Teaching grandchildren to sew

I had been so blessed to have one of our sons and his family 

move close to us :)

We both just had new homes built and we are literally two blocks away from each other, along a trail and through the park.

My three little grand daughters can walk to our house!

I have been working with Neo for months now, but she wanted to finish this quilt during fall break.

I didn't let her cut any of the fabric with the rotary cutter, I cut the pieces for her courthouse blocks myself!

Neo's 8 years old, she will be 9 in 6 days!!!

 Neo came over to my house last week 

and spent the whole day sewing.

She worked really hard and got five rows sewn together.

She came over the next day with her sisters 

and sewed the next five rows together.

She knew what to do, so I left her in the sewing room and helped her sisters with their own projects.

 She finished sewing all 60 blocks together!!!

Now she just has to sew a 6" border, that will be easy :)

Neo has come to know how useful a seam ripper is too, lol!

A seam ripper is a seamstress' best friend.

While Neo was sewing, I got an embroidery project ready for Kylie, who is 6 years old.

I helped her choose the colors and showed her how to stitch.

To my amazement, she sewed perfect little stitches.

She is a natural!

I think it takes talent to be able to use your fine motor skills, especially at age 6!

Then there's Izzy, she's 4 years old!

She loves putting puzzles together and did that for a while when I was helping Kylie.

She quickly became bored so I let her watch a little TV,

When I finished showing Kylie how to take the little stitches and tie a knot in the thread ( which she's already an expert at), 

I helped Izzy make a batch of Snickerdoodle cookies.

The girls had never tasted them before!

It's become a tradition that when we make cookies, we get a scoop of cookie dough while we're waiting for the cookies to bake.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!!!

I am very blessed to have such cute little grand daughters 

who live so close!

Now I just wish the other 11 grandchildren could move closer!

Eagle Scout quilt

My grandson has earned his Eagle Scout, 

the highest award a Boy Scout can receive.

I saw the cutest Boy Scout fabric by Riley Blake a few years ago.
It's called Modern Scouting.

I bought it, knowing that I would make Bridger a quilt.

This quilt is for Christmas, but he doesn't look at my blog so it's ok!

The center fleur de lis square is a printed panel, 

I decided to design the quilt around it.

There are two merit badge panels and four ranks 

that were included in the panel.

All of the letters and the blocks come from Lori Holt's books :)

All the blocks are symbolic, let me explain.

This block is for encouragement.

I chose uplifting quotes, Bridger is my sunshine!

This is Old Glory, the Boy Scouts are very patriotic.

(Excuse the random threads)

The typewriter symbolizes college.

The globe symbolizes Bridger's two year church mission.

Where in the world will he go?

The car symbolizes Bridger getting his driver's license.

He'll be getting his driver's permit in 6 months!!!

Also, this neon green is one of his favorite colors.

The camera symbolizes taking a snapshot of your life...

it's beside KNOWLEDGE.

I love sawtooth stars and had to throw some in.

The mason jar with the blooming flower represents Bridger's 
3 younger sisters.

He's a very patient young man 

and has withstood many "girly" things. 

I guess it also represents patience :)

The beehive represents the state that Bridger was born and raised.

Utah is the beehive state.

You can't have a beehive without a bee!

Love at home :)

I snuck a little panda bear on the sidewalk, 

Bridger knows that his sister Charlotte loves pandas!

Another Old Glory, and that's a wrap!

I'm going to purchase some green or blue minky for the back.

I don't know if I'm going to machine quilt it myself, it's big and it will be a bear!

I'll show you the quilt when it's all quilted.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Vintage Block Along, Peony

This is a bright and bold red "peony" block.

I've always loved peonies, they have the most glorious scent.

I walked by endless bushes of them, 

in my Elementary school years.

My favorite color is the pale pink.

To take a photo of this block, I laid it on top of my grand daughter's block tub!

Thanks for following along, I should have an update on my new sewing room soon :)

Vintage Block Along, Leftover

This is my Leftovers block, and all the little squares you see really are little!

They're each l l/2" square, and are leftover from other blocks.

All the fabrics are from various lines of Lori Holt's creativity.

I love all the bright, happy colors!

Vintage Block Along, Crossroads

Crossroads block, I've made it a few times before :)

Lori had a tutorial for her Crossroads block quite a few years ago, and I made a Crossroads table rummer.

You can see it here.

All of the blocks (except for the background) are 2 1/2" square.

I don't always have time to sew, since I have to pack everything up all the time, since I don't have a sewing room at this moment.

Sometimes I'll just get out my cutting mat and rotary cutter and cut block and put them in a sandwich bag.

It works for me right now :)

Vintage Block Along, Wildflowers

I love this Vintage Block Along of Lori Holt's!
I have been living with our things in storage, and only kept a basket of Lori Holt fabric to work with, so I could continue making the blocks for this quilt.
This was a fun one to make.

I have two large shelves of Lori's fabric, can you tell I'm a fan?

This is block #28, 
I'm very anxious to see what the finished quilt looks like!

Stellar Stars

My friend Nedra invited me to join the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild, which I did.

Each year, they have a quilt that they offer as a block of the month.

