Patchwork Class: Week 1

I was super lucky to be asked to teach a beginner's patchwork class at Pippablue here in Galway.  How exciting!  What a great adventure! Here's how it was advertised:


"Learn to create a variety of blocks, which combine together to create a beautiful quilt. Over this 5-week course, you will learn the basics of patchwork and quilting, with an emphasis on modern design."


Can I do that?  Here's hoping!  Well, with a few weeks of preparation, class started earlier this week.  We have 5 people enrolled.  The ladies were super nice, funny, creative and ready for a laugh.  Each has her own very distinct style, making this all the more fun.


The idea is to tackle a skill each week making 2 blocks in the class and one as homework.  After 3 weeks we'd have a nice baby quilt sized sampler that we can sash, layer, quilt and bind in weeks 4 and 5.  

Each person has used a sewing machine before.  Some made clothes, others have dabbled in quilts, but we are generally starting at the beginning.  We started off with choosing fabrics (discussing contrasting but complimenting colors, print scale, etc) and accurate cutting and pressing.  I thought maybe this week would focus on squares.  How about your classic nine patch to get basic piecing skills, nesting seams, accurate cutting skills, etc.  That seemed OK, but a little boring.  How about a disappearing nine patch instead?  Sounds great!

We used the tutorial by Judith of Just Jude to make these pretties:

Don't they look great for their first quilt blocks?  Look at those matching points!  I'm so pleased with how well they did....more importantly I think they were too!

Homework is a square in a square based on a Fresh Lemons tutorial:

Next week is triangles.  This is so exciting!