Q is for Quilter

Our Community Helper for Q is Quilter. My first choice was Quarterback, but the girls are more interested in sewing then football right now. As a matter of fact Bria has been asking for months to learn how to sew. This seemed like a good time to start! 

The girls love quilts and looking at all the pretty colors and fabric combinations in them. They have several baby quilts of their own, and I am sure they have all watched either me or their Grandma quilting at some point.  They know how long it takes to make all those little stitches!

Since I didn't learn to sew as a kid, I wasn't really sure where to start. Luckily No Doubt Learning had posted on beginning sewing just a few months ago! She suggested starting with tapestry needles, embroidery floss, and styrofoam plates.

I drew a few simple designs on the plates for them to try to follow with their thread.

They were thrilled to pick out some embroidery floss, thread their needles, and get started sewing!

They quickly realized that while it was easy to keep the thread on the lines in the front of the plate, it was much more difficult when moving back through. Several times we had to back up because someone brought their needle back to the front to find the line creating a thread circling around the edge of the plate. Eventually they got the hang of it by holding the plates up to the light, so they could see the design and the needle behind the plate.

The other thing that gave them a few problems was keeping the correct tension on the embroidery floss.  If they pulled too hard it would just tear right through the plate. It didn't take Bria long to figure that out, but Nadia struggled a little more with pulling out stitches. In the end they both got the hang of it.

I figured they would do a couple each and be satisfied, but they kept on going! They had me draw more designs, and they drew some of their own until all my little styrofoam plates were gone!

They were still pretty excited about their sewing once we were done, so perhaps they will learn to quilt someday too! Until then, they hopefully understand a bit more about it.

Next step...actual fabric in an embroidery hoop!