Lex's DrEAMi project

A few weeks ago,

Lexi (8) had a wild hair to make a 4-patch quilt.

I reminder her that she already had a project to work on;

her cat block was cut and laid out,

ready to sew.

She wasn't interested in sewing her cat;

she only wanted to Drop Everything And Make her quilt.

So 

I taught her about leader/ender projects,

and we compromised.

She worked on her cat block 

and this mini quilt,

at the same time.

When she had both 4 patches

(front and back)

all sewn together,

she stopped working on her cat block,

and focused on finishing the quilt.

(she still hasn't finished her cat block,

and all it needs is 2 borders attached!

I'm trying not to be pushy about it...)

She chose wool batting

(but then, is that a surprise?)

and red thread

and we spray basted the layers together

(and used up the very last of our spray)

She drew out some quilting,

then practiced a bit 

on an already quilted on practice sandwich,

then went to town on the real deal.

We'd forgotten to check the bobbin,

and darn it if she didn't run out mid-quilting.

I apologized for the oversight,

and turned it into another lesson

(well, 2, really,

the first being - make sure you have plenty of bobbin thread...)

and she learned how to go back

and lock those last stitches made before the bobbin emptied.

She did all of the sewing and pressing,

though I did accidentally take over for a few minutes

pressing the binding to the back,

before she fussed at me

and I turned the iron back over to her.

She did want me to make the label for her

and I opted for the speed of the machine,

rather than stitching by hand.

We tucked it into the binding

and I helped glue baste it down,

then she sewed the binding down by herself

(she also attached it to the front totally by herself,

after I helped with the first corner to refresh her memory)

She didn't make this for any particular reason,

other than

she just really really wanted to.

Which I can totally understand :-)