Quilting Class One: Four Patch
Last week was my first quilting class. I was oddly very nervous at the start of the class. Worried about my sewing abilities, the 'cheapness' of my Wal-Mart sewing machine, messing up my beautiful new fabric etc. etc. The class consisted of seven women including myself; I was the youngest...go figure?
There was one particular woman who sat in front of me that caught my attention. She was so insecure and anxious which made me kind of sad. I immediately felt the need to make her feel better so I commented how nice her fabric was and she began to talk a bit more. She said that she used to sew when she was 'younger' but then got too busy with family and work that she hadn't sewn in quite a while. Turns out she is a retired home-care nurse. At one point she turned to me and said that she couldn't wait for 9 o'clock to come so she could be 'allowed' to leave. Which got me feeling that her situation was quite sad; how could a woman that worked as a nurse, raised a family, and did who knows what else in her life, be so insecure that it became painful to stay in a quilting class? My friend, Barb, and I coached her along and she ended up staying for the rest of the class, completed her blocks and I think enjoyed herself.
As the class went on, I was considerably more relaxed as well. It was fun to choose which fabric to put together, to cut the strips, sew them together and create a block. The block that we completed is called a four patch. Here are my two piles.
They can be pieced together in a single row but I think I will place 4 together to make a bigger block like this:
Next class we are going to make a nine patch block. Looking forward to it and also to see if my retired nurse friend is willing to brave class two. Hoping she will.
There was one particular woman who sat in front of me that caught my attention. She was so insecure and anxious which made me kind of sad. I immediately felt the need to make her feel better so I commented how nice her fabric was and she began to talk a bit more. She said that she used to sew when she was 'younger' but then got too busy with family and work that she hadn't sewn in quite a while. Turns out she is a retired home-care nurse. At one point she turned to me and said that she couldn't wait for 9 o'clock to come so she could be 'allowed' to leave. Which got me feeling that her situation was quite sad; how could a woman that worked as a nurse, raised a family, and did who knows what else in her life, be so insecure that it became painful to stay in a quilting class? My friend, Barb, and I coached her along and she ended up staying for the rest of the class, completed her blocks and I think enjoyed herself.
As the class went on, I was considerably more relaxed as well. It was fun to choose which fabric to put together, to cut the strips, sew them together and create a block. The block that we completed is called a four patch. Here are my two piles.
They can be pieced together in a single row but I think I will place 4 together to make a bigger block like this:
Next class we are going to make a nine patch block. Looking forward to it and also to see if my retired nurse friend is willing to brave class two. Hoping she will.
Comments
Post a Comment