Now she wants to make a quilt.

A block in progress

Okay. I have made a ton of quilts. I still have more fabric than brains.  This is doable.

Here we go! Week one.

Actually, back up a bit.  She has been asking to make a quilt since we finished the pillow case.  We had to make sure that this was not a whim.  It's not.

First, we designed a pattern.  I decided on a string quilt with blocks.  It will be 5x5: 10" blocks with a 12" border.  Final size will be 74" square.  We drafted a few options on graph paper until she settled on a favorite. 

Next step was to clean out the sewing room.  Most of that was taking boxes of Christmas decorations up to the attic and just putting random stuff away.  The sewing room tends to become a "catch all" for just about everything in the house that does not have an immediate home.

Holy mess Batman!

More mess!

Finally, it was time to pick out fabric.  The first attempt was a bit overwhelming.  She decided that she loved just about every color in the bin, regardless if they would work together or not.  We did a bit of resorting by theme and then after a few days, she decided that she preferred the really bright colors that "pop."

The calico bins

Then, we went though 7 more bins.  I do not even know how many fabrics she chose.  More than a hundred.

The basket of fabrics she chose

I cut this old ditzy pink fabric into 11 inch squares.  Then I started cutting strips.  Kiddo does not get to cut yet .  She cannot cut a straight line and rotary cutters are for grown-ups. 

Fabrics that have been cut so far...

She is sewing the strips onto the foundation square.  She is still a bit afraid of the machine and she really does not like the iron.  I press for her.   Her seems are huge.  It doesn't matter.  Once she sews them, we press them open and all evidence of big seem allowances and wonky, curved sewing disappears.   Her confidence is growing and she is getting excited.

This is going to be fun.