My leap into sewing began about 9 years ago when I took a quilt class with Susan (the mother of a good friend from high school – also the mother of my ex-boyfriend). We’ve been taking this class every year for about the past 9 years. Susan has been very diligent with doing her homework assignment each month. I have not been as good. However, I’ve been doing much catching up in the past few months.
The class is on the first Saturday of every month, at a local quilt shop. The homework for each month is to sew one quilt square based on a pattern that you are given in class. They provided the fabric and the instructions. Each year you could choose from a group fabric combinations. Examples of past years are: pinks & greens, black & white, country, blue & yellow, brights, and many other groups. At the end of the year, if you’ve done all your homework, you’re left with 12 quilt squares that can be turned into a quilt, table runner, throw, or whatever else you want to turn them into. I have only made 2 finished quilt throws from 2 different years of homework. The other years I have either completed the squares, but don’t know how I want to finish off the quilt, or I haven’t done all my homework to make a complete set of 12 squares.
Here is one year that I did all my homework squares, and finished into a throw. I used leftover scraps of fabric to border the completed squares, and to fill in space between the squares. That year I had the “black and white” group. I used a “Day of the Dead” fabric by Alexander Henry for the back side of the quilt.
Day of the Dead quilt
This year I have selected the “30s” grouping of fabrics. This fabric is comprised of patterns that are reproductions of or inspired by prints of the 1930s that were originally imprinted on feed and flour sack bags. The theory was that with money being tight, and women using the fabric of the bags to make clothing, etc., if you had a pattern that women preferred, they would be more likely to buy your product. Here is a little history on feedsack fabrics.
Here is my finished homework square from September.
Quilt Class Homework
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