she's got Skills

I'm happy you are so excited to sew clamshells! Sounds like we'll have quite a group and lots of project variety, which is always fun. I have scheduled several planning and technique posts for next week, so we can move things along. We'll start cutting/sewing in February. Hoorah!

Guess what I have to show off today? It's a quilt made by miss Aria for our new little miss!

Aria was inspired by the Stripy Quilt project in We Love to Sew. She chose these 4 prints from my stash and was delighted with how quickly the quilt top sewed up.

Now, Aria's made quilts before, but she had not actually machine quilted them. One she hand tied, one she hand quilted and another I think I quilted for her. She's always sewn right sides together the quilt top with the backing, flipped it rightside out and finished with an edgestitch, not binding. And those were actually the kid-friendly directions in the book... but this girl was energized and eager for the full monty quilt experience.

Check out Aria quilting like a boss. She has her form nailed! And kitty Susan looks on so sweetly. (Oh, Susan, the best of pets; the strangest of cats.)

She quilted organic straight lines and super close together. Isn't that texture amazing? I am so proud of her endurance on this project. She did complete it over a few months, but she never expressed regret over choosing dense quilting. We like to talk about how durable this quilt will be and how we can let Eleni take it anywhere!

After quilting, I taught her how to trim the edges, cut binding strips, connect and prepare binding strips and even how to attach to the quilt with zigzag binding. She did it all. by. herself. This 10-year-old has skills.