Sewing with My Nieces

My twin 11 year old nieces came here for the weekend in mid December. They had both been to the London Friendship Quilters' Guild quilt show in October and, at the time, one of them had asked me to teach her how to make a quilt. I told her that I would give her a sewing lesson when she was at my house sometime. Our December weekend was the perfect opportunity.

I suggested they each make a candle mat for their Mom for Christmas and they both thought this was a great idea! I had a Christmas themed turnover which they used to pick their fabrics and design their quilts. I worked with one niece at a time and used the slow setting on my sewing machine so they could "put the pedal to the metal" and sew away! This was a perfect project--not to big as to overwhelm them and no cutting involved so they could just sew. (I cut the border and binding for them but they did all the sewing.)

One niece decided to make a pinwheel design:

The other niece picked a different layout than her sister:

They both needed lots of encouragement with the handstitching of the binding but both of them were very pleased with their projects. Their uncle got out some boxes and wrapping paper and they each wrapped their own gifts. I am told that they were so excited to give their Mom her quilty gifts, that she had to open them up before she even looked at her stocking from Santa!