Here’s Julia, “Slippers,” the kitten, and the quilt Julia made for Slippers.
We finished it last night.
The bulk of the work was really done on Sunday – the cutting and piecing together the four blocks. After that, we worked on things a little bit Monday morning, and again yesterday morning (cutting and piecing the inner border pieces), and then finished it all after dinner.
Julia really did a lot of the work.
She selected and cut fabric, she pinned pieces together, she pressed down on the sewing machine pedal, she removed pins and snipped thread, and she ironed the seams flat.
I traced templates onto fabric, repinned pieces if necessary, guided fabric through the sewing machine, and showed Julia what to do as needed.
I’m so proud of her.
And I’m excited for her, too. She really enjoyed working on this project.
She had fun, of course.
But more importantly (to me, anyway), is that this is something SHE can do. It’s hers. Or it will be, when she’s got a little more experience under her belt.
It’s not something Alex does that she wants to do, too. She’s not two years behind him in learning how to do it.
This is her thing.
She gets to be a big girl and use the iron. And, as she pointed out to Alex, she didn’t even burn herself once. (She did, however, have an unfortunate encounter with a cold iron a bunch of years ago when she was playing under the ironing board – which she knew she wasn’t supposed to do – and the iron fell on her head. I think she still has a little bit of a dent/scar at the hairline. That was fun. Julia and her many head injuries.)
She gets to be creative…and a big girl…
And she gets to be proud of her accomplishment.
By the way, we used a piece cut from an old sweatshirt as the batting. In case you were wondering.
She brought her quilt – and Slippers the kitten – to school today, so she can show her teacher and classmates.
The quilt has fabric I’ve bought, and fabric my grandmother had (the one with the cherries on it), and now it is a little quilt made by my daughter.
I love that.
One day, I think all of that will mean a lot to Julia, too.
But for now, there’s something more important than that.
Slippers really loves her quilt.
oh ! It's so wonderful!! I've gone all chokey and bleary eyed and proud for your babygirl who is growing into a really accomplished young lady.
And she has made it so well! I mean even if it were all wobbly and uneven and that, it would still be something to be proud of, but it is so really really well made.
Fabulous, Julia, well done you!
Posted by: Lynne | January 26, 2011 at 10:44 AM
Awesome, Julia!
I can't wait to see what your next quilt looks like. Your animals are sooooo lucky!
Posted by: Kat | January 26, 2011 at 01:20 PM
I love it! Did she sign and date it anywhere? I do that on all my pieces now because I so quickly forget the specifics but I like being able to go back and track the timeline.
Posted by: RoseAnn | January 26, 2011 at 01:52 PM
Oh! So glad you said that! I didnt even think of it, so Im really glad you did!
Posted by: Jayne | January 26, 2011 at 04:10 PM
That's fantastic. YAY, Julia! Good job!
Look, I can't even do that, so she's way beyond me.
Posted by: tracey | January 28, 2011 at 02:56 PM