Teaching Kids to Sew and the Friendship Quilt Along, Podcast #84

This past weekend I had an amazing opportunity to teach two girls how to sew! Hear about how that impromptu hand sewing class went along with more information about the new Friendship Quilt Along in this Hello My Quilting Friends podcast:

You can also listen to the podcast or download it to your computer using this player:

Quick links to things mentioned in this podcast:

[envira-gallery id=”34658″]

Teaching with the Right Attitude

This past weekend we went to Charleston and made the big Thanksgiving meal on Saturday evening. But throughout that day, I was also teaching a 6 and 7 year old how to hand sew 4-patch pillows! This situation really just landed in my lap – this wasn’t planned in advance and I didn’t honestly know how it would work out.

But I asked myself a question – Am I willing?

Am I willing to take the time to teach? Am I willing to guide them gently and not get frustrated or impatient?

I really want kids to get into sewing and quilting, so the answer to all of these questions was a resounding “YES!” But I’m not sure I would have been able to clearly tap into my deeper goal on such a busy day if I hadn’t asked myself that question.

It also helped me have the right attitude throughout our lessons (which stretched almost all day). A few times when I was too busy cooking I had to ask the girls to go play for a minute before I could help them. But for the most part I tried to be receptive and supportive whenever they brought me their blocks.

You can Sew Independently!

The starting session was definitely the most chaotic and the hardest to manage. Two wiggly girls, but talking at once, both super excited to sew was a bit overwhelming. I found it easy to get one girl started sewing while the other waited, then I helped her begin stitching next. Because there’s nothing like repetition, I explained how to sew, how to tie an overhand knot, how to do a backstitch, etc to both girls multiple times.

My goal was for the girls to be able to sew without my help. They needed to have the needle in THEIR hand. Sure, you can learn a lot from watching, but you really can’t learn how to actually do the task and make the stitches without actually holding the needle yourself.

As for fear about them getting hurt, yes, they both poked themselves with the needle or pin a few times. They drew blood maybe once and I told them to suck on their finger until it stopped bleeding. This made my nurse/sister cringe and she instantly offered antibacterial spray, but of course no one got poked after that.

This level of detail paid off big over the course of the day! Once the girls had sewn two squares together, they were doing really well. They stitched the second set of squares together much faster than the first, but then at that stage, they both needed a break.

Take Breaks, Don’t Sew It to Death

Thankfully it was a gorgeous day and they had a gymnastic bar to play on outside. They ran off and played for thirty minutes while I made another cup of coffee and relaxed. I reflected that many times in the past when I’ve tried to teach James how to sew, I’ve focused too hard on the finished project. Kids need to move, run around, throw themselves on the ground, and be loud for a little while. Sitting very still and making very controlled hand movements is hard for them to maintain for more than 15-30 minutes at a time.

So take lots of breaks! Sometimes when their stitches started getting big, I’d suggest a break. The girls would run out, play awhile, then come back to it and their stitches were terrific again.

By the end of the night they were happily stitching on their own. They only needed my help tying off a short thread tail and getting a new piece of thread. Unfortunately I hadn’t brought any fiberfill, but a quick check in the car and I found a pink neck pillow that happily donated a bit of stuffing. The girls stuffed their pillows, then I sewed up the opening. Done and done!

All in all, this was a terrific first project! I think I learned as much as they did and we had a great time. I didn’t expect them to get the pillows done, but they did!

This is definitely something I want to do more. It is tough to teach your own kid, but I found it much, much easier to teach someone elses! I’m already thinking of another fun project we can create together the next time we visit.

Getting Ready for the Friendship Quilt Along

As I shared the podcast, I was trimming up half square triangles for the Friendship Quilt Along. The first block pattern is finally finished and it’s a monster at 52 pages!

I wasn’t expecting this pattern to run that long, but there’s a lot of information to share! This pattern includes fabric cutting and piecing tips, how to make Block 1, and how to set up your machine for quilting. This pattern is also includes all the materials lists for the five different sizes of the quilt – crib, throw, twin, queen, and king.

Click Here to find the Block 1 Quilt Pattern.

We’re running a HUGE sale for Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday so make sure to pick up your Block 1 pattern at the best price this week!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day