Quilting with My Kids

I have four children. This is certainly not new information to y'all, though sometimes I admit that I'm still a little surprised by it. (I have FOUR children? When did that happen?) And as y'all can probably imagine, keeping four littles entertained/occupied is a challenge, especially if this mama wants to sneak in a bit of sewing.

Enter: The Design Wall. I grab my carefully color-coded, super fancy ziploc bags of scraps, dump out a bag or two, and let them go wild designing. We've made a handful of placemats in this fashion, and let me tell you, scrap placemats are a great FMQ practice canvas. :)

And while I have been doing the sewing while the kids have been the design team, my second son told me a few months ago that he would like to make a quilt. My oldest heard this request and decided that he too would like to make one. I searched through my stash and secured our supplies, and we went to work. (For the record, I did not let my five- and seven-year-olds cut the fabric. I can imagine them brandishing my rotary cutter as a pirate sword with disastrous results.)

Since this is really their first major foray into sewing, I kept it simple, and we just did row quilts. The nesting dolls is my five-year-old's offering. (He sat on my lap and guided the fabric as I controlled the foot pedal.

And after he helped me sew a row or two, my seven-year-old did all of the fabric guiding, though I did control the pedal still, but only because his legs aren't long enough.

So far, they've helped with every aspect except the cutting, and I intend for them to help with the remaining tasks. However, we've had a hold up in the basting stage that is all my fault as almost every single basting pin I own is currently keeping my Patina quilt in a yummy quilt sandwich. Speaking of that Patina quilt, I should really give y'all an update on it! Soon, lovely readers, soon.

Do you sew with your kids? Any tips for me? I never realized how difficult a beginner could have sewing a consistent 1/4" seam!

Coast to Coast Traveling Bee--My Quilt Top!

Friends, have we talked about how great the Coast to Coast Traveling Bee is? Have we talked about my very serious love for it? Yes? Well, in case you are unaware, this bee is AMAZING. I had so much fun participating this year, and I am eager to start the 2018 round off. (Okay, not TOTALLY eager as I've yet to finish piecing my top, but you get the point!)

The mountain centerpiece above is where my quilt started.

And this is what I got in return. SO FREAKING AWESOME, right?

Right.

This bad boy is totally getting the handquilting treatment. You know, when I finished up the other five quilt tops laying around my house at present. (FIVE? YIKES!)

Now, I'm off to work on paper-piecing my start for round two, aka C2C2.

Rainbow Mini Quilt

We'll just gloss over the fact that I've been gone for like three months, mmmkay? Because it essentially boils down to four kids, homeschooling two of them, lots of husband-being-out-of-town, computer problems, Christmas planning, swimming lessons, gymnastics classes, and the occasional sewing. The good news is that I have a healthy backlog of things to share with you, and I'll hopefully have time to get a few posts up, woo!

Like a million years ago, I pieced some half-dresdens for a quilt I made for Susan for the Coast to Coast Traveling Bee. (Spoiler alert: C2C will be starting again soon! Also, just realized I never shared my finished quilt top, which is a total SHAME because it's amazing. Gotta remedy that soon.)

I had planned to make this mini for me. But the farther along I got in the planning process, the more I felt like this would make a super sweet birthday present for my awesome friend, K, soooooo...

I finished it up and sent it her way. I hand quilted this using Aurifil 12 wt. thread with the exception of the white which is a DMC perl cotton. Fabrics were from stash.

Monkeys on the back!