A couple of weeks ago, we spent a full week with our grandsons in Ohio. They are twins (8 years old), middle child (5 years old), and youngest (2 years old)–such an incredible amount of energy and fun and imagination in one house is amazing. This is one of all four boys at the zoo. You can see the little one in green running ahead.
The twins have wanted to sew for a long time. Mom’s sewing machine needed service and repair the last time we were there. It had not been used in such a long time that the presser foot would no longer go up and down. Thus, in the interim we found a Pfaff dealer and the machine was serviced and repaired.
My friends, Wanda and Sherry, have made jelly roll race quilts with their granddaughters/nieces and that gave me the idea of what to make with the boys. One full jelly roll (42 strips) will make two lap quilts with a three inch border all around.
This was much more difficult than I imagined. Somehow my daughters learned to sew when they were 8-10 years old, making things like t-tops and shorts and it seemed easy for them. However, they both had been sitting at a machine (first on my lap) from the time they were old enough to sit. And then they made fancy stitch samplers using variegated thread by just selecting the stitches and pressing the foot pedal.
The boys had a very hard time stitching a straight seam–the seams always seemed to veer into the middle of the strip or off the edge. One of the twins wanted to race with the pedal to the metal and the other twin wanted to stitch one stitch at a time–both methods had serious issues for the teacher. Fortunately the Pfaff has a “sew slow” button.
We did get the quilts finished. I brought the tops home with me to add borders, quilt, and bind. I didn’t gete any pics of the boys sewing, but here are pics of the quilts on the quilting frame.
And just for fun–this was a “quiet” moment: