Hobbies that Begin with "Q" - Blogging from A to Z Challenge

During the 2018 Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I will be focusing on hobbies that I have introduced to my daughters to through their childhood and teen years. Some were done as part of homeschooling, while others were areas that we explored because we were interested in the subject or activity. These are hobbies that anyone of any age could try as well.

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There are two hobbies that begin with the letter "Q" that Sophia and Olivia have explored: quilling and quilting.

Quilling

In February 2008 for Valentine's Day, we photocopies our hands and then made different quilled shapes using red and pink paper. Below is Olivia's hand. She had just turned five years old.

Sophia was seven years old.

We still have these photocopied hands with quilling on them, and pull them out to display at Valentine's Day. It would be interesting to do this same project again now that they are older, and see how their hands have changed from when they were young.

Quilting

Quilting has been a significant hobby for us throughout the years. When Sophia was 7 years old, she made her first quilt and entered it in the county fair. She was competing against youth who were 7-16 years old, and won third prize.

July 31, 2008

The following year, Olivia wanted to make a quilt. So, at 6 years old, she began her quilt.

July 22, 2009

Sophia was making a quilt at the same time.

July 22, 2009

They needed to take turns at the sewing machine which was a bit challenging since both of them had twin-size bed quilts.

July 23, 2009

Olivia used fabric that she bought in Pella, Iowa, when the girls and I traveled with my parents there to see the tulip festival. So, the quilt has special memories attached to it.

July 27, 2009

Sophia's quilt, like Olivia's quilt, went on their beds and were their comforters for a long time.

July 27, 2009

One thing that Olivia wanted to make was a small circular quilt similar in design to one we found on Flickr (the place to go to for ideas before Pinterest). This was difficult because there was no pattern.

So, it was a good lesson on creating a pattern and hoping it turned out like it was being envisioned.

June 6, 2010

During the 2010-11 homeschool year, Sophia took a sewing/quilting class at the homeschool co-op. She learned how to make six different patterns. She sewed them together to create a quilting sampler.

June 10, 2011

A large quilt that Olivia made was a horse-theme one. The center had an embroidered image of horses and the rest of the quilt was a patchwork - some with horse-printed fabric.

July 4, 2012

She tied this quilt - just like she saw my mom do with the Angel Quilters - a group of women at her church who made quilts for people who were homeless, a victim of natural disaster, or who was going through a domestic violence situation.

July 5, 2012

Olivia entered her horse quilt in the county fair. A teenager offered to hold it up (on the left side) and Olivia was holding it up on the right side (she's standing up behind the table so only her shoulders and head are showing).

July 11, 2012

The girls also made paper quilts one year. They were learning about math and symmetry.

April 16, 2013

It was something different to do in terms of designing one's own quilt block.

April 16, 2013

Also in 2013, when she was 12 years old, Sophia created a table runner. She was comfortably using a rotary cutter and cutting mat by this point.

July 15, 2013

By cutting the nine-block squares, a new pattern was created which looked more complicated with all the smaller pieces.

July 15, 2013

In 2015, Olivia undertook a major project - creating the Washington County Barn Quilt Trail. The designs were based on the book The Quiltmaker's Gift - a favorite book of the girls when they were growing up.

Each of the designs for the 8'x8', 7'x7', 4'x4', and 2'x2' barn quilts were sketched out and colored on graph paper.

May 21, 2015

Olivia took the designs to Sherwin Williams to pick out paint that most closely matched the colors she used for the drawings.

May 21, 2015

The first barn quilt that was completed was installed on a two-story barn at Gammelgarden Museum. It weighed over 100 pounds and huge 6-inch lag bolts hold it in place. In late May, a few days after it was installed, my mom - Olivia's grandma - came to see the first barn quilt thanks to my nephew driving her to the museum.

May 28, 2015

Even though she was almost blind, she was able to see the big quilt. Being an avid quilter and sewer her entire life, she was so excited to see the barn quilt and know what the project that Olivia was working on looked like.

May 28, 2015

A couple days later, the second barn quilt was installed. This was a wrap-around design which worked perfectly with the design of the quilt.

May 30, 2015

Olivia's favorite design was Bear Paw which we installed on posts at the corner of our farm. She painted the barn quit herself - all 7'x7' of it! 

June 7, 2015

Sophia attended 4-H quilting camps for a couple of years during January. One year, she made a quilt top (which she later finished at home) using a variety of batik fabrics.

January 9, 2016

After doing the first round of barn quilts in 2015, Olivia designed ten more barn quilts in 2016. She involved more volunteers to help with the building, painting, and installation of them. For the second round, we were able to paint the barn quilts indoors because they were smaller (4'x4' or 2'x2'). 

July 3, 2016

While Olivia was working on the barn quilts, Sophia was working on an ambitious quilt that used about a dozen different colors and patterns of fabric that were cut on the diagonal. 

May 6, 2017

Once she sewed the top and backing, she brought it to a place that quilted the two layers and batting using a long-arm quilting machine. Sophia finished sewing the binding to the back of the quilt. It was a big project that took a couple months to complete.

July 21, 2017

The 4-H sewing committee wanted Sophia to show her quilt at the quilt and fashion show at the county fair. Above, she's describing the process she went through to create the quilt.

Both of the girls want to make a quilt this year and enter it in the county fair. It will be interesting to see what patterns and fabric they choose.

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