This morning, I met with the women of the Inglenook quilting bee for a three hour sewing feast. Inglenook Library is located in North Birmingham and is a tiny three room building that acts as community center and library for its neighborhood. The bee originated when Ms Annie and I got to talking one day last September about wanting to learn more about quilting. Ms Annie was originally a member of the Birmingham Quilter's Guild but for a variety of reasons decided to focus on learning more before rejoining. I met Ms Annie at my first Guild meeting back in May of 2011.
Ms Annie and I started meeting at the library, which was incredibly generous to us and purchased two long tables from their very modest funding so that we might have sufficient workspace. Ms Jeraldine, a woman from the neighborhood started showing up during our sessions and is a quick learner. Now Ms Carol has joined our little group and occasionally Sharon and Ann from the Guild stop by. Today it was Ms Annie, Ms Carol and I.
The women asked me to explain how to use an acrylic ruler to measure and cut a specific measurement. If you've never seen an acrylic quilting ruler, they are seriously confusing the first time you put one down and actually try to use it with a rotary cutter. Everything is backwards, meaning non-intuitive. I spent a good hour trying to come up with a clear way to explain the 1 in square, the half-inch mark, the difference between one quarter and three quarters and how to tell you were going in the right direction, and don't even get me started on eighths. I find it interesting that my two years of middle school math tutoring did NOT come to my rescue during this particular teaching exercise. Fortunately for all, Ms Annie, Ms Carol and I all have a heaping of patience and good humor that gets us through such sessions. After my tutorial, I went to the machine - a new one purchased over the weekend for the Upcycle Challenge workshop at ArtPlay: Janome model 3128 - and pieced three quilt blocks from strips the women were cutting. I sat at the machine and sewed while listening to the two women fuss over the ruler and work out the measurements in their heads. It was lovely to see these two women with their heads together giggling and fussing over an eighth of an inch. We managed to get three blocks made and I pieced their scraps together for an almost fourth block and then showed Ms Annie how to thread a bobbin and the machine since I only go to the bee every other week and won't be there next week.
One funny moment from our bee occurred before Ms Carol arrived. Ms Annie had purchased some fun puppy fabric that she wanted to use as a quilt top and she wanted me to help her make her sandwich: top, batting and backing. She brought all of her materials in and I noticed that her batting was really fiber fill for making pillows or stuffed animals. She desperately wanted to get her sandwich made so she urged me to use the fiber fill and we opened the packaged and patted it out on her backing and it stood about seven inches high. I said, "Ms Annie, I don't think this is going to work" and she said, "I'll mush it down and it'll be okay" so we covered the mountain of fiber fill with her puppy fabric top piece and both started laughing so hard at the huge mess. We "mushed" it down but there was no way it was going to work. I admitted to Ms Annie that were I a better, tougher teacher, I wouldn't have even allowed her to try such a thing, but then we decided that I was tough enough when it came to making her work with a ruler. We returned the mountain of fiber fill to its bag and she will now challenge herself to make a doll or pillow for her grandchildren.
Since the bee began last fall, the women have completed a cuddle quilt, which was donated to the guild's collection of cuddle quilts and will go to an organization in need of blankets. Also, I sent a request to guild members asking for supplies that would help the bee get started and received such an enthusiastic response that we are swimming in rulers, rotary cutters, fabric, cutting mats, irons, pins, thread, needles, ironing boards, etc. If you need it for quilting, we've got it and about seven versions of it. I am really awed by the cycle of generosity all around me. I hope to keep this bee going and to gain new members from the neighborhood. For now, Ms Annie, Ms Jeraldine and Ms Carol keep me happy and reflective every other Tuesday.
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