During my year in the US I had the great possibility to take a quilting class at the Harvard Neighbors, a great institution for spouses of visiting scholars at Harvard University. They offer different classes, meetings, outings... The quilting teacher is one of the nicest persons I ever met.
We (16 newcomers from Japan, Korea and one from Germany) started to learn the basic techniques by making a baby quilt for donation to a local clinic. A very good idea since our skills were still in development. For my part I know that in my baby quilt there are some toe catchers and the quilting stitches are quite uneven. But hopefully the new moms, who are really in need, will enjoy the quilts anyway.
For my donation quilt I chose some nine patches in various children's prints, shoe flys and a bow tie in every corner combined with some alternating blocks of unbleached muslin. The quilt measures 24''x30''. The backing is one piece of very narrow striped blue and white cotton. The whole quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted, even the bias binding has been made and put on by hand. Okay, this was due to not having a sewing machine at that time. But it was a good feeling to have it done all by myself. The quilting design includes some trucks, a lot of flying things like bees, butterflies, planes and a helicopter. There are also some numbers in the quilting and in the blue bow ties. That's what happens when a math teacher starts quilting...26 quilts , the oldcomers did their part too, were donated on valentines day this year together with some knitted baby garments. I knitted 3 little hats and two pairs of baby booties.
3 comments:
Kathinka this is beautiful! I love this story about how you learned to quilt and donating the projects. A wonderful thing to do, though maybe one day you will wish you could see your first project again. I have only made baby quilts but they have all been hand pieced and hand quilted - not because I don't have a sewing machine but because I love the way they look when they're entirely sewn and quilted by hand. Thanks for this special story and photo. :)
Hi sockapalooza pal,
it is so great, that you comment on my blog. I'm thrilled! And you are a quilter, too!
I cannot imagine, that I will start machine quilting one day. My teacher would start to cry. :-)
But I now use a machine for putting on borders and doing some of the piecing.
I'll show some pictures of my other projects later.
Thank you once again! I really would like to know, if I already visited your blog. Maybe I even left a comment about my future sock?
Kathinka there are sooooo many people participating in Sockapalooza. I doubt if you've been to my blog. I know you have not left me a comment! And I have not started your socks yet. :)
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