February 2015 Snow Days

It has been a crazy February 2015. Snow, ice, frigid cold temps. We have spent many days at home snowed in. Unable to drive to work. Luckily my husband can work at home. Being cooped up I get in the mood to do something. I made 2 quilts in the past couple weeks. They are small mini / lap quilts. One I made because I saw a similar one on Pinterest and loved it. All black and white. It was a rag quilt. I've made them before but really loved the black and white. 

The other one I made with the help of my 3 year old grandson Case. When I quilt he has always loved to sit on my lap at the sewing machine. He would want to push the pedal. I have never wanted to discourage him from helping or learning and trying new things so I turned the stitch speed down where I could control it and let him push away! It made him proud to help me. Builds a child's confidence to know you trust him to help.  It also provides memories that he will cherish as he grows up and that I cherish knowing children grow up so fast.

I have kept this sweet child since he was 3 months old and I realize these times we spend together are precious and I am thankful everyday for being able to be with him. Sometimes he's a handful but he brings so many smiles and happy moments to my life I wouldn't trade these times for anything.

One day last week when his parents were able to make it to work via 4WD he came and stayed with me. Papaw couldn't make it to the office in his regular pick up truck so he worked from home. He had many phone calls to make so I needed to keep Case quiet and occupied. Knowing how much he likes my quilting I took him to the spare bedroom where I sew and let him pick out some scraps and squares. I told him to choose any he wanted because it would be his quilt. He confidently picked out about 25-30 pieces and went to the sewing machine. I thought he would let me hold him while he controlled the pedal but nope! He wanted full control. So under my watchful eye and supervision he sat down and picked up 2 pieces of fabric and said he wanted to get started. I showed him how to hold it keeping his fingers away from the needle and how to stop when he got to end of fabrics pieces. He sewed piece after piece until all pieces were connected. They weren't straight. In fact his comment was it looks like a snake mamaw. But remembering words  spoken by Jennie Doane of the Missouri Star Quilt Co "there are no quilt police." 

I took his handiwork and trimmed them and then cut it into 3 sections. Then I appliquéd the sections onto a 42X42 square of white cotton. Quilted it with same fabric backing and bonded with green cotton fabric that was same color as a square he used in his work. He was very proud of the quilt that he made with mamaw.