"Nana Cindy" Days...Teaching the Girls to Sew!

I have the privilege of being Nana Cindy to my two favorite granddaughters...Chloe and Samantha.  I decided that this was the year I could finally spend some time teaching them to sew by creating their very first quilts!  I spend half a day alone with each of them, take them out for lunch and ice cream and then we spend the rest of the day working on their quilt tops.  This was week one...I wanted to show the process of how I've pulled this off hoping it would provide inspiration to the rest of the Nana's out there in case they want to do the same thing!


First things first...gotta have a sewing machine!  I thought it was very important that they learn how to sew on their very OWN machine...not Nana Cindy's.  When I teach at shows I try and request Janome machines as they are so user friendly and I have fabulous classroom support.  At several shows on the east coast I have been fortunate enough to have David LaValley from the Bittersweet Fabric Shop supply the Janomes for my rooms.  He and his support staff are over the top. 

I have taught for the Vermont Quilt Show twice and they have a special category for the youth...first time entrants.  At each awards ceremony David has gifted each and every youth entrant a new sewing machine.  There's hardly a dry eye in the room when this happens.  I've never forgotten that.

Soooo, when it came time to buy a sewing machine for Chloe and Samantha I went directly to David.  He highly recommended the Janome "My Style 100" and he assured me this machine could stay with the girls forever.  Sold. 

The machines arrived last week but I had to wait until I was home THIS week to give them to the girls.  They were SO excited and I have to admit the learning curve was very easy and the speed easily controlled by little feet. 

So now we have to take a step back to show you the process of getting the quilt top started. I created half-square triangles on white card stock and colored each half.  I gave a bag of squares to each of the girls and told them to create a design for their top and have their mom, Jenny, take a picture of it. 

Then I gave each of them a piece of paper with the rows of the quilt all drawn out.  They had to color each block to make the design.  This was going to be our "road map" when assembling the top.

 I decided it would be best to have the girls make large half-square triangles...6" to be exact.  These would go together quickly to complete their tops.  I ordered the half-square triangle paper on a roll, precut all of their fabric into strips and pinned the paper to it.

Each of them sewed the paper to the fabric following the dotted lines...sort of! 

Oh, you're probably wondering how those little feet reached the foot pedal????  A long basket of course!

Once the strips were sewn together I cut them apart but the girls had to rip off the paper and cut off dog ears...I pressed the squares and then they were ready for the design wall.  VERY cool to watch this part!

This is turning out to be a fabulous summer project and a great way to spend quality Nana Cindy time with each girl on their own.  They will finish the summer with their very first quilt that they have sewn on their own (kind of) with their very own machine.  Life is good.

A very special thank you to David LaValley for ALL he does to support our youth. 

Big Hugs, Cindy :)