SkillShare: Quilting & Sewing

Posted by Crystal Pepperdine, Founder and Executive Director of Flint Handmade

Our second of five SkillShare Workshops, funded by a generous grant from the Ruth Mott Foundation, was a HUGE success!

Rute and Michelle (standing, l-r) from Friends for Quilting taught us the basics of quilting and sewing at The Lunch Studio.

We all received a Community Education Tool-Kit in a Flint Handmade grocery tote with a tomato pincushion and a book on making fresh, modern quilts.  Jenni picked a red tote bag.  :)

First, we used colored pencils to color in our quilt block design that Rute created.  Coloring helped Sue, Erin, Gloria, Maureen (l-r) and the rest of us decide what color fabrics we wanted to use. 

Then, we actually selected our fabrics.  Jean (l) and Marie hold up some of the great fabrics we had available.

Rute showed us all how to cut our fabrics using a rotary cutter, self-healing mat and a quilting ruler.

Michelle (r) worked with Sue to cut her fabric.

After pinning our fabric pieces together, we finally got to start sewing!  Sue sews her pinned pieces in a chain stitch, feeding them in one after the next.

Maureen was the first person to sew her triangles into rectangles and then sew the rectangles together to make squares.

Sue was so proud of her block with the black and white mitered border!  She had to leave early, but her new quilting book will help her complete her block!

Dana pinned her block to batting and backing and took it home to put on the finishing touches.

Erin (l) and Maureen were the first two people to finish their blocks!  Erin was our most novice quilter and Maureen was our most experienced participant, but thanks to help from Rute and Michelle, they were both able to finish around the same time.

Happy Quilters Group Photo!

Back Row (l-r): Sarah, Jonah, Rute, Jean, Marie, Maureen, Crystal

Front Row (l-r): Alpha, Andrea, Erin, Gloria

For more photos, visit our SkillShare: Quilting & Sewing Flickr Set.

We still have three more workshops scheduled!

View the complete list at our original SkillShare Blog Post and email us at flinthandmade@hotmail.com if you would like to register. 

NOTE: The Stained Glass & Mosaics SkillShare is already at maximum capacity.

We wish to express our gratitude to the Ruth Mott Foundation for funding our SkillShare Workshops.

Our participants get to take home all of the supplies used to share their new skills with friends and family and continue the tradition of the domestic arts and crafts of our American cultural heritage.

THANK YOU, RUTH MOTT FOUNDATION!