by Akira D.
I met Mrs. Ratzel and learned about Sew My Goodness at Laurel Mountain Elementary this past school year. I got to participate in two Sew My Goodness Clubs and we made quilts to donate to the Charlie Center. One quilt had squares with hearts on them and we each made two squares of the quilt. The second quilt was an abstract art quilt.
It was fun to participate in those two quilting clubs and when my mom asked me if I wanted to attend a weeklong summer quilting camp, I was so excited to do it.
To prepare for quilting camp I had to gather lots of materials. I got a lot of my fabric from a fabric store in Dunedin, Florida called Rainbows End because we found it while we were on vacation in Clearwater, Florida. We got our other materials from Austin, washed the fabrics and ironed them. I love ironing!
On Monday, June 23, I drew the pattern of the quilt that i was going to make on paper And I started to cut, lay out and start sewing the top of my quilt. I really enjoyed making new friends, and meeting Mrs Ratzel's dog Penny. On Tuesday, June 24th, I sewed all the pieces of the top of the quilt and I seam ripped twice because my machine went berserk. I enjoyed sewing, ironing, coming up with fun nicknames with my friends like Okra, Pho, Mochi and Boba. Those were nicknames based on some of our favorite foods and I was Okra. I also enjoyed petting the dog, Penny. On Wednesday, June 26th, I sewed the top, the bottom and the batting of the quilt together, and that is called quilting. I also started to do the binding which was dark purple. This was my first time doing binding and batting of a quilt. Binding was the most difficult part for me but I also started singing "I'm actually making a quiiiiiilt!" and my friends said "We are all making quilts".
On Thursday, June 26th, I finished the binding and the quilt and I got to make a mini quilt, two mini pillows and a purse.
I enjoyed finishing the quilt and I snuggled with Penny. My friend "Mochi" put her mini quilt on Penny so we could snuggle. On Friyay I made another mini quilt with my extra fabric! The last thing we did together was make a video and I enjoyed running down the street with my quilt and letting it fly in the wind.