Little Leah is 10 years old...going on 25...she is quite the character! Sometime during the summer, Leah asked me in her sweetest voice, if I would teach her to make a quilt...she caught me at a weak moment and as I heard myself say sure, I also let out a silent scream! Teaching anyone to quilt, little or big, is really hard for me because I personally do not follow the "rules." I take every short-cut there is and then some...to teach means I have to do it right...pinning and pressing...yawn!
Leah came with bright and colorful fabric - then we sorted through my stash and found more fabric for her blocks - she made 9-patch blocks with a big block in between. She sewed her little brains out...and when I sent her home with "homework" I truly thought that would be the end of it - we were in the midst of a glorious summer and I was certain Leah would tire of sitting at the machine! WRONG! One week later and she was back - with all of her blocks completed!
There's the proud little quilter! She completed her top and thought she was done...
Leah pinned (and whined) and pinned some more but eventually she got the borders sewn on! She did such a wonderful job, especially given this is her first quilt and she is ONLY TEN!
When I told her the next step was getting it quilted - and that I would do that for her - she asked me "And just how long will that take you, Nan?" One must not keep Leah waiting! I showed Leah's quilt to my quilt group and they were very impressed with her work...and the fact that I taught her to do things right - because I don't think any of them thought I knew how!
This is Leah's almost finished quilt...I machine quilted it, and quilted her name in it in several places, and I sewed on the striped binding for her...then I delivered it to her house and showed her how to stitch down the binding...knowing Leah, I'm sure she got it done that night! I told her the final step - a quilt is not truly finished until it has been washed and dried (birthed) and made her promise she wouldn't curl up in it until she had done that. Leah was a quick study - and so fun to have around...I'm so proud of how hard she worked on her darling quilt - which I'm sure will be loved to pieces!
This is Bonnie's quilt. Bonnie graduated from high school in June and before she left for college she asked me to help her make a quilt...but Bonnie is not a sewer nor did she want to be. I told her about French 'whole cloth quilts' and she loved that idea...less work was very appealing to her. So Bonnie went shopping and bought two different fabrics...she pinned them together with batting in between and whew, her hard work was finished! I was so glad to learn she didn't break a nail while pinning her quilt!!! That would have been tragic!
Bonnie was planning to have her sister finish her but due to a certain boyfriend, Bonnie was busy, busy, busy and didn't get her quilt pinned until right before she left, with her sister, for school. So yours truly quilted it - fortunately, it's not a big quilt, but then there was the matter of the binding. Bonnie had also planned on her sister to bind the quilt for her...but I took pity on her sister, she would hardly have time to bind a quilt while studying/partying at school! And Bonnie had her nails to think of, so I ended up binding the quilt. I sewed on the brown polka-dot binding - it seemed to tie the two sides together, red roses on one side and brown/tan on the other.
This fabric describes Bonnie perfectly - she is pure happiness, grace, joy, love, bliss, excitement, laughter - everything but pure simple! Bonnie, I'm sure, will love curling up in her quilt...even though it's only big enough for one - which is good news for her parents!
