Sewing lessons again

I messed up in the photo department yesterday. I had sewing going on but didn't get a picture of any finishes.

My friends Rumi-san and Mrs. Nakazawa came over to work on their Irish Chain quilts. I am forcing them to make a machine pieced quilt (neither one of them has a working sewing machine so they can only sew at my house. I have one everyday use machine and one "use for emergencies" machine.) I think both of these friends would rather sit at home and stitch by hand, that is their image of "Patchwork". That's fine but they've both got unfinished piecework that is just so tedious that it doesn't get finished. I wanted them to see how something fairly substantial can come together in a relatively short period of time. And both friends are very loving, giving people so if they can get over their sewing machine allergies then they would be able to make and GIVE AWAY quilts with great joy. That's why I'm forcing them to learn the usage of roller cutters, flag piecing and sewing machines. I am NOT sure that they are having fun.

After a couple of hours there was the enlightening moment when they could see how all this strip cutting and down the line sewing and Omnigrid cutting finally came together in a Chain block and I think they got a rush of satisfaction. Of course each of them only got 6 Chain blocks made and they've got another 12 to go plus background blocks... Well its a start.

Then in the evening I had two little 4th and 5th grade girls who came for English but one other girl was absent so after 15 minutes of English review I pulled out fabric and needles and thread.

So much concentration and both girls were very good doing the small amount of applique, a little embroidery and using the sewing machine to stitch two pieces together. We were running out of time so we hot-bonded eyes on and filled the bottoms with car deodorant beads and then gathered the bottoms closed. A real rush-rush job at the end. (Moms are waiting out in front of my house in the cold night air!) And that's why I didn't get a picture of the finished products! Sorry!


The girls were making Totoro, a Japanese animation character and their Totoros looked like this, (my sample) one girl's in green and one girl's in red check.