Baby Quilt

One of my daughter Cammy's close friends recently had a gorgeous baby girl. She was so excited about her first friend ever to have a baby that she wanted to give her a gift that was really special.

We decided that we would make her a scrappy baby quilt with some hand quilting...together. You know, a mother-daughter bonding experience for us.

We joyfully started out at the fabric store. I let Cammy pick out the fat quarters (with a little guidance from me on how to choose your fabrics to get the scrappy look we wanted). It was fun to let her choose the fabrics because she picked patterns I wouldn't have chosen, and yet I loved how they worked together in the end. The teacher was the student!

The fabric was washed and pressed and we started cutting our strips. As I hovered over her cutting it was really becoming clear that my control freak tendencies were rearing their ugly head. I know cutting quilt fabric can be tricky, and I mean well...but I'm pretty sure my daughter wasn't having a good time.

After I came up with a simple design, we moved on to piecing the blocks. 1/4" seams are pretty exacting work for someone who never touched a sewing machine before. Bless her heart, the one block I let her piece looked great but came out about an inch too small. I set it in the pile of "soon to be potholders" and she looked really, really, sad. And I felt like some kind of quilting bully.

When school started up again (she's a college senior this year!), she was too busy to work together on this anymore. I pressed on and finished it in time for the baby shower. As disappointing of an experience this may have been for Cammy, she ended up adoring the quilt. And I did too. For a week before it was gifted, it rested on the back of a chair in the living room. Both of us had to pick it up and admire it every time we walked by. I hope this means there is still a little inspiration to be a sewist in her...somewhere. Maybe we can try again with a simpler project? Let's hope!

Every quilt has a story, doesn't it?

–Cassandra

Indoctrinating the Masses

Cassandra and I have an evil plan. Well, it might not actually be evil but we kind of like the idea of being slightly dark and mysterious.

We want to teach everyone to craft something. 

Frankly, it doesn't matter what a person's interest is, we just want them to join the club and become a maker of things. Making stuff is great for the soul and the mind. It gets you out of your routine and gives you something to focus on that will provide a finished project at the end. For those of you who are readers, you know that sad feeling you get at the end of a good book? Well, making something is the exact opposite of that. Even if your finished project doesn't come out exactly as planned, you've CREATED something - which is an awesome feeling.

To this end, we've been doing our part to bring crafting to the masses. And, while the term "masses" may be overstating it a bit, we believe that every little bit counts. In recent months, we've taught a Beginning Knitting class and, yesterday, I taught a Beginning Embroidery class.

Me, teaching. Note my new hairdo!

We're lucky to have this cool community space in Madison called DreamBank where they'll pay for all the materials and advertise the class. All you have to do is teach it. The students get to go home with a new skill AND all the materials. So, yesterday, seven people tried their hand at our Bear embroidery pattern*. They received the pattern printed on linen/cotton fabric, a 6" hoop, a #5 embroidery needle, a skein of floss, and handouts on how to do the stitches needed for this pattern. Plus, of course, they got two hours of instruction from yours truly.  ;)

Interestingly, teaching embroidery was MUCH easier than teaching beginning knitting. All my students were women (two of them teenagers) and they seemed to intrinsically understand the stitch work. My star pupil was one of the teenagers who just plowed through her pattern with abandon and did a great job. Her mom struggled a bit but I was able to find the right words (and process) to help her understand what she was doing and she eventually caught on and was successful.

The best part was watching people "branch out" and try things that were not strictly on the curriculum. I encourage this behavior because I think it makes more fearless crafters.

Anyway, a good time was had by all and I'm pretty sure that a few of these folks will actually finish their project. Hopefully they'll continue on and make more wonderful stuff.

- Alex

*Click that link for free downloads of Bear, Hare, Fox, and Owl embroidery patterns!

Converting The Masses

"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches."
  - George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists: Education. Man and Superman, 1903

This quote is taken out of context a lot and used, regularly, to imply that teachers are somehow lesser beings for being teachers instead of doers. Setting aside the current state of our education system and the fact that teachers are regularly treated as second-class citizens (even though they're tasked with educating the next generation of people who will contribute to our society), I open today's post with this quote because I want to proudly claim "teaching" as a new-found skill.

I believe I mentioned that I was teaching a couple of knitting classes here in Madison, in support of the release of What (else) Would Madame Defarge Knit?. The first was a week and a half ago - a beginner knitting class of 17 people, most of whom had never touched needles or yarn. Thankfully, Cassandra was there to help because trying to provide one-on-one instruction to brand-new knitters proved intense. I believe it was successful as I know that at least two of the people have stuck with it and now consider themselves knitters. :)

The reason I mention this today is because one of my "students" from the first class was my friend, Kristine. She's also one of the people who not only stuck with it but jumped in with both feet. Within a week of the class, she'd gone out and bought some KnitPicks Harmony needles (because she loves beautiful things) and some new yarn. She started using YouTube, as I advised, to help her when she'd get lost or forget how to do something. And, she called me when it was time to cast-off.

She had tried casting off on her own but - as we all do in the beginning - had gotten discombobulated. So, she came over last night and we had a little impromptu class in my living room, where (I'm proud to say) she successfully cast-off her first dishcloth. We also covered "unknitting" and how to change/add yarn in the middle of a project.

The most satisfying thing was seeing her work. She'd obviously practiced and her finished object showed it. Her tension was great and she had nary a dropped or twisted stitch. I'd like to take a small amount of credit for that although it probably has more to do with the fact that she's a bit of a perfectionist. LOL  Either way, I'm bursting with pride at her accomplishment and my small role in it.

My next class is on June 23. It will be an intermediate class or, probably more accurately, an advanced-beginner class. I am, surprisingly, really looking forward to it. I'm amazed at how much I enjoy teaching knitting and watching people "get it".

I guess we can consider it my contribution to Knitting World Domination. ;)

- Alex (taking over the world, one stitch at a time)

PS - While most don't know it, I have an unreasonable dislike of variegated yarn.  There's no explanation for it other than it tends to fall into the "whimsical" category in my brain and I really hate whimsy. (Cassandra and I bond over our dislike of variegated yarn.) I would like to show the world that I'm trying to get over my ridiculous judgement of this category of yarn... I found this cotton (Sugar & Cream) in a melange of colors that really appealed to me. Unfortunately, I'm not thrilled with what it looks like knit up but I'll muck around with it for a while and see if there isn't anything I can make that I'll actually like. Who knows... maybe I'll be a convert.