Now I've dragged my mom into my obsession

On Mother's Day weekend (yes, way back in May) I went on a fabulous sewing retreat taught by Amanda.  I talked my mom into joining in. 

She was so excited about it.  We would talk for hours on the phone about what supplies to bring and what she should practice beforehand and what she planned to do with her retreat quilt.

 

 (Here is a bonus picture of Amanda at her beloved Juki.  She hates having her picture taken so she is refusing to look at me--the annoying woman with the camera.)

Since the retreat, my mom has been plugging away at her quilt squares.  I don't have a picture of hers, but Angela took this picture of one of my quilt squares from the retreat.  (The poor thing is sitting in a pile with the others feeling neglected in my sewing room.)

So, back to the story, my mom has started planning her next quilt.  She keeps getting more fabric and then calling me and trying to explain a print and color scheme over the phone.  She came to visit a few days ago and asked me if I thought that she could do some piecing to make some quilt squares. 

Of course!
 
I gave her a lesson in making HST's.  Then I showed her tricks for sewing together a 4 patch and a 9 patch.  I scribbled up a bunch of notes for her to take home, and then she asked what kind of blocks she should make.  The only block resource I have is my Farmer's Wife book, so I got that out.  From there we picked out 20-some blocks for her to try, decided on block size and then drew two possible layouts for the finished quilt.

We traipsed down to the basement sewing room and came up with 3 giant stacks of my stash to pick through so she could practice a block or two while she was here.  I did some quilt math for her to make 12" finished blocks.  She spent time sewing these two beauties while I cut fabrics for her to make 10 more blocks at home. 

I still have the fabric for five more blocks to cut and mail out to her. And now I have a mess of her fabric piles to put away. But it is totally worth it.  She was beaming from ear to ear and had to hold her blocks in the car for the three hour trip home.

I'm so proud of her!