Working with the Girl Scouts

USPS Commemorative stamp of Juliette Low issued October 29, 1948

As I posted earlier, I've been volunteering with the Girl Scouts and last Tuesday was the third session. I've been taking some photos of the progress the girls are making on their quilt. They are working on the journey called "In the Pink" about breast cancer awareness. We made fused pink ribbon blocks and then they pieced pink ribbon blocks. The center of the quilt is a portrait of Juliette Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts, who was a victim of breast cancer. Gerry, Mary Jo, and Anne from Piedmont Quilters assisted us as did Andrea and Charlotte from the Girl Scout organization.



One of the scouts pressing her block.



Gerry and Andrea finished piecing a block for one of the scouts who was absent on the second night.



Anne helping one of the scouts chain piecing her pink ribbon block.



Mary Jo helps one of the scouts with her pressing.



Gerry gives one of the scouts some pointers on chain piecing.




Andrea putting the unfinished blocks in bags for the next time.



Mary Jo working on squaring up the border blocks.



Gerry working on the border blocks.



Everyone signed the back which was composed of several donated breast cancer awareness fabrics.



The Girl Scouts working on the portrait.



One of our scouts had some good art class experience and mixed colors for the portrait.



Nearly finished with the portrait.



Gerry piecing the border blocks.



Mary Jo piecing border blocks.



Charlotte was kind enough to take this photo of most of the gang.

Mary Jo, Gerry and I are going to the girls scout meeting in November to show them sandwiching and basting of the quilt. It will hang at the Peaks to Piedmont administrative offices at Magnolia Manor for a time, then hopefully move around to women's hospitals. I had a wonderful time working with these girls and their leaders and look forward to doing more teaching with the scouts.

"In the Pink": Quilting with the Girl Scouts

Image from Girl Scouts of the United States of America

Thanks to some great online resources, I have worked up three samples and gathered the materials for the first of my sessions with the Girl Scouts this week. They are working on a "journey" (badge from the old days) called "In the Pink" in which they educate themselves about the causes, detection, treatment, and prevention of breast cancer. They will all have gone to an information session before I see them where they will learn (among lots of other things) that the founder of the Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low, died of breast cancer in 1927. She is the inspiration for the quilt we are going to create.

I'm planning on showing them Susie Shie's work to spur their creativity. I'm hoping we can do a drawing of Juliette Low as the center piece, paint it, and then the girls can write some of the things they found meaningful in the background of this drawing. We will use the pink ribbon blocks to border the drawing.



This is the first ribbon block. I used the Wikipedia template for the ribbon. The ribbon is three sections fused to the block with Wonderunder.



This is a pieced block that just uses blocks and half-square triangles. Designed by Lesley Brankin, it is found at the My Quilt Patch site. I'm planning to show the girls chain piecing to put it together.



This paper pieced or foundation block from the about.com site may be too tough so I'm going to wait to see what kind of sewing skills the girls have before I bring this one out.

October is turning out to be my month of service. Besides the three sessions with the Girl Scouts, I'm also working on Make a Difference Day with the Piedmont Quilt Guild.