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Under Our Wings Takes Off!
- Details
- Published on Saturday, 21 May 2011 12:31
- Written by Janet
On Saturday May 7, Susie Goodman and I met with a group of women who volunteered to make quilts for Quilts of Valor. A few of them had made quilts before, but for most of them this would be their very first quilt. Their first task was to choose from a selection of kits that the Shiisa Quilts staff had assembled.
Our Make Your First Quilt classes are usually about $100 plus supplies. With the Under Our Wings program, the class itself is free because experienced quilters volunteer as Coaches to help Rookie Quilters learn the ropes.
Susie and I helped our rookies learn to use rotary cutters, how to sew a 1/4" seam, how to press -- all the skills every new quilter needs!
We also did our share of helping to cut, helping to press, and even helping to un-sew when seams went a little wonky!
It's not just the volunteer coaches who make this program possible!!
- Alex Veronelli of Aurifil Threads is one of the UOW supporters -- so each of our rookies had a spool of Aurifil thread to use for piecing their quilts.
- Becky Lomasney of Mustard Seed Quilts designed the Stars and Bars pattern especially for our Under Our Wings workshops!
- Shiisa Quilts makes BERNINA sewing machines available for our rookies -- as well as offering the use of all the tools in our well-stocked classroom! Rotary cutters, rulers, irons, etc are essential tools -- and our rookies learn about what they'll need if they decide that this first quilt won't be their last!
If you'd like to help with our next UOW Workshop, we'd be happy to talk about that! Here's a few ideas:
- Purchase a kit (or subsidize the cost of a kit) for a rookie
- If you're an experienced quilter who likes to teach, volunteer to be a Coach
- Provide lunch or snacks for our workshop days
- If you don't feel like you can be a Coach, but would like to help -- volunteer to be a class Angel! Help with un-sewing, pressing, cutting
- Do you have another idea? We'd love to hear it!
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