Mastering the art of the 1/4" seam

Punk loves to "sew" on my machine.  She loves to dig in her fabric bin for the prettiest of fabrics, fold it in half and sew all the decorative stitches she can fit on that lone piece of fabric.  A while back, I had put a handful of good sizes pieces in her bin.  Nothing I cared for but too big to throw away.  I donated to the Punk Cause.

Working on a project, my shadow came to visit me and promptly dug in her bin for her own fabric.  I convinced her that instead of doing decorative stitches, to layout a quilt top.  Put her fabric in the order she would like and then mark the rows.  When there was time, I would square up the pieces to a uniform size and then she can sew them together.

The project was put aside for a while.  The holidays came and I was busy with my own stuff.  Last night after dinner, she and I needed an electronics break so we went upstairs and got to work.  We figured out which size to square the fabric to (9" square).  I squared up the first 2, showed her how to line up the edges and how to pin them together.  Where to line herself up on the foot for the 1/4" seam and off she went.

Concentrating

being her silly self

lining up those edges

sewing her first 2 full rows together

She did great!!  Out of 16 squares, in only TWO spots her seams didn't match up quite right.  She did much better than I did my first time!  At the end, she heaved a big sigh and was glad she was done.  She was a bit nerve-wrecked at the end.  The stress of "everything must be perfect!".  After her first two rows were sewn and I pressed them, I showed her WHY 1/4" seams were important and how everything lined up nicely when you did it right.

I only assisted with the squaring of the fabric, initial pinning on the pressing of the blocks.  I'm not ready to give her access to the rotary cutter and hot iron.  Punk was thoroughly impressed that her first quilt top took an hour to put together while mine take days.  LOL.

Her first (of many, I hope!) quilt top.  Please ignore the bedroom clutter.  I am a hoarder of slippers and clothing boxes.  :)  The rest of my bedroom is nice and clean.  That is my clutter corner.

I hope to stop this week to get some backing fabric and we'll finish the quilt this weekend.  If she is interested, I'll let her dig in my stash for the "good" fabrics and we'll work on making a bigger quilt for herself.  Bigger blocks and a few more rows and she'll have her own lap quilt!  Another idea is to bust out one of the quilt kits I bought for her that uses a very simple pattern (Yellow Brick Road) and have her help me construct it.  I fear that all the prep will bore her away so I'll stick with the super simple for now.

Proud Mama over here!
Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)