It would be unnatural to me to have a daughter who did not know how to quilt, or worse…….be unfamiliar with applique, “OH NO!”.

Obviously for a little girl who had never done much handwork, she wasn’t going to start out at the top.  A major issue was going to be working with her attention span, or lack thereof.  I needed a project that would grab her interest and plant a seed that would grow, but I had to make it fun at her level.

Ok you all know how I feel about glue on quilts, but I don’t extend that rule to quilting with children.  In fact, I encourage them to get busy with it.  At this point learning technique is secondary for obvious reasons.  My intention was to hook her with the limitless “pictures” she could create with fabric and thread.  Technique could come later when I have her in my quilting clutches. 

This is Jenna, my free spirited, lovely and artistic daughter (hanging with fellow princess Snow White don’tcha know!).  She loves growing flowers, crafting, drawing and the color pink–still. 

My princess (she will kill me for saying that)

I gave her a glue stick, let her choose any fabrics she needed from my stash and a pair of scissors and let her create without interference from me as far as her design went.  I only instructed her to make a picture with the fabric. When she was done, she was uncertain about it and handed it over to me to work some sewing machine magic. 
 

She is watching what I do, notice the papyrus image from Pharaoh?

I stitched around the appliques (raw edge applique) to secure the pieces, put on a border to frame the design, and then machine quilted it with images she wanted.   When all was done and bound (she hadn’t seen it completed yet) I washed it up to remove the glue and then blocked it.

She incorporated her love for gardening and pink!

The look on her face when I handed it to her finished was priceless.  She was so thrilled with the results and was so proud of it.  To this day, she loves that little quilt and it is one of her most precious possessions.  I have the precious mother/daughter experience and a wonderful memory of a day spent quilting with my daughter.

© 2009 Sandra Leichner  http://www.sandraleichner.com