Sofia and Lisa

I am SO excited! I checked my email this morning and I had an email from Lisa Bongean that she has a new post on her blog. (I get one every time she posts so I don't miss a thing.) When I saw her latest post I was jumping up and down and had to call my daughter, email my friends the link and post it on Facebook!! 

My granddaughter, Sofia, is on Lisa's blog! There is a picture of the two of them from a quilt show in Georgia. I showed the picture to Lisa when she was the guest speaker at the East Cobb Quilters Guild meeting in May and she asked me to email it to her. Lisa remembered Sofia, and me taking their pic, and she wanted a copy of it too. I had no idea that she would share it in a blog post! 

AWESOME!!!  (Insert great big smiley face here)

Here is the link to Lisa's post 

http://lisabongean.com/2013/08/01/long-beach-show-summer-quilt-festival/

and here is where I posted the same picture on my blog in June.

http://grammyquilts.blogspot.com/2013/06/east-cobb-quilters-guild.html

When my daughter Melissa showed the post to Sof, she hugged her mom and said "Aw, that's the sweetest thing!"  And it is.

Happy Quilting!

The Love of Sewing

Sewing with my granddaughters is something I have always enjoyed doing. It is an activity that makes them feel so special. Usually it involves a sleepover and lots one on one time-whether we are in the sewing room or the kitchen. They love being involved and helping out, whatever we are doing.

When we first moved to Georgia our oldest granddaughter, Katelyn, was 28 months old. I was so happy to be near her and her baby sister, who was 11 1/2 months old. We live less than a half hour away and I knew I would have plenty of chances for family get togethers. 

About six weeks later was the first time I ever sat Katelyn in my lap while I was sewing. She was so excited!

Look at the concentration on that doll's face! She was taking it all in!

She wanted me to move my hands so that she could do it all by herself.

Yes, she was bitten by the sewing bug that day! I'm not sure which of us was more thrilled!! I'm so glad my daughter caught this moment for us.

A year and a half later I saw a precious Janome Hello Kitty sewing machine at a quilt show. I just couldn't pass it up-I had three granddaughters at this point and knew that sewing machine represented so many hours I could spend with my little girls making memories! I brought it home and Katelyn immediately took to it like a duck to water and she was only three years old! 

Digging through my scrap basket, Katelyn found pieces of fabric to sew together. She was going to make a quilt! 

My mother was helping her while I snapped pictures. 

The fact that she couldn't cut with scissors yet wasn't going to deter her one bit.

She was so proud of her crooked little square! The joy on her face melts my heart!

Yes, there is no doubt about it--this girl loves a sewing machine!

Fast forward almost 7 years. Katelyn has grown up so much-she'll be starting 5th grade next month. I asked her last week to spend the night with me and wanted to know what she would like to do during her visit. "Make a skirt" was her answer. 

We went to A Scarlet Thread Quilt Shop on Thursday and she picked the fabric she wanted to make her skirt out of. Last night she slept over and today she was ready to sew. We decided that she is now old enough to sew on a "grown up" sewing machine. I sat her down and we had a lesson on sewing on my Bernina. I gave her some fabric scraps and explained to her the importance of keeping a straight seam allowance. She practiced sewing 5 rows and was ready to go! 

Katelyn wanted the stripes on her skirt to be horizontal, so she had to cut it in half since they were printed vertically.

Next she pinned her seams together. She had learned the importance of keeping her seam allowance straight and even. 

She's sewing her side seams together-we used a post it note to help her guide the fabric. 

She pressed her casing down and stitched it. She caught on to why we were leaving an opening very quickly.

She used a LARGE safety pin to thread her elastic through the casing.

And here she is stitching her hem. She went very slowly and carefully because she wanted it to be very straight since it would show on the outside of her skirt. 

She's one very proud young lady-and well she should be! She made this skirt all by herself!

Happy Sewing!!

A Sew Day with Little Girls

This weekend two of my granddaughters, Emily (7 1/2 years old) and Madison (6) are staying with us. Their older sister, Katelyn (almost 9) is with their aunt for a few days. I decided it was a good time to get out the Hello Kitty sewing machine and get some sew time in with the girls. 

I had purchased fabric to make pillowcases for the girls and decided that was an easy project for them to sew and something they would really enjoy having. They have pillowcases for birthdays and holidays-but one that they made for themselves to use any time would be really special for them. 

Here I blogged about sewing with two of my other granddaughters. And since I am an "equal opportunity Grammy" I had to give space to Emily and Madison and brag about their pillowcases. This was the first time either of them has ever sewn, but after a very quick lesson about how to use the sewing machine and a little practice on scrap fabric pieces, they were ready to sew. Both of them did an excellent job!

Emily is a "girly-girl", so her fabric has 

purses all over it in bright colors.

Madison is a dog lover, extraordinaire!

Her fabric has wiener dogs all over it. 

Paying It Forward

Sewing is a way of life in my family. My mom's mom sewed. A lot! She had a guest bedroom that she turned into a sewing room and it reached the point that you could no longer tell there was a bed in there under all that fabric.  She was a woman after my own heart.  

My mom sewed too.  She made drapes for the house and clothes for me.  I remember going to sleep at night to the hum of her sewing machine and waking up in the morning to find a new dress hanging on my closet door to wear to school that day. Those were the wonderful days of innocent childhood where I had no idea how many hours my mom had put into that dress!

When I was 14 I took home ec in junior high school.  We cooked, learned how to be better baby sitters, and we sewed.  I was in heaven.  My mom had already started teaching me to sew at home, so I was thrilled to have even more time to create at school.  By the time I was in high school I was proficient enough to make most of my own clothes.  I was even teaching some of my friends to sew. I was hooked!

When my children were small I continued to sew.  I made dresses for my daughters, curtains for our homes, and lots of craft items.  Once my children were grown my sewing interests changed and quilting became my focus.  

Both of my daughters sew.  I taught them some basics when they were living at home, but they have taken that and run with it.  Both of them dream up new ideas, create their own patterns and dive right in to make whatever strikes their fancy.  And then they blog about it!  You can see my daughters' projects here and here. Such talented ladies!

Fast forward many years and now I have granddaughters.  I decided that since I live nearby it would be fun to pass my love of quilting on to them.  Katelyn is the oldest and so she was the first to sew.  I even bought a "Hello Kitty" sewing machine for the girls to learn on.  

Here is Katelyn, age 4, in 2007

Recently Sofia (granddaughter #4) has taken an interest in sewing. So, after sitting her in my lap for a bit of sewing on my machine, we decided it was time for Hello Kitty to make an appearance again.  

My daughter even blogged about Sofia making this little quilt. Here is the link to Sofia, age 3 1/2 making a quilt for her Curious George.

I know that my granddaughters will continue to sew as they grow. They are surround by their mothers' creativity at home and they love to be in my quilt room when they visit our home, too.  Someday I bet they have sewing machines of their own and will be teaching their own daughters to sew.