Weekly Reflection

I have really enjoyed this past week of starting my quilt. I have already learned a large amount with the help of Deb. She knows so much about different sewing and quilting techniques and does an excellent job teaching them to me. I was amazed to see all of the other bags and clothes she has made herself just with a sewing machine.

After a long week of tedious cutting and trimming, I am finally beginning to notice my quilt coming together. I had no idea how long it would take to cut and iron the jerseys before I even began to sew them. Throughout the week, I learned a number of different cutting and sewing techniques. I learned the best way to use a rotary cutter, but due to a dull blade I made most of my cuts with fabric scissors. This made it a little more challenging to cut straight lines, but I grew a steady hand and found different ways to make my cuts as straight as possible. As funny as it sounds, I never had much experience with ironing before this week. Now I am an experienced and skilled "ironer" as I learned it is best to start from the middle out while ironing fabric. My accuracy while using a sewing machine has already improved tremendously as well. I learned how to thread a sewing machine, as I always had trouble doing it correctly before. I am also more confident while sewing as I noticed my lines have become straighter. I have learned many different sewing "terms" such as a zig zag stitch, quilt binding, and batting. Deb had me practice my sewing and ironing on practice pieces of fabric before I began doing it to the actual jerseys. This made me more confident with sewing ability before I began sewing the actual jerseys.

Besides deciding not to add the gold quilt binding, Deb and I are sticking to our original plan of what we would like the quilt to look like. I am very excited to see my progress next week, as I am sure that I will be close to finishing.