picture, she had begun adding the borders and it looks even better. She's probably done with it by now and I can't wait to see it.

 

 

This has been Darla's "learning quilt" and it was really a mystery to her. When she first started it, I gave her a bag of scraps and we worked on increasing her rotary cutting skills. I gave her a list of pieces to cut of all different sizes and didn't tell her why. She didn't know she was going to make a quilt from these scraps. She thought she was just cutting to learn. (I didn't want her to cut her own fabric and feel bad if and when she made mistakes. I have a tub of fabric set aside for testing block construction, demonstrations, etc. so this was what I used and I knew she could make something pretty with it.) 

 

Soon after she was done cutting, we began working on machine piecing. She started by making a bunch of four patch units and then made the half square triangles. After she had those all pieced, I finally showed her the block she was going to make. She hadn't seen the quilt layout yet, though because there are lots of layout options and I wanted her to make that decision without my influence. I was happy she chose the sashed layout because that provided another learning experience.

 

Although she's made quilts before, this one has a lot more small pieces than she's every used before. She's learned every stop of the way and I think it shows. I think she's done a wonderful job! Stay tuned for the completed top.  :-) 

 

Darla's Block

Remember last week when I told you about my quiting friend/student? Well, today I remembered to take my camera. YEAH! She's making a Buckeye Beauty block and she has all the four patch and half square triangle units made. We spent today trimming up everything and laid out four blocks so she could see what it's going to look like. She hasn't decided what fabric she'll use for the sashing or the cornerstones, but we simulated them by leaving space for the sashing and adding a black square for the cornerstone.

 

I think she's doing a great job and this is going to be BEAUTIFUL! 

Lessons

I've been working with a really wonderful woman (D.C.) who wants to learn to do all quilt-related things (cutting, piecing, pressing, etc.) better than she does now. She hasn't been quilting for very long, and she has a relatively new machine. She really struggled with rotary cutting so that is where we started.

On my first trip to her house, I took a bunch of scrap yardage and misc. scraps and we cut and cut and cut. I like to do that with students because they really do stress out about wasting fabric and that is often reflected in their learning. When they didn't buy the fabric, it's easier to make mistakes and not get so upset. :-)  I have a big bin filled with fabric that includes some not-so-great quality pieces so I don't mind if that gets wasted; but I also have a bin of fabric that I don't absoutely love so I have students cut that into usable pieces that are often pieced into donation quilts.

Anyway, back to D.C. After practicing quite a while, I decided she was ready for some  "homework". I gave her a list of pieces to cut and left the bin of fabric with her. I wrote the list out as if she would be reading from a pattern. She had to cut strips by width of fabric and then sub-cut them into appropriate sizes. I never told her she was actually cutting fabric for a quilt, but I knew she'd figure it out.

She did a great job picking fabrics and cutting the required pieces! Our next move was to start some piecing. I decided she needed to learn some strip piecing as well as some more traditional piecing techniques since so many patterns are written that way. We spent a fair amount of time working with her machine so she was more confident with it and then we began the "real deal." When I left, she had pieced a half dozen or so four patch units that were perfect!

When I returned today, she had peiced 96 four-patch units that looked great. She had a few she wasn't thrilled with so we spent some time figuring out what was wrong with them and how to fix the problem. Ahhhh, we used our friend the seam ripper.  :-)

The next step was to make some half square triangles and she did an awesome job. After she had about ten of them done, I laid out some of the four-patch units and half square triangles to reveal the block she'll be sewing together very soon. She's making Buckeye Beauty blocks!

 

I can't wait until we start putting the blocks together. We're going to add sashing and cornerstones so she can learn that and then we're going to add a border. This is going to be a really cool quilt and I know she's going to learn a lot. I'll try to remember my camera next week so you can see her actual blocks.