Teaching My Son to Quilt: Part 2

With the start of the year I started the new project of teaching my 4 1/2 year old son to quilt. This week we had a chance to get started with the piecing.

At this point I'm still working the pedal for him (very slowly) while he guides the fabric. (Yay for the 1/4" foot!) He's learned all about the parts of the machine (presser foot, feed dogs, etc.) and the basics for how to sew (putting up/down the pressure foot, changing the foot on the machine, how to put the bobbin in). He's especially focused on using a light touch to hold onto the fabric while he guides it. Now he says, "check how easy it is to pick up my hand, mom." And when he gets too firm of a grip then I shake his hand and remind him to have spaghetti fingers. ;-) He's become a chain piecing machine and likes the "mountains of fabric" it makes behind the machine.

We're working toward piecing each row. So far he's pieced the 3rd to 4th and 5th to 6th piece in each row. To stay organized, as he's pieced each batch he's laid them out on the floor to compare to his planned pattern. He likes all the tools, so he's been excited to use the wonder clips and pinmoors to keep his fabric organized and labeled.

keeping organized
C2 and C3 for column 2 and column 3

This week I hope we get to finish piecing the rows together and I can teach him to press the seams. I'll show you my progress on the other one-block quilt from my part 1 post next week.

Continue following how we're doing in Part 3.

Linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, Show & Tell Tuesday and WIP Wednesday.

26 thoughts on “Teaching My Son to Quilt: Part 2

  1. Kirsten Juul

    I really love reading this post about, how you teach your little son to quilt, and I'm looking forward to seeing the result

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      Thank you, Kristen. I think the secret for me is to working with him a little bit at a time. He's always really excited when I ask him if he'd like to work on his quilt.

      Reply
  2. Marji

    I love that he made his own tags :-)
    And that you are teaching him to press next week.
    One of my favorite things is to teach sewing. It has so many inherent 'life skills'. Using an iron being just one!

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      I'm glad that both kids are so excited about my sewing. The 2 1/2 year old really wants to sew too... I'm gonna have to engage her in some non-sewing fabric projects so she can get her fix. ;-)

      Reply
  3. Bo

    How neat!! So wonderful he is interested in learning to quilt!! As I was looking at your pictures of him using the sewing machine, I couldn't help but notice his little hand laying flat on the fabric. The idea popped into my head that it would be neat if you could capture his little hands on a quilt. Say a 9 or 10 inch square quilt. You know, like the ones people cast in plaster. :-)

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      Oh! I could quilt an outline of his hand onto the quilt (and maybe again onto a mini quilt for myself since he plans to give away the one he's making). That would be fun. Thanks for the idea!

      Reply
  4. Looking really good! My two-year-old is totally fascinated by the sewing machine and will grab my scraps and climb up and pretend he is sewing; I can't wait until he's old enough to actually teach him.

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      Thanks, Laura! He sounds so cute! I have a 2 1/2 year old as well. She thinks that since her big brother is sewing that she gets a turn. I try to work with him when she is sleeping, but that doesn't always work. I'm going to need to work with her on some non-sewing fabric projects. In the past she's enjoyed gluing little scraps to paper with a glue stick. Check this out as well, fabulous blog post on quilting with a kid: http://simplesewendipity.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-last-and-first.html

      Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      Thanks, Esther. I hope you'll blog about it! (Irony: I'm doing some blog reading and your most recent post was what I'd just clicked onto when I got your comment!)

      Reply
  5. This sort of choked me up. He is really into it, isn't he. I love the pudginess of his hands guiding the fabric as well as the labels he made for the rows. Really sweet! He's got a good mama, for sure.

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      You're so sweet, Bernie. Yes, he's very excited about sewing. We should probably try to squeeze in a few minutes before dinner.

      Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      He picked them out from my stash. He was interested in anything with animals. I didn't let him use a couple I have earmarked for a baby quilt, but I think he may have chosen some of everything else. ;-) Part 1 of the series shows the pattern he chose for the layout of the blocks. Thanks for visiting!

      Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      So far so good. :-) He's been hand sewing at school, so I offered to help him make a quilt on the machine and he jumped at the chance.

      Reply
  6. Looks like he is doing really well, I've tried in the past to get my eldest daughter (4 and a half) to sew but I think I scared her when I explained why she needed to keep her fingers away from the needle when the machine is going. I might have to try again, she'd be very interested in learning about the different parts of the machine.

    Reply
  7. This is so precious - you will always treasure these memories Sarah! Your son is very bright and creative! I think reading these two posts has made my whole day. Our "baby" is 21 and leaving tomorrow for his first after college job. I never could get him to sew, LOL, but my girls both do.

    Reply
    1. sarah

      Post author

      You are so sweet. Congratulations to your son. I know the time will come for college and the real world for my kids before I know it! Time sure flies!!

      Reply

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