Stitchin' Mission Lesson Questions Answered

Sue emailed these comments and questions. In case anyone else has similar questions, here are my responses.

Thanks again for another great class! I’ve laid out my blocks and I think the quilt is going to be really neat, so thanks to you and the Rebekahs for their help.

OK, I’ve come up with some questions:

1) How many safety pins do we need? I think I can scare up a few 1” ones but I have at least 16 bigger ones (1¾” total length) if those aren’t too big. The short answer is lots! I have several hundred that I use for pinning a large quilt. But if I were to guess for this baby quilt, I'd say 80-100 pins. They need to be pinned into the quilt sandwich approximately 4" apart to security hold the layers together. All that said though, you can thread baste your quilt. OR if you're planning to tie it, no basting is needed because we'll sandwich and tie the layers all at one time.

2) What width of masking tape do we need? The best roll I have is wider than the standard roll, but I can purchase a regular width roll if that will work. The regular width roll I have is old and likes to shred as you remove it from the spool, plus the back is rather sticky and I’m afraid it will leave a residue on the quilt. Any width tape works. We'll use it to tape the backing fabric to a table top.

3) Will you cover how to make the binding in the 4^th class so we can finish the quilt before the 5^th class? Yes, the fourth lesson is about binding.

SM20 - Second Lesson, Rotary Cutting

For the second lesson of Stitchin' Mission #20 at First Federated Church in Des Moines, we moved to the church's Fellowship Hall. Since this church is the site of the former Franklin Junior High School, that meant we had a large room - the school's former cafeteria! The room offers plenty of space for simultaneously being able to have our circle gathering and lesson, and spaciously distanced tables for rotary cutting. Perfect!

Lois Grove (L) is the dedicated coordinator for this Stitchin' Mission.

She's ably assisted by Nancy Jones.

As always, and as I love to see, we have a few mother/daughter combos.

Here's 13 year-old Elizabeth with her mother, Cheryl.

Deb Jacobs (L), has been a faithful Rebekah at several SMs. Here Deb is assisting Sue.

Another mother/daughter combo is Krystal (L), and 11 year-old Kinsey.

Rebekah Connie (L), assists De Ette.

Carla (L) is assisted by Barb Hyler who has attended many SMs

with this being her first session as a Rebekah.

Rachel (L) gets extra help from two Rebekahs!

Michelle Tepley (middle) has attended nearly all 20 SMs,

and Susan Murdock (R), has assisted with at least a half dozen SMs.

Rachel, you received very experienced help!

Spring looks as though she's enjoying herself.

Liz (L), Diane (middle) and Carol shared conversation as they worked.

The photos don't capture everyone in attendance, but more photo ops will be available next Tuesday when we begin making quilt sandwiches.

Stitchin' Mission #20 began Tuesday evening at First Federated Church in Des Moines, Iowa. Thirteen Rebekahs (helpers who "go the extra mile") and 35 newbies turned out on a mild (only 20F) winter night to learn about quiltmaking.

Among many topics covered during the first lesson is a segment about styles and types of fabrics, and characteristics of design: scale, contrast, and value.

Value is often an elusive concept to grasp. Even when showing the quilt top (below) that was specifically made to explain the attributes of various prints, value can be difficult to see. To show it more clearly, it's helpful to photograph your fabrics or quilt top. Then compare the color version to a black and white version. Value becomes very apparent!

The fourth row of tone-on-tone print loaves (3-1/2" X 6-1/2" unfinished rectangles) clearly shows that these loaves are not in value order! They're not lined up from lightest to darkest. Interesting, isn't it?

Hopefully this demonstration will help you understand value, and how it makes your quilt more interesting when you select fabrics with a variety of light, medium and dark values.

Clean Your Sewing Machine!

This is surely the best reason I've ever seen to clean your sewing machine! If you haven't done that for a while, or ever, take a moment to review what Bernina recommends.

http://www.berninausablog.com/read/keep-a-clean-machine

Those Quilts Have Been Hung

This message comes from Di Jobbins, one of the two Di-s who were Stitchin' Mission coordinators at St. Mark's Anglican Church in Sydney, Australia. Please visit Di's link, below, and scroll, scroll, scroll through her blog to see all the beautiful quilts hanging in their beautiful church.

As I think you might remember, QDU'er Linda Hungerford, from Lutheran Church of Hope in Des Moines Iowa taught a faith-based 5 week beginner quiltmaking class at our church here in Sydney in October/November this year, the plan being to make children's quilts for an autism specific kindy opening in Liverpool next year. Yesterday we hung 51 quilts in our church and they look magnificent! I've blogged about them, with lots of photos, over 4 separate posts, so scroll down to begin reading the first one. www.snippetsnscraps.blogspot.com

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Cheers, Di in Darling Point, making a list (and checking it twice!)

Stitchin' Mission Down Under in the News

An article about Stitchin' Mission #19 at St. Mark's in Darling Point (Sydney) appears in on on-line issue of the Wentworth Courier.

Stuff Happenin'!

Recapping several Stitchin' Mission activities.

• Stitchin' Mission #19 in Sydney (Darling Point, specifically), Australia, ended November 22 and those quilters have until Sunday, December 13 to turn in their finished quilts. At last count, 48 quilts have been made! These will be displayed at St. Mark's Anglican Church through the holidays, and given to a preschool for autistic children, due to open in June 2010.|

• The two Stringing Colors quilts made for Australian bush fire relief were mailed to Jan McFadyen on October 27. Our quilts were received and will be delivered to people in need who live in Kinglake, Victoria, an area most heavily damaged by February 2009 bush fires. On OzComfortQuilts.blogspot.com you can read a blog post about those quilts here.

• On December 1, the 11 member Mission Kinshuko team gave a presentation with wonderful photos and videos of their experiences at C-on Kinshuko and in Tokyo.

Here, Norma Hamilton (right) introduces Kumiko who is the person who saw and photographed Stitchin' Mission quilts at Lutheran Church of Hope. Kumiko returned to Japan and showed quilt pictures to her pastor, who then asked us to make quilts for C-on Kinshuko! Kumiko is our "connecting link" and who could have guessed where it would all lead. Below is a photo, taken at C-on Kinshuko, of the missionaries, and Quilt Camp and English Camp attendees. The quilt being held is one of the 101 quilts made for the camp. This one has the Lutheran Church of Hope logo in Sashiko, as the center medallion.

Click here to go to the C-on Kinshuko website and view photos of the camp and our missionaries' activities. From the home page, go to the bottom bar and click on the second button from the left.

If you participated in Beyond Stitchin' Mission to help make a quilt for C-on Kinshuko, the camp sent home a gift for you. Contact me to arrange to get yours.

Stitchin' Mission #20 Begins in January (five years after the first Stitchin' Mission!)

The 20th series of Stitchin' Mission beginner quiltmaking lessons will start Tuesday, January 12 (6:30 pm) at First Federated Church here in Des Moines.

• Donations of 100 percent cotton fabrics are gratefully being accepted.
• You're invited to register now, either as an individual who wants to learn quiltmaking, or as a Rebekah (helper) with quiltmaking experience who is willing to help others learn. Everyone is welcome! Click here to register.

Stitchin' Mission on the Radio

On Thursday, January 7, 2010, I will again talk about Stitchin' Mission on the radio. If you're in the Des Moines area you can listen to Maxine Sielman's program, "Update Today," from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. on station KPSZ, Praise 940 AM.

It's beautiful to see how Stitchin' Mission, and what you are doing, is touching the world. Blessings!