Zoe's newest quilt

I've just put the last hand stitches into the latest quilt made by my granddaughter Zoe, who is 11. She chose the fabrics and did all the machine sewing. I cut the fabrics into strips, pressed the quilt after each seam and trimmed it to give a nice straight edge to sew the next strip onto. Zoe quilted it, and I put on the binding and sleeve.
Zoe started sewing three or maybe four years ago, we don't remember exactly when. At the beginning she sat at my sewing machine, which meant we had to build up a platform to put the pedal on so she could reach it. At the start I sat very close to her and held the left edge of the fabric, tugging as needed to help it go under the needle straight. We made one quilt that way.


But as Zoe got better at sewing I decided she could do more of it herself and we should have parallel work time. We set up a second machine on a low table that allowed her to put the pedal on the floor, and more important, allowed us both to sew at the same time.













We started the Japanese Lady quilt a year ago during summer vacation but didn't get it finished till a couple of weeks ago.

I asked Zoe what she wanted to do for her next project and she thought she might like to try hand stitching, so that's what we're working on now when she visits. But I suspect she will be wanting to make another quilt someday soon.