Hello New Quilt! Despite my best intention to forge ahead and finish the stack of quilts awaiting binding, quilting, and more, I HAD to start a new quilt. And I'm totally justifying it because I wanted a new sample for a class.
Do the blocks there look familiar? It may be hard to pick out, but these are the same blocks that are in the Sunday Morning pattern from Sunday Morning Quilts. The original quilt is full of low volume goodness, whispering of Sunday morning delights. I think it might be the most made quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts (after slabs). At least, it is the one I see the most online.
I'm teaching Sunday Morning in a upcoming class at My Sewing Room. While I knew I wanted to make a new sample for the class - to show that you can indeed make it without using low volume fabrics - I wasn't entirely sure what fabrics I was going to use. Then I saw Amanda Jean playing with her solid scraps. Now, if you've been here for any length of time you know that I am not naturally drawn to solids. But her play with scraps got me jazzed. I NEEDED to make something with solids.
So I pulled out my leftovers from the preschool teacher's quilt and 'made scraps'. After making 5 blocks I realized I wasn't going to get very far with just my selection of solids. So I put the call out to my Calgary Modern Quilt Guild friends. When I got to the meeting last week I was handed bags and bags of strips and scraps. I don't even know who all shared with me, but I know that I am extremely grateful!
Now I have practically every colour under the rainbow and all in between. I can tell by feel that there are many different manufacturers in this pile. And it all works so well together.
My initial plan was to just make a small quilt, something easily transportable for classes. It goes against my every nature to work small, but I was determined to make it this time. Portability, portability, portability. But plans change.
While I was making a few blocks the girls sidled into the sewing room. Curiosity and a need for a little snuggle led to a full blown sewing lesson. The week before I'd taught them both how to use the machine all by themselves - with supervision. So when they asked to sew I decided that they could help me make blocks as opposed to starting a new project with them. What began as a selfish desire on my part to not clean up turned into a family project. They are so into making the blocks. They carefully select their next strips, they chain piece and press all by themselves, and yes, they unsew when necessary. There are still some lessons to learn about seam allowance and leaving the iron in the correct position, but we're getting there.
So now, I don't want to make this just a small quilt. This is well and truly a family quilt and so it must grow to accommodate all five of us. Besides, I think it is getting pretty gorgeous and don't want to stop making.
If you are local and interested in taking the class, call My Sewing Room to register. It runs in the evenings on October 16 and 23. 403-252-3711