This last weekend we had a memorial service for my stepdad, and my brothers were visiting for a few days. Sophie and I invited my niece Katie to spend Sunday afternoon in my studio, teaching her how to sew and make a quilt top.
I brought a few packages of strips, and let her pick out two that she liked. She picked out a package of 30's prints, and another package of batiks and hand-dyes. We got her set up up on Sophie's old machine (the one she used before she got her kid-sized Bernina "Bernette") and got Katie sewing strips together, learning as she sewed.
Several hours later, the girls triumphantly held up a completed quilt top. I got the biggest smiles when I got out the video camera to capture the moment. Katie started out thinking she wanted to be a fashion designer (my old career) but I think a quilter was born Sunday afternoon in my basement studio. How appropriate, because this is also where eQuilter was born in March of 1999. Whatever she does with her new sewing skills, it will grow from the moment of excitement when she held up the completed quilt top that she sewed herself.
That evening, when the girls showed off their giant quilt top at the family dinner, my mom commented that Katie was just glowing with pride and happiness. I took quite a bit of video footage during the afternoon, so we'll be putting together a little video about the 3 of us girls making a quilt top in my basement!
Teaching children how to sew is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done – their unabashed joy and enthusiasm charges me up and I am ready to go light a Creative Fire in my studio afterward. This past year, every time I have a chance to speak to a group of quilters, I talk to them about mentoring a young quilter or teaching kids' sewing classes. It is up to all of us to mentor and teach the next generation of fabric lovers.
If you have an extra sewing machine, set it up next to yours and invite a young person to sit beside you, dig through your stash, and make a simple quilt top in a day. The seed you sow will grow far beyond the shining face that is next to you in that moment!
