My Daughter's First Quilt

{Proud mama alert!}

For tips on teaching a child to quilt, please scroll to the bottom of this blog post! 

'My almost-seven-year-old daughter completed her first quilt yesterday! She made a small patchwork quilt and intends to give it to her kitten. 

We used a charm pack (to limit the amount of cutting needed, since I do not feel she is ready to use a rotary cutter). She chose a cute set of prints in a rainbow of colors. I explained the basics and let her lay out the squares however she liked. She chose a (mostly) rainbow order, with a few wild cards thrown in, just because she liked them. The quilt ended up being about 24"x28".

The back is a blue and green piece from my vintage sheets collection. 

 She did SO well sewing the squares and rows together. It was a very s-l-o-w process, but she paid close attention to my instructions. When it came time to quilt the layers, she did AMAZING at staying on track with "stitch in the ditch." 

 

 I'm including this picture NOT to point out her flaws (because I truly believe that the flaws in homemade quilts make them human and unique!). But... this little spot in the purples makes me laugh. It was near the end of the line and she had done so well keeping right along the seam line. And then... she started singing to herself and just got distracted. We probably could have ripped out the seam and gone back to "fix" it, but I love the memory of my little girl in her own little world and sewing outside the lines. SO her. 

She chose a colorful polka dot fabric for the binding, which I love because it's actually leftover from this quilt I made for one of her closest friends. 

I am so so so so unbelievably proud of her for sticking with it and completing this quilt. She was a great listener and followed my instructions so well. And, even better, she seemed to enjoy the process and has said that (maybe) she'd like to make another quilt someday. 

Are you considering teaching a child to quilt? Here are a few lessons I learned:

1) Start small. A doll quilt is the perfect size to keep his/her attention and complete a project quickly without it taking too terribly long. 

2) Use a charm pack or pre-cut fabrics. This saves so much time and avoids having a small child use a rotary cutter. I think their hands (and attention spans!) are too small to accurately or safely cut fabric. If the cut is off or lopsided or too big or too small, the whole quilt is going to be difficult. Starting with precut fabrics is a real lifesaver here.

3) Start simple. My daughter sat on my lap and did the sewing, but I controlled the pedal. Too many moving parts would have overwhelmed her and wouldn't have been fun. She controlled the sewing, I controlled the "driving." She told me when to slow down or stop and I kept a close eye to make sure she wasn't making any huge mistakes (see #6). 

4) Go slow. My daughter and I talked a lot about what speed she wanted to sew at. What seemed painfully slow to me was just right for her. Remember that if you've been sewing a while, it seems easy to you but it's a lot of new moving parts to a small person. Slow down. Overall, this small quilt took us about 6½ months. Teaching a child to quilt is not a project to take on if you are in a hurry. 

5) Be patient. Kid's attention spans are short. Our goal was to sew one or two rows (5 squares) at a sitting. It was usually 5 minutes or less, which was enough for her. It drove me a little crazy, but I reminded myself it's about the process, not the speed. 

6) Forget trying to make anything perfect and don't point out sloppy work unless it's going to ruin the quilt. I had a hard time not doing certain steps for her to make it pretty. Accept that it doesn't have to be pretty to be loved. Her first quilt is very human with lots of spots that show her learning process. In particular, I LOVE the spot where she totally went wonky because she was singing and just being so her. This quilt will be a treasure to me forever. 

7) Take pictures. I'm sure it comes as a big surprise, but document the process. If she grows up to be a quilter (or if she doesn't!), these pictures will be amazing to have. If you're like me, the finished quilt will bring tears to your eyes and you'll appreciate the moments you took to document those tiny hands sewing at your machine.