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 :)