This year it's Stellar Stars by Purple Daisies Quilting.

Nedra and I usually get together once a month and work on our blocks together.

We invited Brenda to join us on our sew day, 

and we had such a fun time!

With Nedra's help, I was able to finish my block, Grandma's Glitter.

Nedra is a month ahead of me, and her block is totally paper pieced and much more complicated!

Nedra's block is called Astral Plane.

It's so much more fun quilting with friends :)

Cute & Simple Kids Library Bag

One of my grand daughters needed a piano bag,

and I was happy to make her one :)

Her favorite colors are teal and purple and pink.

I found this beautiful April Rosenthal fabric at one of my favorite quilt shops, Bolts & More in Gilbert, Arizona.

I found a great tutorial at Polkadot Chair.

I added a 2" boxed bottom though, to hold more books.

The inside of the bag is teal, and has 8 values.

Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, 

Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity and Virtue.

Isabel wanted to model the bag, so here she is!

Vintage Block Along, Shade Tree

This is my Shade Tree block from Lori Holt's Vintage Block Along.

I had a lot of fun choosing the colors.

We could sure use some big, beautiful shade trees 

like this in Arizona!

You can see the tutorial on Lori's blog here.

Vintage Block Along, Parade block

We have moved and I don't have a sewing room anymore, for 6 more weeks.

We have a very comfortable guest room at our son's home, and are sleeping on air mattresses for another night.

Then our new Queen bed set will arrive for our new guest room at our new house, which we will use for the next six weeks...

It's been a rough week of moving and cleaning and I couldn't stop thinking about Lori's Parade block for the Vintage Block along.

I decided to cut it and sew it!

I borrowed a small spot on the desk, next to our twin computers.

The best of both worlds, sewing and grandchildren :)

Thank goodness for my new Project Wool pressing mat which takes up such a small amount of space and makes my blocks look so flat and wonderful!

Here's my completed block!

The yellow print that I would have liked to have used is packed, so I chose this "happy" orange print to take its place.

I'm looking forward to the next block.

Thanks for following :)

Farmhouse Lane quilt, under construction

If you have been following along on my blog, you know that we are moving, a half mile down the street, twice!

We are moving in with our son and his family this week.

Our new home build will be finished the middle of September.

We moved to Arizona a year ago, I met my friend Nedra, 

and joined Farm Girl Chicks.

At our Farm Girl Chicks quilt group, we can only work on Lori Holt projects, that's the rule!

I began my work on Farmhouse Lane, the quilt pictured below.

Here's my stack of "welcome" blocks.

I seem to only be able to sew two of these per meeting.

Between sharing time, laughing and lunch, just two blocks :)

Last meeting, I didn't go out for lunch and was able to sew four!

I have 14 blocks made, only 2 more to go.

Before I attended my first Farm Girl Chicks meeting, I cut all of my blocks out and labeled them, clipped them with a clover clip and tucked them into a ziplock bag.

Each clip holds a "welcome" block in one bag and the background squares with another clip in the other bag.

I have two left and plan to finish them tomorrow at my meeting, 

on my birthday :)

Each of these ziplock bags represents a farmhouse.

I've made 5 and have 4 to go.

Unfortunately, the other farmhouses are packed...

Lots of people ask me how long it takes to sew a quilt.

I've never calculated, but I know it takes hundreds of hours!

According to my calculations, if you sew two blocks every two weeks, it will take a year and a half to finish this quilt.

Have a great week :)

Vintage Block Along, Family Reunion

This was a fun block to make!

I was able to match up the fabrics pretty well, but I had a perfect yellow from bake sale that would have been the best, alas it has already been packed....who knew.....

I'm eagerly anticipating the finish for the quilt.

Are any of you sewing along too?

Vintage Block Along, Mercantile block

Hi Everyone!

I finished my Mercantile block in the Vintage Block Along 

which can be found here.

I loved the story about this block, you'll have to read about it.
I was able to match up my fabrics to Lori's, except for the gray.

I did use gray, just a different print.

This quilt along is so perfect for me!

We have had so much going on in our lives, we sold our house and have to be out in a few weeks.

We're building our first home, just down the street.

I have a lot of packing to do, so just doing a block here and a block there is perfect for me!

I hope you're enjoying seeing all my blocks.

I know it's a little redundant every week, but I haven't had too much time for sewing lately.

Thanks for following me :)

Vintage Block Along

Welcome back to my Vintage Block Along!

I think this"4th of July" block is sew beautiful!!!

I would love to make a quilt full of these flag blocks.

I love the script writing white stripes too, very vintage :)

This is the "playing card" block.

It was fun and easy to sew!

Lori's instructions are always the best.

This "Penny Candy" block was great!  

It looks so complicated, but it sure isn't.

I had so much fun choosing all the little l l/2" squares 

from my stash.

Each one is a Lori Holt fabric and there are no repeats, 

except for the background squares.

I'm so anxious to see how this quilt turns out, 

with all the many sizes of blocks.

Lori hasn't told us when the blocks will be completed for the quilt.

I am eagerly anticipating that blog post.

If you want to sew the blocks, you can see the instructions on Lori's blog here.

Just type in Vintage Block Along in the search bar.

See you next time!