Free Motion Quilting with Kids

My daughter and I are learning free motion quilting. Free motion quilting is a technique used to hold quilts together. Once the top is pieced together and that top is sandwiched with a backing and batting layer free motion quilting can begin.


Free motion quilting is something like doodling, but instead of paper and pen, you use fabric and a sewing machine. We are very lucky to have access to a high quality sewing machine to learn this craft, but there are many cost effective machines equally capable of being used to create free motion designs. All that's required is for the machine to have the ability to lower the feed dogs.

Feed dogs are the pieces of metal below the needle that move when sewing to suck the fabric through the machine. When the feed dogs are lowered, the seamstress is in control of moving the fabric and can move it in any direction desired. 

My daughter has been sewing since she was about 4 years old. She loves it. All my kids were introduced to sewing at a young age, but only two out of the three pursued sewing.  Kids are just as capable as adults at mastering free motion quilting and they don't have to have much prior knowledge of sewing. They should be comfortable with a sewing machine, but not an expert. The first key is practice! and the second key is a great resource or teacher!


We love Angela Walters. She is a great internet teacher who began by learning to quilt, progressed to machine quilting for others and now is the author of several books, has created her own quilting rulers and has created an excellent series of video tutorials.

We highly recommend her Free Motion Challenge videos that begin with teaching basic stitches such as the meander and progress into waves and swirls.

We began learning to free motion quilt when finishing up our 2017-18 school year quilts.

You can see swirls stitched above the basket.

This is one of my daughter's first attempts at free motion quilting. She did this on a traditional sewing machine with the feed dogs lowered. You can see her meanders in the upper right hand corner, and her swirls in the lower left. Above in the middle she tried some work with the rulers.

Refinishing Furniture with Kids

My daughter refinished a cabinet.

This year the kids have lots of control over their education in that they can select research topics and activities from a pre-approved list or suggest their own. One of the items on the list was refinish the small cabinet in the family room. My hands-on crafty daughter selected this item right away.

After she decided to refinish the cabinet, I told her she would have to do some research and put together a plan before starting. Therefore, she began by spending an afternoon watching DIY videos on youtube and then describing her plan. Once the plan was in place, we headed off to Home Depot to get supplies.

Since she wanted to paint the cabinet instead of restain it, we learned that she didn't need to fully remove the existing stain. Thus, her first major task was sanding.


But before sanding, she removed the hardware from the front door and removed the front door from the cabinet. I doubt the hardware had ever been cleaned. So she researched how to clean brass and learned she should coat it in catsup and let it sit for an hour and then wipe it clean. She did and now the hardware really shines.


Sanding even a small cabinet sounds like a big task for a little girl, but she actually had some prior exposure to sanding so had an idea of what to expect. A few years ago we did a major family project and refinished twelve Adirondack chairs.


Since there were so many chairs and foot rests, everyone in the family had an opportunity to use an electric sander.


We all got to stain, and stain some more.



I think, seeing such a dramatic improvement in the chairs motivated her to select this project.


During the sanding process, the back of the cabinet practically fell off because it was so old. So my daughter went back to the store, this time with her dad, and purchased some wood to create a new back for the cabinet.

Together they measured and marked the new back piece and then my husband cut it out.

 Once the sanding was complete, she began with primer and finished up with paint.



The entire project ended up taking about three weeks. She had to take a few days off because of a sore throat and a few more days off because the humidity was extremely high. Nevertheless, she persevered through the entire project and now is very proud of her finished cabinet. We are proud of her too.

Advanced Sewing and Color Theory for Middle Schoolers

My daughter implemented color theory to create a beautiful table runner.

Last week I described a few of my sewing educational goals for my daughter as well as her first project; a robe. Since she hopes to be a designer in the future, I thought a good skill to improve would be her knowledge and use of color. Therefore, one item on the list of acceptable school activities was learn about color theory and create a table runner implementing the newfound knowledge.

The first thing she did was read the book Color Play by Joen Wolfrom. This book is written for quilters and begins by explaining the color wheel, and how colors relate to the seasons. Tints are colors that contain white, shades are colors that contain black and tones are colors that contain gray. It goes on to explain analogous and complementary colors then describes color combinations that work well together, the reasons why they are appealing and many examples.

Once she was finished reading the book she used the quilting program within Bernina Embroidery Software 8 to design her table runner. What she did using this program could have been done using a paper and colored pencils. The point was for her to make a plan before beginning to sew.

 Once the plan was made she selected fabric and began cutting and piecing.


I love the way she used the complementary colors of yellow and lavender as well as many of their tints and shades to move around the table runner.

I think reading this color theory book will have a big impact on the clothes she creates this year, but we will have to wait and see.

Advanced Sewing with Middle Schoolers

My sixth grader is learning much about sewing techniques.

This year, the kids have had a lot of say over their education. Though they don't have complete autonomy, they can select from a list of acceptable topics/activities or suggest their own. My goals are for them to become independent learners excited about what they are studying. In addition, I want them to persevere through difficulties and explore a wide variety of material implementing and enhancing their current skills as well as reading, writing and math skills. I've written several posts describing my son's exploits with Xcode, and now I have to tell you about my daughter.

She loves SEWING and DESIGN and HANDS-ON projects, so it was no surprise to me when she decided to sew a robe, learn about color theory and then implement what she learned by creating a table runner, and refinish a small cabinet. Reading a book on Greek Mythology was not a complete surprise, but a welcome addition to her crafty endeavors.



Last year we spent one day per week sewing a very elaborate quilt. My mom, I and my daughter each created a similar quilt. The project involved a multitude of new sewing and machine embroidery techniques. We all learned a ton.

This year we want to continue learning to sew, but one goal of mine is to make sure my daughter is continually learning when in school. Therefore, if she wants to sew, I would like her to sew something new or incorporate a new technique. Since sewing day last year was all about the quilt, it makes sense that this year should be all about clothes.






Her first project of the year was making a robe. Although she has created a few clothes items from patterns, reading patterns is a skill that she can definitely improve. To make the robe she selected the fabric, and worked with my mom to read the pattern. Most of the skills required to sew the robe were familiar to her, but she learned to match dots and marks within the pattern, put in sleeves and sew a square of stitching at the end of the belt rather than a straight line to hold the stitching in better.

Proud is my word for the year. I am proud of her and she is proud of herself. This was one great project for starting the year.
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