Loving Hands Quilt Guild

Our church in New Berlin, WI, has a quilt mission as part of the Women's Mission groups.  As my co-leaders Suzi always says, we're "small but mighty".  We have about six or seven core members, and sometimes we pull in other people for a project here or there.

We always have a bag of quilt kits in our resource center, but sometimes our 'parts department' gets a little low.  We love making string blocks, and putting them into quilts, but we stopped making them for a while so we ran out.

This year we wanted to spend a day sewing together, and it seemed like getting some string blocks done would be a good project for all skill levels. You know what string blocks are I'm sure... but here's a sample just in case:

I made these 3 1/2 inch blocks of leftover pieces a while back. 
Our blocks at church are usually 9 1/2 inches. 

We had a whole bag of 'strings', which are the cuts that are left over when you make a project.  Sometimes they're large and can be used again in a quilt, and sometimes the pieces are short but can be sewn together and used, and sometimes you wonder why you didn't throw them away to begin with!

Suzi brought her bucket of strings too, and that turned out to be a BIG pile of goodness! We ended up with a crew of nine or ten, including one teenager and my own Miss A, who is almost 9.  So we went all the way from 9 to 90+!

We work on foundation blocks, pieces of fabric too light to use in an actual quilt; we had a ton of those precut.  Several of the ladies and the two youngsters had never made a string block before.  It's a good block for beginners to start with because it's so forgiving.  A demo of the process was made and we were off to the races!

At various points during the day we ate, played bingo with quilt words and gave away prizes, then returned to sewing.  By the end of the afternoon we had over 30 blocks, 9 1/2 inches square, sewn, pressed and trimmed to size.  Next time someone is looking for a project, this could be the one they pick up!

Sadly I took almost NO pictures during this wonderful day.  Next time, for sure...  A good time was had by all.  I hope we made some new friends, and that they come back again next month.  Our 'parts department' is full again!

Sew on...

The Twins!

I work in an office that is dominated by testosterone.  Yes, it's mainly men... with a smattering of women thrown in for spice.

This summer, three of the ladies who sit within 25 feet of my cubicle are having babies.  The mood swings and snack and potty breaks are kind of on overload right now, but that's another story.

One of the moms-to-be is a third-timer.  She quietly went off to have her third son in summer, without much more than a few complaints about a tired back.  We expect her back any time.

The other two are having respectively:  twins in August and a boy in November.  I'm working with the mom of twins on getting her paperwork caught up before she goes, because she could go any time.  Both babies are over five pounds, and she's ready.  If you've had a baby, you KNOW what I mean!!

So I'm sitting in my sewing studio thinking about baby quilts the other day.  I blogged about making the jacks blocks a bit ago.  I had lots of help from the girls and we made a big stack of blocks.

I sorted the blocks into 'boy' and 'girl' colors.  Had enough for two boy quilts and one girl... must be my fixation with the color blue.  Anyway, pulled from my stash some fabric for an inner border, and also made a second border of those four patch blocks I make with my 2 inch strip bin periodically.  I have bags of those, sorted by color.

What to do for a final border??  The pink in the inner border of the girl's quilt wasn't quite true pink, it was more peachy than anything in my stash.  So off to the fabric store -- I know, poor me!  I found a great stripe from the Jennifer Chiavarini collection from the Union Quilters book.  I also picked up a backing/binding fabric for each quilt.

The result is what I'm calling Fraternal Twins:

Same pattern, different fabrics.  I apologize for the lighting, this was on my kitchen table and the patio doors are to the right...  some of the whites look kind of yellow on Baby Girl, but we decided it might be because some of the white-on-white prints really reflected the light, and the solids not so much.

I gave them to the new mom early in the week.  She cried.  I asked why she was crying and she said 'Because I'm pregnant'...  good enough!  But she and her hubby really liked them.  I'm hoping the babies do too!

These quilts were almost entirely from my stash, done at the last minute because I build those pieces as I go...  I cut anything smaller than a fat quarter or straight quarter yard into units, either strips or squares.  When I want to sew but have nothing in mind, or want to do mindless sewing, or I'm sewing with kids around, I make strip sets and four patches.  Need a gift in a hurry?  Pull out the ziplocs, find stuff and viola!!  Instant or almost instant finish.

I did quilt this by machine, stitch in the ditch in the interior and on the edges of the borders.  Boring but necessary...  I feel quite virtuous for two finishes in one week.

Sew on!

Mrs. H's Blouse

One of my jobs in high school was to sew my own clothes.  I am from a big family, back in the days when having a big family was something you did.  I'm the oldest of eight, one of two girls.  Men who grew up with lots of sisters sometimes complain about living in a house full of women, but we had the reverse -- 30% estrogen, 70% testosterone!

NOT my actual brothers but some of these guys are dirty enough to qualify...

I started babysitting for other families when I was about 12, and I saved up my 50 cents an hour to buy garments at the thrift stores and Goodwill (see other post on the subject).  I used my mom's machine but always had to clean up to clear the table for dinner, and things took forever to finish.  Otherwise I sewed in an unfinished basement.

When I was in high school I got a job for the Christmas season at a local variety store, one that had a big fabric department.  Someone traded in a used sewing machine in a cabinet for a new portable machine.  The store manager let me purchase this beauty for $65. 

It was a couple of days before my mom could come with the station wagon to haul the machine/cabinet home.  I set up at the foot of my bed, put my sewing basket under the legs and was thrilled to be in business!!  Funny, I am trying to remember what kind it was, probably a Kenmore.  I remember it had cams for the different stitches, and a big honkin' buttonhole attachment that fastened to the back of the presser foot.  It took me months to figure that thing out.

But figure it out I did, and that led directly to Mrs. H's blouse...

Mrs. H was a lady who went to our church.  She had a daughter and two sons.  The daughter was older than me, I think she was away at school most of the time.  One son was my age and one was  younger, and my brothers were friends with them.  I think Mrs. H missed Karen because she always was so nice to me.  But then she was a VERY nice person...

This is what it looks like in my memory...

She knew I sewed, and I think she must have been impressed with my skills because she offered to actually pay me to sew some things for her.  She had her eye on some fabric for an outfit for work at her job in a doctor's office.  It was a gray a-line skirt, and for a blouse she picked out a lovely teal paisley cotton blend.

 Sewing that outfit was a challenge; I wanted it to be as close to perfect as I could make it!  I sweated those buttonholes.  I'll bet I made them a dozen times in my dreams before I dared to make a couple of samples on the scraps.

I didn't have the benefit of any sewing classes, or a mentor who knew anything about garment construction.  My school schedule was full of college-prep classes like Advanced Algebra and Chemistry.  When I think about the vast amount of stuff I didn't know, I'm appalled at my hubris in thinking what I did would be worth payment!  Mrs. H, if you're still around, I'm humbled by your faith.

The blouse was very pretty.  It had a button placket and about 7 buttons that couldn't have been bigger than 5/8 of an inch.  Plus one more on each cuff.  The skirt was easy, a centered back zipper and a metal clasp on the waistband, pretty standard stuff.  I pressed carefully as I worked.  I didn't prewash anything, I'm sure.  I can't remember seeing Mrs. H in the outfit at church, but she thanked me prodigiously for my hard work.

Instead of money, she bought me all the supplies for a personal project at an actual FABRIC STORE downtown.  Two and a half yards of white wool, interfacing, lining, and buttons, and a pattern for a dress coat for spring and fall... at the time it was a dream come true.

And THAT project was so enjoyable to complete that it should be worth its own post!

Thank you and bless you, Mrs. H, wherever you are.  I hope you know how much you influenced me!

Sew on!