Quilting with Girl Scouts...Help?!
 

Not sure if there was a past thread with this topic, but does anyone have any pointers, EASY patterns, best practices, etc. for leading Fourteen 11 yr old, Junior Girl Scouts, eager to sew in making baby quilts for a local charitable organization? (It's not Project Linus, this time...) We'll have approx. 4 hours total start to finish. We can prepare some aspects of the materials ahead of time, but need to leave a lot of the steps to these enthusiastic and very capable young ladies. There will be five or six sewing machines available. Any thoughts?

I have done a post card/pen pal with other girl scouts from around the country. Keep it a monthly theme. Feb. applique and embellish a heart. March make a mini Irish chain, April showers, May flowers, etc. Learn all these techniques in a tiny scale.

Trade jobs about every hour....have some assigned to pressing, some to cutting or matching and pinning, some to sewing, etc. and then trade. Remind them they will each learn all parts of the process this way. I'd also say, don't dumb it down too much; I've taught many 11 year olds who made truly remarkable quilts! I envy you the day's activity!:)

Jan in VA

I forgot to mention that the project day is mid-February. Last year, we finished 7 small blankets/quilts for Project Linus in that 4 hour time frame. Hopefully we will have another couple of hours this time around, and maybe we can have a finish-up session shortly after the planned day. But we need to shoot for start to finish in one session. Tartan, I had not seen that magic block before! Now that's a possibility...

Depending on your requirements, this tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Co. might be just the thing. It looks very simple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqwdNqMZ8Ro

Our woman's group did pillow cases with the local Junior troop. It was loads of fun.

My guild did a all day sewing class for girl scouts. We did the burrito pillowcases. We only do ages 10 or above now. The younger ones just wanted to 'mash the pedal' and turn machine knobs.
We now have kits cut in brown bags and the girls were not allowed to pick which kit. We learned if we let them pick they wanted to see all of them and ALWAYS wanted the same one as another girl got first. And the Moms were worse, they wanted their child to pick a color that matched their room or said they didn't understand why so and so got the pretty cat fabric and her daughter loved cats and couldn't find another one. If the moms are suppose to be there to help, forget about that, 99% of them caused more work and frustration.
The pillowcase is all one seam and very forgiving if the seams aren't straight. Our guild now has rigid rules for scout days, not for the girls but for the moms!

I've made bean bags with seven year old Cub Scouts and found them very respectful of the experience (and enthusiastic). Maybe the Warm Wishes pattern? Make the strips all the same size instead of two skinnier ones and one bigger one...
Good luck with your sewing day. I was a Scout for many years and got to travel to other states and India because of it. So I thank you on their behalf.

A couple years ago I did a quilting club with high school kids that had no experience on a sewing machine. My fellow advisor and I decided to have the kids stitch strips together. We figured that trying to do a 1/4 inch seam was going to be a problem and that as long as the seams were even the width of them didn't matter. After 4 to six strips were sewn together I cut into hunks.- I think 10" wide and we put these together to made up long sets. Alternated with plain fabric strips about same width and made something like a Chinese ? Coins quilt. Worked out fairly well.

As a long time scout leader, I agree with Bella. Mothers are much worse than the kids! Most rules are needed to govern pushy moms.

Big nine patches might be easy but attractive too.

What about a simple 4 patch alternating with a plain block? Gives them a clue of strip piecing; no points to match up and easy as pie. Then birth and tie the quilts? Could some of the adults cut the strips ahead? I've helped my niece's 4th grade class do a similar project in the past. Have another upcoming one in a month or so. The adults did all the cutting ahead and there were no machines. All the kids sewed by hand. Since they are working with machines you should be able to get a reasonable number of quilts done, especially if they are rotating stations.

how about the 1600 quilt = otherwiseknown as the fastest quilt top ever.....precut 2.5 inch strips, have them stitch them together end to end, fold, stitch the long side, fold, etc. You can always add appliques if you want more than strips.

Agree with this. I've had 3 niece/nephews do just a big 4 patch as their first projects and they loved doing it and making them. It's a quick success for them and me!

Anita Grossman Solomon published a pattern for a 3-fabric quilt. You use three different but coordinating fabrics cut one yard each, and the yield is three tops. I think it was published by Quiltmaker Magazine and may even be available on their website. It is minimal cutting and piecing but you get really cute quilts.

This would be a perfect pattern for the girls. I worked with Girl Guides of Canada for 25 years before moving to the USA and I would have done this with Guides or Pathfinders aka Juniors of Cadettes (do they still call them that here in the USA) The girls would not have to have "perfect seams" because if they are a little wonky it wouldn't matter!

I think D9P would be great. Cut all the squares ahead of time and let them do the rest

I've done pillowcases with sewers as young as 7 as well as newbies of all ages. The jelly roll quilts are also easy for newbies. How about the quick strippie on Maryquilts.com? Looks impressive, all straight seams. Mix and match 3 fabrics- nothing simpler, no seams to match. Or rows of pieced 6 1/2" squares alternating with width of fabric strips. Again- no seams to match. The most giggles seemed to come from the pillowcases being unrolled. I'll be making more for a local hospital Saturday with a church TLC group. Members are 8 to almost 90. For more experienced sewers- I agree with many of the other great suggestions.

If you get to chose the fabric, I'd be tempted to find panels and then just frame them out. I'm assuming each girl will do one? I'd think you'd need ever bit of four hours to sandwich and pin and sew and tack.

We did this last year for my granddaughters Girl Scout troop. All the material was precut, and we had several sewing machines available, and several adults to assist. Some of the girls were actually very nervous around the sewing machines. Some were sewing like pros. They made small lap quilts for the local old folks home, and after they had sewn them all together, Moms did the tying. They all had a good time, just make it simple for them.

I love this. I bought the magazine back when, and made these myself. Great project. We're considering this! Thank you Anita, for responding yourself! Very thoughtful of you!

Thank you all for the input! The options are endless! I had bought the Quiltmaker May/June 2006 issue when it was on the newsstand and actually did make the Super Size 9 patch quilts. I think we're going to use this pattern. Thank you Anita Solomon Grossman for posting the link. We'll use a group of 3 single yard cuts that coordinate, but mostly, we're going to precut blocks in the sizes that you end up with after cutting the yardage. If that makes sense! :) The girls had a blast last year picking out all their own blocks/fabrics for their own blankets. I'm sure we'll end up with some pretty imaginative combinations. If I remember, I'll post some pics!