Kids Quilting a Follow Up!

 Last Saturday I was happy to have our friends little girl back again to finish her quilt.  Last week she came over and we made her a quilt top (she did all or most all of the sewing).  Then with the help of my wife we made her a back and basted it.  We sent her home with the 3 layers basted together along with quilting frames (which I got when I first started quilting thinking that all quilts had to be tied or hand quilted) and with the help of her big sister and her mother they spent the last week and tied it all in multiple colors of yarn.

 This Saturday we made binding.  I cut the 5 strips of binding (we did 3 inches so she would have room to spare) and then after sewing the first inch and all of the corners she machine sewed on the binding.  We had to unpick a few times where she got so far off the edge that we could not pull it over but other then that rare exception she did amazing.

To finish it off my wife created a tag that said "{her name}'s 1st quilt" my wife made me scratch out her name in the pictures, but its cute.

As you can see she is one happy camper.  I wonder how many weeks will go by before I get her over again to quilt, I think I have her hooked on this.

Kids and Quilts

Today I had the joy of seeing another child's joy in quilting begin.  Last week we gave her family a quilt to thank then for all the wonderful kind things they have done for us.  When we were there, she commented that she wanted to learn how to quilt.  So last Saturday we invited her over and let her chose material from out stash to make a quilt.  She picked the wild flowers that Rebecca picked out and to help tone it down some Tanya added some 5 inch solid squares she won some where in blog land.

I started out by cutting up the fabric that she picked into 5 inch blocks to match the solids that Tanya added to our mix.  I had her line up the first 4 rows first, before we started to sew.  The above picture was taken half way though.  The quilt top ended up 9 blocks wide by 12 blocks long.

She was a total natural at the piecing.  I showed her how to pick up and keep track of the blocks she was sewing and then showed her how to keep putting it back together.  I taught her how to chain piece and was impressed with her speed and skill at doing it.  In just 4 or so hours we were able to get the top pieced.

Before she went home with her quilt top, Tanya was kind enough to cut batting and a back out of flannel for her. Together Tanya, my daughter Rebecca and our new quilter were able to baste her quilt.  The plan is that she will tie the quilt with the help of her mother and sisters and when that is done she will bring it back,