Sunday, August 23, 2009

learning about quilting

My granddaughter is spending a few days with us before school starts....second grade this year already. My how the time flies.
We had some special girl time. She is fascinated with quilts and the last time she was here, we made a simple four block for her to take home. But this time, she wanted to do more. So we had an adventure.


First we took a trip to a quilt shop on Friday...she was so excited to be able to pick out her own fabric.She picked her focus fabric...the one with the pink and green hearts. The the stripe, green, and red and white hearts were the coordinating ones. The background fabric was from Nana's stash - we will use it for the sashing. We learned the words...focus fabric, coordinating fabrics, and stash. When we got home from the shop, we washed and pressed our fabric. We are going to make a nine patch so we cut strips, sewed the strips together, and cut them a second time. Of course, Nana used the rotary cutter with granddaughter telling me where to cut. We talked about measuring very carefully. Then the new strips were sewed together into blocks. She followed directions very well and sewed a straight seam. I put tape on the machine to mark the quarter inch line and put the machine at medium speed. Her seams were better than some of mine have been! Today we are going to sew the blocks together with sashing. Unfortunately, our time together is limited so Nana will have to finish it up and send her the finished quilt. Next summer, maybe we'll have more time.

6 comments:

Pat said...

GREAT work she is doing....but, of course, she has a fabulous teacher!!! I love her fabric choices, too.

Jackie's Stitches said...

I look forward to doing this with my nieces and hopefully one day with my grandchildren! What a perfect time with grandma!

Kaye said...

What a special time for you two to spend together. She will remember it for many years to come. Katie is 8 1/2 and loves learning, she has also done a bit of applique

Needled Mom said...

Oh...what fun. It is such a
"girl" quilt too. She will be a great quilter someday all because of the care and love from her grandma. I use one of those magnetic seam allowance things when the kids are here sewing. It gives them a nice edge to run their fabric along to get the perfect seam allowance.

Gari in AL said...

Oh, I wish I had been able to learn from my Grandma. She was a wonderful quilter but died before I was old enough to learn. My granddaughter isn't interested: too bad.

Anonymous said...

My GD and I enjoy spending time sewing together and she's learning quilting, piece by piece. Isn't it fun!