Quilt Class

We only have 3 more weeks in India. For a long time I have been asked to teach four of the staff we have been working with at IID Tabitha college how to do quilting. I finally got over my fear and did it. You know what? It was fun teaching Sumithy, Hilda, Sarao and Kanatara, all tailoring teachers and export quality goods makers.

We have discovered that quilt making is different than the clothing they usually make. The project was a 16 patch pillow cover with many matched corners.

Here is Hilda with one.

They had a great time and made 4 great pillows. I was able to teach them the basics of quilting.... chain stitching, matching corners, color choosing. Once they have these basics down the next step would be to add triangle blocks.

I also had to learn the way they did things. I learned with some cool tools: a rotary cutter, a mat and a nice square plastic ruler, I set the fabric flat on a table and cut it. They have these 2-pound scissors, a sewing tape measure and ingenuity, it takes a lot more skill to get perfect cuts. I learned just as much from them about techniques of cutting as they learned from me about piecing.

We all had fun and in the end we have five very colorful throw pillows.

Here is Kanatara winding a bobbin.