Love a good finish!

Marguerite

This group of beginners did a really good job on their More Peas in a Pod quilts. I'm so proud of them! They learned how to make and sew on binding during the last class, so they were finished except for some hand sewing. There were two that were unable to come, so will be making it up soon.  

Christal

Trish

Anita

Pat

Lorraine

 I love them all! My daughter Wendy finished her More Peas in a Pod quilt top too, and is getting it quilted, so will have some binding fun when she gets it back.

Wendy

Quilt sandwich = almost a finished quilt!

Lorraine's More Peas in a Pod

 Five of the new quilters met Thursday night to layer or sandwich their quilts. It was fun seeing their finished tops and helping them sandwich them for tying.

Marguerite's More Peas in a Pod

They learned that even though they are tying these quilts, they would use the same method to secure the layers if they were hand or machine quilting with their home machines (with the addition of more hand basting). We also talked about prepping for someone to long arm machine quilt their quilts. After pinning heavily, we basted the outside edges for security and ease when adding the binding.

Pat's More Peas in a Pod

 They didn't have much time for tying, but will work on that this week. We meet again Thursday night to make and sew on the binding.

Trish's More Peas in a Pod

 It's fun to see them almost finished. They are already talking about the next quilt...yep, they're quilters all right!

Anita's More Peas in a Pod

 I added Crystal's layering picture again as she is part of this group and I wanted her in this post as well. I will add Myneeka's also when she gets to this point.

Crystal's More Peas in a Pod

Beginners coming along strong!

 The beginners got their quilt centers put together yesterday and started the borders. They learned measuring is very important to border attachment. It's always fun to see their quilts come together and enjoy all of the different fabrics and colors they put together.

 Everyone was certain that they could finish the 2nd border on their own before the next class. One of them asked if this quilt could be made bigger by making more blocks and I said yes it would be easy to do. She said "not that I'm thinking about the next quilt, really." I loved it, because she was actually thinking about the next quilt while still working on the first one. Yep she's a quilter!

One of the gals missed the first class, so came yesterday to begin her quilt. She is coming tomorrow night to work on it some more!

 A little excitement for me...my quilt, Fragments,  hanging with the rest of the Quilters Quilt the Blues exhibit at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Atlanta GA this weekend. (The pic was on their Facebook page.) It will continue to travel with the OSQE shows throughout this year. If you happen to go to one of these shows, please take a pic of it for me! It will be in Lakeland, FL next weekend.

Fragments, second row from bottom of pic, 2nd quilt from the left.

A new group of quilters = excitement

I had a great time teaching the first session of Beginning Quilting on Saturday. It's always fun starting a new group on the road to quilting, but several of the people are from my hometown, so that makes it even more fun! They are making More Peas in a Pod, which is a variation of my pattern Peas in a Pod that appeared in McCalls magazine a few years ago. This is a great pattern to teach strip cutting and piecing methods.

As you can see, they all chose gorgeous fabrics, so it will be interesting to see the end results.

Cutting is always the biggest bump in the road, as squaring up and keeping the cuts accurate are a big part of accurate piecing. We figured out where the 1/4" was on each machine as accurate sewing makes for accurate blocks too! Many people believe that if they sew with their fabrics next to the presser foot, that is 1/4" but it usually is not. It's nice when you can move your needle on your machine so you can line up with the foot, but it's not always possible.

Their homework is to make the twelve blocks before our next class in two weeks. They were progressing well, so I think they will be ready to sew the blocks together next time.

My More Peas in a Pod quilt

More Peas in a Pod