I've been teaching sewing to girls at Camp Mechuwana, a Methodist camp in Winthrop, Maine, since the summer of 2006. No sewing skills required, and we provide the teachers, the machines, the fabric, and the fun begins! For each item the girls learn to sew, they make one to take home and one, or more, to give to missions. A friend and colleague of mine, and a skilled sewer, was one of my counselors one summer. She suggested we teach the girls to sew baby quilts for Project Linus. I thought to myself, how do you teach non-sewers to produce a quilt in only one week? Indeed, since we also make rice bags, tote bags and pillowcases, in addition to swimming, boating, crafts, and campfires, how could we even find the time to make quilts?
It is amazing what a good quilt pattern will do to simplify the process of producing a sweet lap/baby quilt. My friend said she had a great pattern that would produce enough squares for 3 quilts simply by folding the yardage for each quilt and making 2 rotary cuts. I watched and marvelled. The girls produced some beautiful quilts, and we prayed over the quilts at the end of our week, before sending them off. Recently, I went digging for that pattern in my sewing camp pattern binders, and it simply would not surface anywhere. I knew it had come out of a Quiltmaker magazine, and I knew it was likely from that first summer, 2006. Eagerly, I searched the Quiltmaker website, only to find they keep issues available dating back to 2008. So, with much gratitude to Google, I went looking for the quilt, knowing only the pattern's name-"Super-Sized Nine Patch" (designer, Anita Grossman Solomon). Hallelujah, this is the site at which I found the pattern: http://www.ashevillequiltguild.org. Do you have a favorite, easy lap/baby quilt pattern you'd like to share?
So, now I'm busy making three baby quilts for our Annual Conference in-gathering of blankets, quilts, and prayer shawls at worship Saturday, June 15th at Gordon College, Wenham, MA. And, if time allows, I'll pick out fabric for three lap quilts for adults. The pattern is wonderfully versatile. I love to lay out the squares, then switch them around, to see how the colors fit together in each quilt. What are you or your church group making for our in-gathering? With six weeks till we gather, there is still plenty of time to create!
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