It's a CQG Sew Day! Let's Play!

 The CQG had a sew day on the 17th of this month. Eight or ten people showed up with different projects to work on. I even brought Marley and "her" machine since she had the day off from school. 

Everyone thought it was just the best thing to see a young one enjoying sewing. She worked on a simple one patch baby quilt to donate to the CQG to be sold at our next quilt show. The plan is to have several small quilts, donated by members, that will sell and all profits will go to CQG to fund some of our educational programs.

As you can see from the photos, not everyone was working on donation quilts, but the three or four of us who did made some headway.   

Quilt Challenge Day 9

For day nine, I'm showing this quilt that I made for a granddaughter. Marley chose the colors and asked for "something zigzag." I think she must have seen another chevron quilt. I needed to play a little, so the compromise became two sizes of chevrons in three colors. They lost their home to mold several years ago and all of their quilts were lost, so this one is in a landfill somewhere. But that does not take away from the fact that it once existed as a silly quilt for a little girl who loved zigzags just because she had learned a new word. Marley has made two quilts since they built their new home (one the other side of our house) and is likely to find an excuse to make yet another, perhaps one for her mom and dad since they lost a quilt also.

I've created a quilt monster!

 Marley has been sewing with me quite a bit. She made face masks for her family, handkerchiefs for her Poppa, and a pair of shorts for herself. Two days ago she decided that it's time to make another quilt. 

This is probably the third design attempt

I had an idea. I'd keep her busy with small pieces. We decided on 2½" X 6" patches. Well, that didn't work. Firstly, I won't let her use the rotary cutter, so I had lots of pieces to cut. 

A few changes

Next, she was supposed to take some time at the design wall. Apparently she's a natural. I'd make a suggestion and show her what I meant, she'd rip pieces down and put them back up in a flash. A few suggestions brought her to a design she loved. 

Rows sewn together. Hmm, more pieces.

She sews relatively fast. I encourage her to slow down to improve her accuracy, but she was too excited. I decided to let her enjoy the process. We'll work on ¼" seams on the next one. Hopefully, she'll be able to contain her excitement. I think the trick is to let her make another right away. Let the "I'm making a quilt" joy become something she's used to. Otherwise, I'll have to work really hard and be fussy. I'll let you know how this plan works. 

Yay! Ready to sew strips together!

I'd much prefer if I didn't fuss. I want us to have fun. Plus, it's wonderful that she's so excited about sewing and quilting. She was responsible for all of the designing, sewing and pressing. To encourage freedom in designing, I let her make decisions but also show her options that she hadn't considered. One example, I flipped every other row so that the colors played differently. We talked about how just little changes can make big differences. 

All done!

I also require that she do the math. May as well get those practical lessons in there, too. It occurred to me that I could loan her a quilting book to encourage some reading. Then it occurred to me that I'm a teacher nerd. Oh well! C'est la vie! I do miss teaching and Marley is an enthusiastic student. 

Looks good this way, too!

We're a good pair, the two of us. And it's fabulous to have a sewing buddy. Plus, she does the mundane chores, like fold fabric and put it away!

Happenings 'round here

That title makes it sound like there are happenings. They aren't that many, believe me. 

I had promised my sister that I'd make some bed pads to keep at her house. The short version is that another sister suffers from dementia and is living where the pads are going. You get the picture, I'm sure. I got a reminder text this morning and started working on the pads at noon. I chose ugly, heavy fabrics that I'm sure I wouldn't want for a quilt. 

It's not a difficult chore; there are only four pads. I sewed all the fabrics together much like a pieced backing and loaded the longarm just like a regular quilt. I decided to use the opportunity to practice some motifs and that slowed me down. When finished, I cut it into four pads and finished the edges with the lock-stitch machine.

The other thing slowing me down is Marley. She came by for a sewing lesson and made a pair of shorts. Since it's her first pair, she needed guidance. She's getting really good and will soon be able to complete small projects on her own. 

One other thing happening is that I've been painting again. I'm working on two magnolia paintings and will have something to show you in a day or so. Meanwhile, have a fabulous Friday and weekend!

And now, looking forward

I thought that while I'm thinking of what I'd like to accomplish this year, I'd take a look at what  I wanted to accomplish last year. And whether I managed to accomplish anything at all. Sometimes it seems that I did very little, but I know from this post yesterday that is not how 2019 went down. 

Back in January 2019 I wrote that I'd like to try to

• continue cleaning and organizing the studio
• finish the last piece in my Bipolar series
• continue work on the cotton series
• make a low-volume, neutral quilt for our bed
• keep going with the modern quilt guild and lean toward that aesthetic 
• teach at other guild meetings
• use up some scraps
• have fun with improv quilts 

The lines in blue are the ones I completed or accomplished in some way. The last piece of the Bipolar series is still sitting on the design wall. It may not happen. 

Connection #4 of the Bipolar series

Teaching at other guild meetings did not happen, at all! I think I'll make that my priority for this year. I'm off to a good start now that I've become a GSQA circuit teacher, but I haven't worked toward getting my name out where people might see it. Hmm, I would LOVE suggestions on ways to accomplish that. Please.

Otherwise, I like my goals from last year and will try to improve on those that are doable. Here are the new/old goals:

1. get my name out as a GSQA circuit teacher
2. send out letters and flyers to guilds in the state announcing my teaching curriculum and build a calendar for the blog
3. apply for national teaching gigs
4. continue cleaning and organizing the studio
5. keep going with the modern quilt guild and lean toward that aesthetic 
6. use up some yardage and scraps 
7. have fun with AHIQ improv challenges 
8. quilt and complete at least five of the tops that are in the "To Be Quilted" bin
9. help Marley with a few more projects

Zebra ~~ small finish

Over the weekend Marley got a black fleece jacket to wear on the cool mornings that may eventually come to Louisiana. A solid black, it was kind of plain--definitely not the norm for the darling of divas. So she came up with the idea of putting her initials on the jacket. Only she wanted a zebra print. Zebra. For a six year old. And it was her idea.

She's not spoiled. Not at all.

Luckily I had a few scraps of zebra print left from a project for Dusti. One of those pieces was plenty big enough for a small letter.

Although we considered all three of her initials, we decided that one large letter would show off the print better than three small letters.  



My concern was that the black in the print would disappear into the black of the jacket, but there's enough white for contrast. 
I used an iron-on interfacing to make sure that the black doesn't show through and the white look like gray. It also stabilized the letter making it very easy to stitch down. 

 
I didn't get a picture of Marley with her jacket on because she had taken her bath and was not dressed for photos. Trust me on this.

 However, she was thrilled with the outcome of the jacket and I am her hero. It would have been nice to be able to accept her hug, but we're trying to keep her from catching my cold.

This sore throat business is really putting a damper on my sewing life. Since when did laryngitis cause so much pain and legarthy? I can barely move at times. It just silly (and a bit depressing) that a simple sore throat can keep me out of the studio this much. 




Back to the jacket--it was a hit. I'm beginning to see a pattern between Jenny and Marley with these small projects. If I look back I might even see that the pattern is a weekly thing. Hmm. Jenny noted at supper tonight that she'd have to pay for sewing if she didn't have a Grandmay. I took it as a compliment and ate the dessert that Marley cooked to say thank you: cold Pop Tarts.

How do you use your sewing skills to spoil your children or grandchildren?