The First Quilt

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I thought it would be useful to make a quick wall hanging quilt, so that the women would have a finished project that they could call their own. Well, small quilts are mostly finished but will not be going home with anyone. Not sure what will happen but...

In addition to the 9x12 inch panels we had access to five large, contractor size bags of scraps the day before. I thought, why not let the student add at least one cloth as a border adding to those that we had precut.

9 women and 8 panels, but that problem was resolved whenone of the husbands demanded that his wife quit the class and return home because their three-year old son was crying, and he was not about to babysit. He really didn't want her to learn; she was in tears as she said good-by.

Unused to making creative decisions, it took awhile trying to decide which color to add and what width. It's a good thing that we decided at the last minute to use machines and not hand stitch.

Although four women used sewing machines at home, those at the center are highly skilled and use industrial Juki machines...i.e., they run about 1000 mph.

LOTS of creativity...When Madina realized that the provided strips were too short, she improvised by adding squares to each corner..which prompted several others to ask her to stitch squares in their corners.

By mid-afternoon, we did have 8 wall hangings more or less ready for binding. Before leaving for the day, we asked each one to hold up her panel and tell us what she liked about it. Very interesting. Bill & I were incredibly impressed with how well they worked together, in their cooperation, and for trying something new.

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