Sewing With Friends

This past weekend I got to do something I had not done in forever...sew with real people...in the same room...and it was invigorating.  It was just what I needed.  My friend from high school contacted me to say she would be in town and invited me over to work with her and her aunt on a project.  (This is the same friend that awarded me with my Scraptastic Award)  She wanted to make a quilt with olives on it and showed me a picture of what they hoped to create.  Of course I couldn't resist a chance to play with EQ7, so I offered to do a mock up of something similar.  Because she is still new to quilting, her aunt had a technique in mind that would involve the quilt to be made up entirely of small squares.  So I went to work creating a map to follow.

My mock up wasn't exactly like that picture she showed me, but I thought this might be a bit easier.  Plus I was able to give her the dimensions of her quilt and fabric requirements so that she wasn't flying completely blind.  One of the worse feelings in the world is not having enough fabric.  The thought makes me cringe.

When I arrived at her aunt's absolutely beautiful log cabin, I was quickly greeted and into the sewing studio we went.  I had to look like a toddler visiting Toys R Us for the first time in my life.  Her aunt's sewing space was to die for.  I think if I tried I could possibly live under the sewing machine tables and she wouldn't even know I was there.  She has plenty of space to hold small classes, do custom long arm work, and display and create gorgeous pieces.

Ok, back to our project.  It truly was a group effort.  While Courtney sewed away at her HST unit's, the rest of us worked on squaring and ironing them.

Of course we took breaks for the delicious pumpkin cookies Courtney's mom made.  I have to get the recipe.

After all the trimming and pressing was completed, we could finally start on constructing the quilt.  We used a technique where we arranged the fabric squares on a fusible layout grid.  I have to admit I had never tried this method before, but it made the quilt come together much quicker than I imagined it would with all the little pieces.  After we had sections laid out, we ironed our squares so that they would adhere to the webbing and would not move.

We had to build the quilt in four separate sections that would have to be combined.

Why do I always looked stoned in pictures...urg.

After the first section was laid out and pressed, Courtney was able to start sewing, while the rest us continued to lay out the quilt.  She would fold a row of the squares together and sew 1/4" seam.  

Then she could fold the next row and sew.  She continued on until all the vertical rows were sewed.  The horizontal rows could not be sewed until all the sections were joined together.

So for the time being we had a bunch of smooched long olives.  We also decided it would make a great creepy eye ball pattern for Halloween.

Once all the vertical rows were finished we could begin connecting the sections and sewing the horizontal rows.

So after several hours of team work, Courtney was able to leave with an almost completed top.  The only thing left to do is add borders after she grabs more yardage.  And I'm pretty sure she graduated to confident beginner :)

I'm so thankful that she called me and let me help with her project.  Not only did I get to spend the day quilting and talking about quilting, I was able to learn a new technique that would work great for making teeny tiny miniature quilts.  I hope if they get together for another family sew day, I'll get a call back.  Do you ever get together with friends and family for sew dates?  I need to figure out how to convert my family and other friends into quilters.  Bwhahahah

Come joint the party!  Today day I'm linking up with TGIFF hosted today by Anja Quilts, Creative Goodness at Quilt Shop Gal,  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop at Confesstions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts, and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.