Teaching an 8 Year Old to Sew -- Part 2

It has come to my attention (Thanks, Faye!) that I haven't been blogging about quilting lately.  After looking back over the last, well - ummmm, quite a few posts, I can see that life has definitely gotten in the way of my quilting.  Yes, it has a way of doing that.   And so I have decided that I MUST create or I shall die!  Well, that may be a little dramatic, but I definitely do need some quilty therapy!   It will be a few days before I can create something worthy of public display, so I decided to show you the very last thing I did before the holidays struck. 

You may remember that I started teaching my grandson to sew back in October.  If not, here is a link to that post:   http://sewthisismyblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/teaching-8-year-old-to-sew.html 

Gavin has had a birthday since then so now the post should be Teaching a 9 Year Old to Sew,  but that is beside the point.  When Gavin found out that his best friend, Kaitlyn, had had a birthday he was disappointed that he hadn't received advance notice of such a momentous occasion.  He wanted to give her something special.  And, I ask you, what is more special than a quilt?  Since I was coming for a weekend visit (that day!) he asked me to bring my sewing machine and some fabric so he could make her a quilt.  Of course, I jumped right to it!  Because I only had a few hours to prepare something, I cut thirty 9 1/2" squares of brights and novelty prints so he could just sew blocks together.

He had fun laying out the squares. He played with them until he was pleased with the arrangement, and then we hit the sewing room.  AKA the dining room table.













He did a really good job keeping the stitching straight.  I had him do 3/8" seams this time instead of 1/4" and that made it a lot easier for him.  He got a lot of blocks put together and had several rows ready before he lost interest.  He agreed that I could take it home with me and finish it up. 

And so I did!  I emailed photos of several pink fabrics so he could choose a border.  Then I added a dark green inner border before I quilted it.  I did a simple stipple in the center and some meandering with flowers in the border.  It finished at 54 x 63.  (I talked him out of making one big enough for her bed!  LOL)






Then I found the cutest pink floral print for the backing.  It's from the Nicey Jane line by Heather Bailey.

I liked this fabric so much that I emptied the bolt just in case I want some for the next pink quilt I make!