Sharing One's Talents

Thursday evening I was given an opportunity to teach quilting to a group of women I belong to. It is a service organization/sorority-type club, and each meeting has a "program." For yesterday's meeting, quilting was the program. Awesome, right?

I decided awhile ago that I would focus on the 9-patch block, one of the most basic quilt blocks of all. I cut a gazillion 2.5" squares, threaded a bunch of needles, and had each woman stitch a block of her own. I had plenty of samples to share, and sewed one along with them, to illustrate various things. It was lots of fun. Most of them seemed interested, and were excellent students. We had several with finished blocks that looks quite nice.

In addition to having many sample 9-patch blocks, I also took some quilt tops that feature this block so that they could see the variety of ways it can be set into a quilt. Look at the easel: the top 3 show the 9-patch in 3 different sizes. I talked about the five spaces and the four spaces. I pointed out in the largest block that the center space could be made of a third color.

The rest of the blocks on the easel are all made with 2.5-inch squares. I talked about low contrast; I have one up there that is totally random; and I have one there that is made with light 5-spaces and dark 4-spaces. So they had a good variety to consider.

On the table, I had a quilt top that features the 9-patch. It is a Thimbleberries pattern, in case you are wondering. Spread out on the table are all the 2.5-inch squares that I prepped for the meeting. There was wayyyy more than we needed, but I wanted to offer as much variety as possible.

On the tables behind these ladies are more quilt tops. All sizes; all types; a wide variety. Don't these gals look intent? Of course, some took to it right off, finishing quickly, while others had issues and took a bit more time. Most everyone did finish their blocks, though. Here are a couple of finishes.

And a few provided pictures of what they did with their blocks after they went home. These are some clever ladies!

It was fun teaching quilting to these ladies. We had a lot of laughs, and I think there are more than a couple that would like to continue quilting. Wouldn't that be lovely?

I have to show you one "oops" that we had along the way; have no fear - we had it corrected before it went home!

Happy Quilting, Friends!