In a recent post I shared a few things about making a quilt for my daughter and taking her fabric shopping with me when she was much younger. That was the start of her first fabric stash. Just a few fat quarters lovingly chosen while I shopped for more serious yardage. A bloggy friend, Chris (Izzy Inspired), who is a member of the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild wrote some lovely comments, including this:
Lastly, but mostly....I just LOVED the story behind your closet quilt!!! I let my little Izzy pick out a fat quarter every time we go to the fabric store also....and it touched my heart to hear how that small little detail became such a momentous emotional connection now that your daughter is grown. It is absolutely a quilt to treasure.
We continued the conversation by email and I mentioned an idea that Amber Lee (Life In Color) had shared at the first meeting of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild -- making a design wall for a child. Here is Amber Lee's daughter in action (go check out the post here).
Well, Chris took the idea and ran with it. Now little Izzy can sew (needle removed),
press (with a pink iron, don't you know),
and express her creative genius to her heart's content.
You really must visit Chris' blog for more pictures and to see what else she made to keep this little quilter organized. Warning: high cuteness factor! It touched me so much that it brought tears to my eyes. So many I could hardly read her post! To think that an idea casually mentioned by Amber Lee could be passed on by me and bring such happiness to Chris and little Izzy is so meaningful to me. Memories are being made that neither of them will ever forget. Contented sigh.
I have to admit -- I'm a little envious of the actual design walls (instead of an old flannel sheet), the turquoise sewing machine, and that pink iron! And do these little ones have great taste in fabric, or what?!?!
Do you have a mother-daughter/mother-son/grandmother-grandchild/etc. quilting story? I'd love to hear it!
The other love that seems to be spreading is for cross quilts. Here are my latest blocks as of last night:
Heather (a la mode fabric) started hers and you can see pictures of her fabulous blocks here. And these ladies who blog all expressed an interest in joining in the fun:
Amy (Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts)
Jennifer (That Girl... That Quilt...)
Carla (Lollyquiltz)
And one of them is having a giveaway right now....
With wishes, true and kind -- Joan
That is such a great story!
ReplyDeleteI love that my daughter sews with me. She is making a charity quilt right now. Makes me proud.
Love the blocks you have finished!
Sew Sweet! My "little girl loved to rearrange the fabrics, and the pins in my pincushions from the time she was two. She now sews beautifully.
ReplyDeleteJoan, what a wonderful post! I may have to make a design board for my granddaughters to use when they come to my house. Right now, the oldest one, who is almost four LOVES to play with the pins in my pincushion. She "rests" on the bed in my sewing room and often when her "hour" is up, I will go in and find that she has moved all the pins from one of my pin cushions to the bed, pushing them in as fas as she can into the mattress...and always in a lovely design! Another thing she loves to do is sit on my lap while I sew at the machine and remove pins. You can't start too early creating a future quilter!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I started my cross quilt this evening...made 4 blocks! Boy, are they addicting. I'll show you on Friday!!
Awe, you are so sweet! I love that something has already been passed on from one guild to another. I can only imagine what kind of things we are going to learn and be inspired by!
ReplyDeleteA sweet story! Both my children used to come to Embroiderers Guild with me...both stitch quite well. DD is quite a busy with cross stitch & now doing stitchery blocks for a small quilt. Fun times!
ReplyDeleteThat's so gorgeous and what a wonderful play idea to develop creativity. I think little girls are born with a pink gene. One of my Gd's has a fabric and a button stsh.
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful story!
ReplyDeleteI learnt to sew from my Gran, something I'm very grateful of; both the skills she taught me, and the time we spent together while doing it. My Gran is actually the reason I started blogging; she receives all my blog posts by email so it's incentive for me to post about what I've been doing so that she can see them (as she can't see them in person as she's in England and I'm in Australia)
Thank you for sharing their story with us. Cute is something I always want to see and have shared with me!
ReplyDeleteMy mom sewed many, many of the clothes we wore as little girls. For years, she's saved the fabric leftovers. My first quilt was made from these scraps. When she found out she had terminal cancer, she made my sister and I a quilt top and we worked on them together. She then gifted me the remaining scraps and I have used them in my quilts.
Thanks Joan, for all you do!
My mom taught me all sorts of needlework when I was little and we always stitched together, even through my teenage years :) Now, with her living in Germany and me in the States, we still make quilts together, currently a Dear Jane. And email and blogging make it so easy for us to exchange ideas , plan projects and confess our latest shopping binges.
ReplyDeleteSuch wonderful memories!!! It brought back lot of memories of shopping trips with my little girl!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this wonderful post. It made me smile this morning!
How sweet! Dear daughter has a fat quarter collection from over the years. Like her mother, however, she cannot cut into her fabrics. ;-) I'm hoping to make at least a couple of plus blocks...today? Hopefully today. Oh darn, now that the mail is on its new late schedule, I may have to wait until tomorrow. Expecting a package from Miss Jackie, dontcha know.
ReplyDeleteThat is so sweet! My daughter is six and my quilting studio is shared with her. When I finally got an entire room to quilt in, I deemed it "my space". And then she moved her markers, colored pencils, paper, glue, scissors, etc. in and I thought to myself "oh dear...". But now I can't imagine it any other way! She creates right next to me and we spend hours sewing, drawing and dreaming side by side. Our best conversations are when we are creating together. She loves playing in "our" fabric and picking out fabrics for me to work with. I love the pride she shares with me when something is handmade. I didn't have this with my own mother and it makes my heart smile to create this bond with my daughter.
ReplyDeleteJennifer :)
Now I am the one with tears in my eyes! This is what makes me love blog land as much as I do...being able to connect with someone in this way is truly priceless. Thank you Joan!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post. My kids love to play with my fabric and actually my five year old son has a wonderful toy called a magnetic quilt. It is 1000 (!) tiny (about fingernail sized) half-size square magnetic triangles in probably twelve different colours. It comes with a square backround, white on one side, black on the other. It is great to see the designs he comes up with. I happened to find the toy at a church bazaar but would have bought it new as well in a second!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post! I love it when others share stories like this! So touching and inspiring. My mom taught me how to sew with her vintage avocado green Singer. We made Barbie doll clothes and then clothes for us. I remember it was frustrating as a 10-year old but still fun. (I was a bit of a rebel!) I also used to sew and crochet with my grandma when I was a little girl. I loved those days when I could have each of them all to myself. I sprouted into quilting because of friends, so that adds to the sewing memories too.
ReplyDeleteHey -- I just discovered you through the MQG Flickr stream...I really like your work and look forward to perusing your archives. And this is an amazing story -- inspiring -- maybe I shouldn't have scheduled my trip to the quilt shop tomorrow so as to "avoid having to do it with daughter sat!"
ReplyDeleteI read her blog the other day, and I thought, what a clever cookie you are coming up with that idea. Its wonderful how easy it is to share with each other now.
ReplyDeleteMy helped my daughter make a quilt by putting double sided fusible webbing on the back of fabric, and she cut and placed the fabric on a plain square - and then I ironed it on. I think you saw it a while ago here http://kateconklindesigns.blogspot.com/2010/02/not-bad-for-3-year-old.html
Adorable, breath taking and motivating too. The design wall idea and your blocks... ; )
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic idea! My girls love to play in my fabric and my oldest is now very interesting in sewing with me. I usually sew during naptime. When she wakes up she will find her way to me and start helping me. And with such enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteCutest. thing. ever.
ReplyDelete