In the Beginning - Sampler Quilt

Sorry for the long Wordless Wednesday stretch. I haven't been outside in the sunshine playing with my kids and ignoring you, much as I wish that were true. No, these days the black hole that sucks any extra time out of my day has been the gala and auction for my daughter's school.

Every year they host a beautiful party with literally hundreds of silent auction items, along with a live auction of a few eye-popping trips, jewelry and more. I am the computer girl for all of this so, needless to say, it's been a busy few days...weeks...months.

It's a good news/bad news kind of thing. The bad news is that I haven't been working out nearly every day, nor have I been posting or quilting much. My house needs a good cleaning and my husband is pretty much over the stories from school.

The good news is we raised some nice money for the school tuition assistance program and technology fund - both needed in this economy - and that I did get to the gym some, which is more than during last year's gala season. I also made a 1000% improvement over last year in the dinner/grocery routine, using my handy crock pot and, gasp!, actually going to the grocery store on a regular basis. I know, I know, crazy stuff.

And through it all, I made this:

This is some very good news. Potentially. I have been offered the chance to teach a beginning quilting class. This is all dependent upon enough people signing up for the class. I decided that more people would be interested if they could see what they would be making. After all, that's what gets my attention.

It took a while to decide exactly how much I could squeeze into four short classes, but I came up with this quilt which, I think, covers the basics. The shop gave me 2 yards of these Lila Tueller fabrics by Moda to work with - YUM! (The neutral in the middle is from my stash...sorry, no selvage left to give credit.)


I've included applique and piecing, sashing, borders and binding, and both hand and machine quilting - although I'm not delusional enough to think I can teach those completely. I just want the students to leave at the end knowing how to finish their quilt. When I left my beginning quilting class 14 years ago, I had a few blocks, some pieces of blocks, and no clue what to do next. I'll give you three guesses where they are now. (Hint: there is a Ziploc bag in the answer.)

So we'll see how it turns out. Maybe no one will sign up. But maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of a new journey.

What's new in your world these days?