Slow sewing.

  *Are you looking for the Orange Peel QAL Final Linky Party? Link up your quilts, tops, and minis here until Sept. 8!*

I helped with kid's quilt camp this week. It was thoroughly enjoyable but somewhat chaotic. :) The kids did an amazing job! For three hours each day over five days, they worked on a chevron quilt. On Thursday, they basted them, and we sewed around the edges (leaving a space) and flipped them inside out, like a pillowcase. Then, we topstitched around the edges and the girls tied the quilts on Friday. They left with finished quilts and pillows, pincushions, and bows. I taught one student how to make an easy tote bag. It was so much fun and I am AMAZED at the creativity, integrity, dedication, and talent in these girls. It really made me appreciate how much I love working with kids, too.

I don't have permission from them to post pictures, so here's a project I recently finished (more below). Ironically (in comparison to the title of this post) this is one of the quickest gifts I've ever made... :)

There were two 3 hour sessions every day - the morning was 7 younger girls and the afternoon had 4 older girls, so every day was pretty busy.  Then, I worked a "double shift" on Friday - Jacquie Gering (!) arrived to lecture and give a trunk show for the Central Jersey MQG at night (more on that soon, promise!).


After all that, I was exhausted (I've been sleeping so thoroughly this week) but yesterday (Saturday) morning I had the urge to sew. My neighbor just turned 7 years old so I made her a cute little pillow stuffed with polyfill and handstitched closed. She absolutely LOVED it!

Helping with kid's camp really made me appreciate hand sewing and the "slow sewing" method. Some of my projects I take slow, while others need to be a bit faster. I helped the girls tie the quilts with curved needles and hand sew pillow openings closed. I threaded at least 50 needles in one day. It was eye opening to me and made me realize I really need another "slow" project to work on. I'm considering cross stitch (maybe Satsuma Street?) or possibly just a change of pace (finally starting to sew a washi top?). I enjoy sewing and quilting so much, so why not stretch things out a little, right? Stay tuned for all that, though I still have plans for several more finished quilts this year...