Quilting with a 4 year old!!

Hi Guys, Just returned from our annual trip to Lizard Land and the SMDGD's b-day trip -- Disneyland this year. I made her a bunny quilt this year (photos will be posted soon) which I made on my clunky sewing machine while we were up at our cabin for a few days. While I was there, DSonIL niece had her baby shower to which I was invited. I had taken fabric with me so that I could make a baby quilt AND I promised Raechel (the SMDGD) that she could help me sew! OY, the pain -- LOLOL! Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to plan a very easy 40" square finished size quilt of 5" finished whole cloth blocks in blues & yellows (stars & moons) -- each row staggered by half. This meant that I had NO corners to try and match, which was a good thing. I got the blocks cut out while at the cabin and then sewed the blocks into rows once back at DD's house. The SMDGD "helped" sew the rows together -- the main reason for having the rows of blocks staggered by half :-). I got "R" on my lap sitting at the machine -- no mean feat since I am larger than the average bear and the kiddo is now 42" tall! I would start the stitching and then let her help me feed the fabric through the machine. Needless to say, those seams weren't terribly straight since I was having trouble trying to see around her head while sewing a 1/4" seam. During the sewing, I would tell "R" that we had made a mistake and I would fix it. Then I would let her get down and play a bit while I resewed the seam making sure that the sewing was straight and at 1/4". Then I would start the next row and call her to get up on my lap to help finish it. There were eight rows so we did this seven times. By the end, she was really tuckered out (I was exhausted and had the devil of a headache from craning my neck to see around her) so she was happy to stop for the day. That evening I sandwiched and pin basted the quilt -- with help of course. She knew she couldn't touch the basting pins when they were opened but she was right there to hand me the closed pins and just give general assistance -- LOL! The next day was the machine quilting -- with help again. Since I had such wonderful help, I decided that the best quilt design would be straight lines horizontally & vertically done using the multi-stitch zig-zag. I had help with this, too, so the quilting lines aren't as straight as they could be -- LOLOL yet again :-)). I made sure that the quilt label included Raechel's name (I fussy cut large kitty designs from fabric with a white ground) and then I let her "sign" the quilt in one of the open areas of the kitty design. By the time we were done (fortunately, she didn't want to help machine sew the binding -- LOL -- as there's not a lot of room there for fixing mistakes) she was as proud as punch with what she had accomplished. I let her take the quilt over to Mommy, Daddy & GrandFather and show them the beautiful blankie she had helped GrandMother make. Then when we were at the shower, she got to show her cousin where she had signed the quilt and tell her all about sewing like a "big lady" :-). It took me days to recuperate from the experience (my neck muscles were NOT happy) but it was well worth any problems I might be having. DD (now 40) reminded me that she still remembers helping Nana (my Mom) paint pictures and make tissue paper flowers, etc. when she was about the same age as Raechel. So, not only will I have given the SMDGD some hopefully fond memories, I might also have started another young one down the quilting path. She already LOVES to go shopping, especially to Joann's. She loves to look at fabrics so sewing and quilting are hopefully next on the list of things GrandMother can get her addicted to, LOL. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

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Reply to
Tia Mary
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Lovely story! How old is the talented new seamstress? Roberta in D

"Tia Mary" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net...

Reply to
Roberta Zollner

What a wonderful time you had!I could just picture it!!Precious times!

Reply to
Estelle Gallagher

Wonderful story, Grandmother not Tia Mary! Hope you have lots more of those happy times, as she gets older and her little hands area bit more under her control >g< . In message , Tia Mary writes

Reply to
Patti

The clue is in the title!! . In message , Roberta Zollner writes

Reply to
Patti

It sounds like a wonderful day, Mary, even given the discomfort you suffered as a result! :)

Reply to
Sandy

I've found that my son (who is 4 this month) can foundation piece quite well, I have the foot pedal, but after a while he was mostly guiding the fabric through the machine, it couldn't be a pattern that needed complete accuracy, but I was doing arcs where it didn't matter if one segment was a little wider than the next. Quarter inch seams are a different matter through, I think it's going to be a while before he has much chance at doing those.

Anne

Reply to
Anne Rogers

On May 10, 8:22 pm, "Anne Rogers" wrote: [snip]

I wonder if one of those seam-guide thingamabobs that you can screw onto your sewing machine would help small ones with quarter-inch seams.. I dunno, just wondering. :)

//Mary/mgl

Reply to
Mary

Reply to
Polly Esther

it sounds like you both had a wonderful time! :-)

Reply to
Jessamy

Duh! That'll teach me to read the subject lines! Roberta in D

"Patti" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:HI$ snipped-for-privacy@quik.clara.co.uk...

Reply to
Roberta Zollner

Okay, I'm an idiot... I know the GD of SMDGD is granddaughter but what is the SMD?

It sounds like you had a fabulous time.

Tricia in TX

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Tia Mary wrote:

Reply to
A&T

actually this was something I'd thought of as a potential future project, problem is, I can't cope with DS on my knee for long enough to do much

Anne

Reply to
Anne Rogers

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