Teddy's Quilt, by Lexi, age 7

You guys!

I can hardly stand it!!

Lexi made this (16 x 20) quilt - almost entirely by herself!

She started it quite a while ago -

well before I began sharing the sewing machine,

when her only option was hand sewing,

of which she is not nearly as big of a fan 

as her sister and I am.

It often took days for her to sew 2 squares together;
she'd tire of it after taking just a few stitches.

Then, once they could use the machine,

she plumb wore herself out making gifts 

for her new cousin

and her precious niece

so she didn't do much sewing for awhile.

After a sufficient break,
every once in awhile,

the girls would pull out the machine 

and she'd do a little sewing

and eventually, 

she had rows

instead of pieces.

The last time they had the machine out, 

she'd sewed the first two rows together.

Wednesday,

she pulled the quilt out again,

and decided she wanted to finish it.

In no time at all, 

she had the other rows sewn together.

(I had already glue basted them and drawn stitching lines for her)

She pressed all seams to one side,

and noticed how much nicer things looked

when she pressed again from the front,

after pressing the back.

I trimmed the quilt

then we basted it together

with Warm and White

and the perfect backing fabric

 (that took 20 minutes to find. grr)

She was set on free motion quilting,

even after I told her straight line would be much easier

and reminded her that she was just 7 years old!

So,

 we talked about drawing out your quilting first,

and she practiced on several sheets of paper,

then told me she was ready to quilt on her practice sandwich.

After a half hour or so,

she was giving her brother FMQing lessons.

She practiced as much as she could,
and then switched threads
and went at it again,
'til she was satisfied she was ready for the real thing.

Thursday morning,

she woke up asking if she could sew.

Her bobbin ran out shortly after she started

(oops - Momma forgot to remind her to make sure you have a full bobbin)

so she got out the bobbin winder,

made a new one,

inserted it by herself,

and got back to quilting.

After she finished the quilting,

we measured the quilt and choose binding.

She thought 2 1/2 inches would be better than 2 1/4,

to give her more room,
since it was her first time,

so that's what I cut.

I taught her how (and why) to make a miter join

then she trimmed her join,

pressed it,

then pressed the binding in half.

I showed her how we leave a little section unsewn,

then we glue basted the binding up to one corner

and she sewed that down

then I showed her how to miter the corner

and she glue basted, then sewed
the next side.

And y'all, here is where she really blew me away;

She attached the rest of the binding by her self.

Mitering the corners and everything!!

Her corners are indistinguishable from mine!

Then she pressed the binding away from the front,

and I helped her press and glue baste it to the back.

I did one side and the first corner,
showing her.

We worked together on the second two,

me folding, her pressing 

then glueing and pressing again,

and then she did the last side and corner

without a lick of help.

I told her she could use a zig zag stitch,

like Rachel teaches thousands of (grown) women to do,

and it would be more likely to catch all of the binding

or she could 

very slowly,

do a straight stitch right next to the binding.

She thought a straight stitch would look nicer 

(that's my girl)

so she proceeded to sew on the binding

by machine

with a straight stitch

by 

herself.

Something her Momma has only done a couple of times

in 7 years of quilting!

She missed a few spots,

of course,

and I pinned them so she could re-stitch where necessary.

There was one spot that was only about 3/8 of an inch,

and I told her that it was probably okay to leave it,

but no,

she wanted to fix that too.

And just like that - her quilt was finished.

Needless to say, she is quite pleased with herself

and plans on keeping Teddy's quilt forever.

I am so, so proud of my diligent learner!

linking up with Amanda Jean,

and entering this quilt in the mini quilt category

at the Bloggers' Quilt Festival

(Lexi said that when she grows up,

she wants to be a sew-er

and make quilts,

and give sewing machines to people.

I told her she needed to find her own passions,

but that she could share mine

until hers are revealed :-)

Lex' ~ Momma loves you so much!
And I love your heart.
I am so proud of you 
and admire your dedication to excellence
(where it relates to sewing ;-) 
Now, if we could work on the picking up...)