Community Sew Day

Way back in February, wait no late January, I attempted to set up a community sew day at the Adel Library.  I was hoping for February, would have been happy with March.....but no love!  The library was booked right up to May 2nd.  In fact it was May 2 or May 18 those were the only dates available at the time.

Now I already have a standing appointment on May 2nd.  It is the first day of the Des Moines Farmers Market.  I go every week with my Mother.  But I really need the community sew day so I booked it for 10:00 am.  I will just tell my mother that we have to do farmers market at 7:00 so I can be back in Adel for the sew day.

I have said before that I believe things happen for a reason.  Take this sew day.  I would have preferred it to be earlier in the year, where there might of been fewer conflicts and thus a bigger turn out.  In the past I have never had a problem getting the library scheduled.  So I was disappointed.....but now I see where there might of been a reason for the delay.

You see out of the blue my friend Jackie O offered to put together one of the kits that I have ready for the sew day.  It surprised me when she volunteered....but I jumped on that request ASAP.  I gave her a kit at open sew last month....and I learned several things that is really going to help at the community sew day.

You see I spent several weeks cutting 10 x 10 squares of Asian fabric for these kits.  Okay so they were suppose to be 10 x 10....,

In the kit that Jackie was putting together for me, she had four squares that were not, they were more like 9.75 x something or other.

First lesson:  Have extra squares available at the community sew day for any other miss cuts.

Jackie got the quilt put together for me and gave it to me at Circle of Friends the following Monday.  She did a wonderful job! Check it out.

All of the kits will be put together in this pattern it is the double slice layer cake pattern by Missouri Star Quilting.

In case you are not familiar with the pattern here is a link to Jenny's tutorial.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxC-0T5lXw4

Hope that link works.

When I kitted these kits, I did the math and put enough squares in the kit to make a twin size quilt.  As you can see this quilt is wide enough.....but not long enough for a twin size bed. This one will probably become a double after I add borders to it.  I don't want to add borders to the others.

Lesson 2: Go back and add blocks to the kits to make them the right size.

Had the community sew day been planned earlier, I would have had 8 quilts that were the wrong size.  Or I would have had kits that could not be completed because of miss cut fabric.

So I am extremely grateful that Jacki O offered to test this kit for me, and pointed out potential pitfalls prior to the community sew day.  My fairy quilting godmother was looking out for me, and she sent me Jacki O!

I would like to thank Fon's and Porter for the donation of the fabric that went into these quilts.  The twin size quilts were beautiful Asian fabrics.  We also have some lap size quilts made up of Christmas fabric.  The lap size quilts will be Christmas gifts for clients of the center.  Here is a close up of some of the Asian fabric.

Let's talk a minute about the community sew day.  I could use sewers, ironers and sorters.  So if you don't sew, please come and man an iron, or sort some fabric for me.

I will have 10 to 15 kits for quilts ready to be sewn together.

I will probably have several pillow case kits, should pillow cases be your thing.

I also have a basket of precut fabric that needs to be sorted by color and size.

SO as you can see we have something for everyone! Please consider coming to help out whether for an hour or for all day.

I will have some snacks for the day.  I plan on ordering in some sandwiches once I know how many are there.  So if you are planning on coming but not right at 10:00 please let me know so I can make sure to order enough food.

Hope to see you there!