We had our First Monday Sewday this week, and the little group grew by two new participants.  For those who don’t know about how we started, it began because a young woman in our church wanted to learn how to quilt.  Then we found out a couple of more wanted to learn also.  I rounded up a couple of capable experienced quilters, and they agreed to teach and serve as a resource, and Beth offered up her home for us to congregate.

Above is Amber, who finished this month’s block.  It’s called Tipsy Two-fer, and was designed by the fabulous Simone, shown below giving her little mini lesson.

Download the block pattern from Simone’s website at  simonebradford.com, where you can also see lots of different ways to put the block together. I also have a First Monday Sew-day handout you can download (PDF file; sample above): FirstMondaySewday_3_2020

Hayley and Caitlin are working on their blocks.

We had eight children under the age of six here, and Beth was also getting new fences.  Vanda’s mother (visiting from the Czech Republic) agreed to keep an eye on the chaos children.

And it was Beth’s birthday, shown here hoisting up her son to help blow out the candles.

Since I’m a record-keeper, here we all are together.  I’m impressed that Vanda could smile as her son was trying to bolt off her lap to Grandma (who took our photo).

Since you know what I’ve been doing for weeks and weeks (house painting and trying to cram it all back in my sewing room), it gave me the opportunity to cull through some fabrics; I took four shopping bags of fabrics that quickly were sorted through and taken to new homes.  I also brought some magazines, and remembered that I had a quilt published in the back of this Quilty issue.  Amber jokingly requested my autograph, and we laughed together — but really it was all about the good mood present.  Not a whole lot of quilting went on, but the young moms were able to talk and visit and we had cake and a Simone-block and a really great time.

Other First Monday Sew-day handouts are here:

This handout is about the basics: rotary cutting, accurate seams and pressing.  Simone also talked about how to choose colors for a quilt.  That day we sewed four patches together.

Click to download PDF file: FirstMondaySewday_D19

We tackled half-square triangles and snowball corners on this day.

Click to download PDF file: FirstMondaySewday_Jan6_2020

Flying Geese were up next, with Laurel teaching the lesson.  All the secrets for Flying Geese are in this handout.

Click to download PDF file: First Monday Sewday_Feb 2020