My children, especially my 7-year-old daughter but also my 5-year-old son, love sewing. So when I spotted a book in the school book fair called "Kids Can Quilt" it was an easy choice.
It's a great book with simple but effective projects for kids. It starts off with a couple of simple piecing projects, then a couple of simple hand-quilting projects (all the projects can be done by hand, although the book also talks about kids using sewing machines as if it was no biggie, which I like) and even includes more "advanced" techniques such as appliqué, trapunto and shadow quilting.
The projects include pot-holders and pencil cases and so on, but also "proper" quilts. I like the inclusiveness of it - it doesn't assume that kids can't make real quilts, and it doesn't assume that making quilts is the only use for patchwork and quilting. It's not prescriptive either - there's a dinosaur quilt but the instructions say that if you don't like dinosaurs you could do flowers or cars or anything else you want. Most of the projects have similar suggestions for how you can personalise them to suit your tastes or make use of the materials you have available.
All of the projects look effective, and some of them are stunning. There's one where you applique large felt shapes onto a fleece blanket using your hand as a template - it shows you how to make your hands into butterflies, or birds wings, or a duck. It's really amazing.
I can't wait to get stuck into some of the projects with my kids during the Easter holiday. My littlies will need quite a lot of supervision and help to do the projects, but I always make them do as much by themselves as they can. I only fix "mistakes" that would mean things coming apart, so I sometimes go over seams more tightly, but I leave wonky placement and uneven stitches alone - it's their work, not mine. An older child, such as a teen, could probably use the book to create the projects without adult help.
I didn't even realise until I had already bought it that the book is by Dorothy Stapleton, one of my favourite quilt book authors, which explains the quirky, effective projects and the laid-back attitude.
I do recommend this book if you are doing quilting with children.