Quilting Class

I have been a sewer since I was thirteen years old. My mother taught me all those years ago and I can still remember the sky blue fabric that had colorful brush stroke splatters on it that we made into a one piece jumper. Even had a coordinating short sleeve pink top to wear underneath it. When I was seventeen my parents gave me my first sewing machine for Christmas and from then on I sewed up a storm.

For many years, making clothing was my main focus with the occasional home dec item sneaking into my projects. When my body decided to turn into a "real" woman size I gave up on the clothing because I honestly couldn't be bothered having to alter the patterns to fit my size. My focus then turned to items like pillows, placemats, Christmas trees skirts and even a wall hanging quilt that I gave to my sister many moons ago.

Everything I know for sewing has been self taught. Kind of like I have been with my knitting once I learned the basics. After my sister and I visit the local favorite quilt shop here in NYC last year, I knew I wanted to take their seven week Intro to Quilting class. While working nights, I could never manage to get into the Saturday class and the one during the week conflicted with my working hours. So when I received the schedule for the Fall classes I immediately signed up for the Thursday night class.

I must say that I absolutely love the instructor! She has such a passion for quilting and is so eager to share her knowledge with everyone. I've been asked if I felt like I was going to get my money's worth out of this class since I kind of already knew what was involved with quilting. My immediate response is, "Yes!". We have covered four of the seven weeks now and I have learned so much. My confidence has been boosted too.

The instructor has left it up to each student as to what they will produce in the class using the block patterns she has provided us. Her model project was a four block quilt, with sashing and borders, to be completed into a lap quilt. She said that she has had students that have made that project or even turned it into a table runner or maybe a larger quilt. I knew right then that I wanted to make a quilt big enough to snuggle under while watching tv or reading a good book.

Each week we come into the class and put our completed blocks up on the wall for everyone to see. I am definitely the over achiever in the class, as I am the only one that has eleven blocks finished. I still have four more to go to get to the fifteen block count that I want for my quilt. Last night we picked out our sashing and border fabrics. I am so excited to see this project through to completion.

So here are the blocks that I have done so far. I have uploaded them in the order I completed them. It's been fun going from the simple to the more complex blocks. I am hoping to get the remaining blocks done this weekend so I can move forward with the sashing.











Happy crafting everyone!