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Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions for quilting with kids. I decided the best way to start with Hanna was to open up my box of 6″ squares (from various exchanges) and watch her reaction. She had to feel every square. She’s really grandma’s girl :-).  She chose her favorite 12 and they were mostly Christmas prints.

I then set my featherweight up on a bench, with Hanna on a stool and she was off. She listened carefully and did just as I instructed. I was very pleased and impressed. It was hard for her to step on the pedal with the ball of her foot, but her heel worked great! She drove and grandma helped guide (along with a thick layer of masking tape).

While pressing the seams we both held the iron together (with Hanna’s free hand on her knee – to prevent burns). She stitched the blocks into a doll quilt set 3 x 4 and then we layered it with flannel and stitched almost all the way around. Hanna turned it right side out and helped pin the players together. We did some straight quilting lines and, less than 2 hours later, it was finished!

 

Her response: “let’s make another one”! She’s definitely grandma’s girl :-).

Snuggle & Learn Quilts for Kids, my most recent Replique book, was all about making colorful, cuddly and educational quilts for kids.  

It was written for adults to create these gifts of love for the special children in their life, but there’s another aspect to quilts and kids – teaching them to sew!

Over the years I’ve taught sewing to a number of different groups of kids. My daughter’s girl scout troop was among the first. They made vests to showcase their merit badges  – and this was before I learned to quilt. After I became addicted to quilting I taught my daughter to quilt, but it wasn’t exactly her thing.

A few years later I decided that my 5th grade Sunday School classes could make charity quilts as a way of doing something for others in need. The boys especially enjoyed the “accelerator” on the sewing machine and all the kids seemed to like stitching. 

This week I’m hoping for some helpful advice. My granddaughter Hanna is almost 5 and I’d like to plant some quilting seeds :-). Do you have any suggestions regarding quilting activities geared toward this age? The kids I’ve taught have always been older and I’d rather not reinvent the wheel. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Quilters can be inspired by so many different things – nature, books, patterns and even blogs. The possibilities are just about limitless. Art quilters have many different sources of inspiration. Much of my fiber art is inspired by my relationship with Jesus. Last year the quilt I made for the Milwaukee Art Quilter’s challenge: “Portals” was an example of my faith being the inspiration for a quilt.

It is entitled “The Narrow Gate” and represents a portal to heaven through the cross. The leaves on the tree are printed with Scripture verses explaining this amazing gift. Portals won first place in the Ultimate Guild Challenge at the AQS show in Knoxville last year!

What inspires you? I believe many of you are often inspired by taking classes because that’s how we met. On Thursday I’ll touch on some of the exciting, new classes I’ve planned for the Fall. Until then I’d enjoy hearing about your inspirations! Please click on “comment” and share.

This past Spring our local PBS station decided to have a judged quilt contest entitled “Quilting As Art”. Awards were given to the winning quilts and all of the entries were then put in the channel 10 Great TV Auction to raise funds to support the station. My quilt, Strange Brew (made for a “tea” challenge), won 3rd place – praise the Lord! I was thrilled, but so much more than the support of PBS and a bit of prize money came out of it.

My local newspaper did a very nice article about Strange Brew and my quiltmaking. A neighbor, whom I had only met once, saw the article and sent me a lovely letter commenting on the article and my website and adding that she was a beginner quilter. Well, we just had to get together for a cup of tea!

Diahann Lohr is a very talented graphic artist who has her own business, Adunate Word and Design. She creates blogs and websites for others. This led to a delightful, old fashioned barter. She guided me in the creation of this blog and I helped her make a lone star quilt. To see her beautiful quilt and read more about our successful bartar, please visit her blog at: Adunate Blog.

All this led to this week’s topic and I thank everyone who commented for their input and suggestions. I’m taming the “time eating beast” dilemma the same way Di is, by doing my “social networking” at night when I would otherwise be watching tv or puzzling over Sudoku. This way I feel I’m doing something constructive with my late night time (my husband’s already asleep by then) and I truly do enjoy it. If you need a website or blog and are not a night owl who enjoys being on the computer – you may want to contact my new and dear friend Diahann!

 

PS I belong to a very talented group called the Milwaukee Art Quilters. We just found out that 8 quilts from our latest challenge: “Connecting Thread – a Line of Design”, won first place in the Ultimate Guild Challenge at the AQS Quilt Show in Knoxville. This is the second year in a row we’ve won a blue ribbon there and we’re all very excited.

Briefly, the rules stated that each quilt had to have a red line enter on the left, do something in the middle and exit on the right with enough line left to attach to the next quilt. My quilt, “Risen”, was not one of the 8 that traveled to Knoxville, but is one of 17 in the challenge which we hope to exhibit often in the future. “Risen” is pictured above and the red “line” outlines the Celtic Knotwork. To see all the challenge quilts and read the rules, please visit our brand new blog: www.milwaukeeartquilters.wordpress.com.

Quilting has been my delight since 1987 and the joy of teaching entered my life shortly thereafter. About 8 years ago I discovered that the internet would be a great way to exchange information about the classes and lectures I offered. I decided I needed to hire someone to teach me how to be the keeper of my own website and, thanks to Peter Queen, www.chrisquilts.net was born. It has been a real blessing to me. Besides class/lecture info I have descriptions and supply lists posted that can easily be “copy and pasted”, which saves me time, printing and postage. With the passing of time I realized what an exciting opportunity my website provided in getting the word out about the “Sew We Go” adventures Wendy Rieves and I lead throughout the US and Europe. Thus I felt I was really on top of the quilt/web connection.

Since then a whirlwind of change and uses for the internet has occurred and I was left in its dust. I had no intention of blogging, but the Lord had other plans :-). I’ll share that story in my Thursday post.

The big downside I’ve discovered with the computer is that it quickly eats time out of my life!!! I do enjoy writing my blogs and reading those of others, but that’s time I could be spending with my Babylok! How do you deal with this dilemma??? Keeping them close to each other in the studio helps, but I really need more :-). Help!