Lalli's Baby Quilt

A few months back, a local blog reader of mine here in Cary reached out to me with a question I've never been asked before. Lalli, who blogs at Passion2Sew, asked me if I would be interested and available to teach her how to quilt. Lalli is an accomplished garment sewer who happens to be 7 months pregnant, and she wanted to learn how to make a baby quilt for her daughter-on-the-way before her impending arrival.

Lalli first called around to several of our local shops but alas, none were offering their beginner classes anytime this past summer. So, on a whim, she reached out to me to see if I'd be willing to help her out.

On my end, I was pretty shocked that someone would be interested in having me teach them anything about sewing! In so many ways I still consider myself very much a beginner. And looking at the complex pieces of clothing that Lalli is already so skilled at making, I questioned what in the world she'd be hoping to learn from me. But I'm a sucker for a pregnant woman asking for help, so I agreed!

We had 4 classes over a 3-week period or so, all in Lalli's sewing studio (which is to die for!) We (roughly) broke the classes out like this:

Class 1: Intro to block construction (including some essential pieces, like flying geese and HST's), seam allowances, tools (e.g. rulers, cutting mats, etc.), fabric selection, and determining what type of quilt to make

Class 2: The basics of cutting for quilts, finalizing a quilt design, and starting block construction

Class 3: Continued block construction, final layout, assembling quilt top, and making binding

Class 4: Basting, quilting, and binding the quilt

Here is Lalli with the quilt that she made in just four classes!:

Lalli was a bit shy to take too many pictures, but I convinced her to let me get a couple.

As you can see, we made a basic sampler quilt of 12" blocks in a 3x3 layout. BIG THANKS go out to Amanda Jean, because we primarily used block tutorials from her first two quilt-alongs. (Hey, making those blocks was basically how I learned to quilt, so why not share the love?)

Throughout, I tried to emphasize not just how to make this quilt, but also the basics of quilting that can be applied to any design she might pick in the future.

Here's a picture of the back. Lalli selected a soft flannel print because she wants her new baby to actually use this quilt, so she wanted it to be as warm and snuggly as possible. As you can see, the binding isn't hand-sewn down yet. We both thought that was something Lalli could do in the final stages of her pregnancy!

The best part? Lalli free-motion stippled this quilt all by herself, with only a cursory overview from me. I know that the actual quilting step is something that scares a lot of people, so it was great to see Lalli jump right in with a determination to finish it herself.

Lalli insisted that she take a picture of me with the quilt as well:

Lalli has blogged about her quilt, too! Want to hear what she had to say about our class? Check out her blog post.

I had a lot of fun with this experience. I think I'd like to do more teaching in the future, and have considered proposing a few class ideas to my local shops. What do you think? Have you seen anything on my blog that you think would be good material for a quilting or sewing class?

By the way, are you a beginning quilter like Lalli? Looking for good easy project ideas to help you build your confidence? In my next post, I will be sharing a free, tutorial that is great for both a brand-new quilter as well as an easy-to-complete project for someone with a bit more experience. Stay tuned!