Quilting Together: The next generation- Jana-June 2016 update

After months of "Can I cut? Can I sew? Can I iron? I think I can do that? I wised up and realized my granddaughter really wanted to learn to sew. In particular she wanted to learn to quilt. Jana, now 10, began to sew when we decided to make a Leukemia support quilt for her mother who had been diagnosed with ALL(Acute Lymblastic Leukemia). Orange is the ALL support color. Purple just seems to set things off and it is one of Jana's favorite colors. Oh by the way, her mother's cancer has been in remission nearly a year.

Jana loved the fabric..so she helped pick special fabrics to represent all those who supported her mom..She wanted to learn to use a rotary cutter so we talked safety and she began to help by cutting strips...She LOVES to iron. So she pressed pieces...Finally she wore down her old grandmother and she started to sew. I have to admit having that 1/4 seam pressure foot helped her get off to a great start.
This is a picture of her and the quilt that started her interest in quilting.

Oh by the way..here is the official first quilt that she made for her American Girl doll. This is where she first practiced here 1/4 inch seams. As you can see she was really excited.

This quilt started out as a place mat for someone who loves tea. She just could not stop sewing :).

Jana also loves fairies. Quiet naturally that means she loves fabric with fairies (don't we all). In fact if you could see the details in her quilts you would find a little piece of fairy fabric in every quilt. When I saw the Christmas Fairy fabric features below I knew it would excite her. We had no idea or plan, but wanted to feature the fairies. She decide on the size of the panel and which fairies to include. She shopped my stash for complimentary fabrics for the borders. While deciding on the design we saw a picture in the Keepsake Quilting catalog which feature the window panes. We decided to adopt that as a way to feature the close ups of her favorite fairies.It was her first lesson in fancy cutting. I had to help with the spacing, but we are a team, so I did my part. Here is the result.

She persuaded me to quilt it using free motions quilting. I am a complete novice. Since we are only "just having fun", I knew she would be happy no matter how it turned out.

This is Jana in her own words!

My name is Jana and I will be 11 in April. I have been sewing with my grandma ever since I was 8. I have been making quilts for a year. My favorite colored fabrics are pink,purple,red,and blue. Look at papa don't peek to see the secret project I am making for my dad.

This is our sewing space.


I like to organize my pins by shape and color.


This is me sewing one of the blocks for my dad.


This is me ironing a block for my dad. I LOVE TO IRON!!

Do you know someone my age who likes to sew?

Lastly we know it's posted on another page, but here is the first quilt Jana completed. It's the Craftsy Block of the Month for 2012. If you are familiar with the quilt you will realize we took a little creative license. There where some blocks she thought where too difficult, or just didn't like so we substituted with things she liked.

I just love the quilting Sandy did on my quilt!

2013 Crafts BOM

Update 2014

It is so hard to believe my granddaughter is "almost a teenager". She has all kinds of confidence and although she has friends to occupy her time, we still get together for sewing time. Somehow our roles are reversed. She used to press while I sewed. This weekend she was doing the piecing and I did the pressing.