Ideas for Teaching How to Sew/Piece
 

I have several new friends who are Brazilian. All but one woman is fluent in English, so she is learning. They all want to learn to sew/quilt. A couple of them can sew, but have never made quilts. I want to teach them myself rather than recommend that they take a sewing class. Right now, I'm making notes about various topics to be discussed, etc. I'm open to ideas about how I should go about it and topics to discuss, etc. Feel free to PM me, etc.

Neat that you want to teach them! It could be some fun times by everyone. :)

I don't know, but I am going to be helping my great niece make a baby quilt. My plan is that I am going watch youtube videos to see how best to explain it.

I am going to teach her using the Jelly Roll Race 2 so I am sure I will show her that MCQC video and probably see about having her do a "practice quilt" for a doll before we start on the real thing

I will be watching this thread to pick up any tips that you may receive

how about just teaching them as they watch you. a picture is worth a thousand words type of thing.

Do they know how to use a sewing machine?? The just start showing them the basics about fabric, rulers, mat and rotary cutter. I would start them with sewing 9 charm size pieces of fabric together and show them a D9P. As Lynnie said, seeing it in person is worth a thousand words.

I have taught a couple of teenagers basic sewing skills piecing charm squares into blocks for charity quilts.
A simple pieced tote bag might also be a good starter project.

Do you have any quilts finished? A trunk show to begin with would be a fun start. Then maybe types of fabric, thread, sewing machine needles, and sewing machine maintenance. That is important to know too.
I think that if you conducted a quilt in a day type class, that would be a good start. I taught myself with the Log cabin one from elenore burns. It is a down and dirty, fast way to get a quilt done in no time. If you don't have the book, you could check it out of a library. While you are there, you could look to see if there is anything on teaching quilt making.
Most of what I have learned has been from books and magazines. I have no idea how many years it has taken of reading to get to where I am now.
Safety with a rotatory cutter would be a must and how to use it.
It seems to me that you can go as detailed or as simple as needed. It depends on your time and commitment to teaching.

Ask the ladies what they want to learn and then go from there. What do you plan to teach them? Hand quilting? Machine piecing? Hand appliqué - Machine appliqué?

I believe in hands on teaching, so if you are starting from the very beginning from picking the fabric, preparing the fabric, cutting the fabric, I would have a station for each person to try it too. Watching only gets you so far. you need to do it.

What part of Brazil will they return to, and what is available to them there? If they don't have fancy machines there is no reason to show them all the bells and whistles on the current machines. If they can't get rotary blades down there then teach them to use scissors.

I have taught quilting at every school I have been at. I start with a full class hour on how to thread and fill the bobbin and thread the machine. Then we would practice on scraps on how to guide the material, and tension. Then we took a whole class time on how to cut materials. Dependent on the kids, and the size, sometimes I would cut squares for them, but usually they would use two pieces of contrasting material, and we would make either a four patch or a nine patch. Once we did that, we would make a little pillow out of it. Those four things took me a month. Hope this helps!!!