First Quilt

Bentley, Jake, and Viva worked together on a lap quilt to give Grandma Vicki for Christmas. I pulled out some of my Kaffe Fassett fabrics and the children each chose five or six to use in the quilt. I ironed and cut the fabric into rectangles. They then arranged the pieces according to the quilt pattern I had designed. After laying all the pieces out, they checked them to make sure no similar pieces were next to each other. They swapped around a few pieces. I labeled the pieces. They sewed them together. Bentley and Jake had never sewn before, but they had no problems sewing straight seams. Viva used her recently acquired skills to do a great job, too.

After the top was completed, I asked the children what color they wanted on the back: green or yellow. They chose yellow because we had heard it was one of Grandma Vicki's favorite colors. I asked them if they wanted to add a layer of batting. They said South Dakota was very cold, so Grandma Vicki needed the extra warmth. Bentley chose the quilting thread color: purple. Jake and Viva chose a quilting design: hearts and flowers. Gladys (my longarm quilting machine) quilted the top. Viva helped me piece the binding together and I sewed the binding on. The project went well from start to finish. We mailed the quilt off!

The children were a delight to work with. I had no idea children this young could sew so well. It was fun to have someone else make some of the tough decisions like fabric and thread choice and block location. We will work together on more quilts in the future.