Sewing lesson

Yesterday my friends Rumi-san and Mrs. Nakazawa came for their monthly patchwork lesson. They have done hand piecing (at their request) and made a couple of small quilts. They finished their Happy Village quilts and proudly brought those to show me and let me take pictures. Yeah! I love these village quilts. They turn out so nicely! And then.... I MADE them sit down at a sewing machine.

"You can do all the hand piecing you like. It is always nice to have a project by your chair. BUT, you have to TRY machine piecing just so you can decide if it is something you might be able to do. If I'm going to teach you, you HAVE to learn machine piecing."

Gulp. Neither of them really wanted to try it. Roller cutters look scary and difficult to maneuver. Neither of them have touched a sewing machine in 10's of years. But I am a strict teacher and together we bought fabric and prepared it for the cutting table. Beautiful fabric isn't it?!

"Okay, take a deep breath. Hang on to the wide ruler and CUT. Excuse me! Too many "oopses" going on here. You are wasting fabric! Be careful!"

I think after cutting 30 some strips they were getting the hang of it.

I brought down my sewing machine and an old one that I keep for emergencies (neither friend owns a sewing machine right now!) and pretty soon they were zipping away! Yeah! We managed to sew strips together but haven't cut those up yet to sew into blocks. Rumi-san and Mrs. Nakazawa still feel like they are wandering through a mystery land.

"What are we doing with all these strips? How is this going to turn into a quilt block?"

I remember the magic feel of a block suddenly coming together without me really understanding why. I hope my friends will feel the same sense of satisfaction!

Next step.... Next month.

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1997 and we took our family to a nearby park with water wheels in it. I'm surprised we risked taking Lemi with us! I shudder to think she might have jumped out of my lap and disappeared into some unknown place! But all was well. For awhile I was trying to sew fleece shirts and this was one of my attempts at a mother daughter look. Shoko is still being held down for the picture isn't she?