Round three of the Kids Quilt Round Robin really turned into a slog at our house. We didn't get started on the sewing for July until after our week of sewing camp. That meant that my kids were a little burnt out on sewing.

R wasn't too late in finishing the large flying geese for her row for Norah. I love these colors and R really enjoyed sewing on the marked line for making the geese. This is a great block for young quilters. The large size was great for her. The geese finish at 5" x 10". R's row is on the right. Norah's first row is in the middle, and the row on the left was made by the sister team of A & C.

 

G, on the other hand, took much of August to finish his 20" x 20" block. Sophie's theme was stars and constellations. I didn't realize what a big task we'd created for him when he decided he would make seven 3" wonky stars to make the Big Dipper on his block. It was a lot of sewing (and a bit of resewing) to make those adorable stars. In the end, he set the final layout of the  stars on my design wall and I puzzled it all together by adding the background fabric to bring the block to size. This is a great example of a block that was a little too ambitious, but I love how it turned out! It was sad for me to see it go.

Sophie's original block is in the top left and the bottom right block was created by Hannah.

 

Both of my kids are excited to be in the home stretch. We'll finish up the final round this weekend and look forward to receiving their projects back with all the blocks the others made for them.

You can check out everything going on with the eight quilts in our Kids Quilt Round Robin on Instagram.

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We're halfway into the Kids Quilt Round Robin, which I'm hosting with Sarah of Berry Barn Designs. We sent off R's animal block to Z and G's sports block to Caitlyn on June 1st. And shortly thereafter R and G received the blocks that they would be adding to in round 2.

R received this adorable treehouse block from A & C (Sarah's kids, ages 8 and 6), sisters who are working together to make their little brother a quilt. The girls asked for blocks featuring tree houses, outdoor play, or trees.

In planning the block she would create, R initially drew a tree house identical to the one on the first block. It's a fine balance sewing with kids... giving them creative control, but also helping to guide them. Eventually she made some decisions to personalize her block through picking fabrics from her (and my) stash. She mentioned wanting to add a pond and I offered my fish fabric. From their notes she knew that A & C have cats, so R wanted to use some of her cat fabrics. (I did manage to dissuade her from using the 6" tall sushi cats.) R chose two cat prints and picked two playful kittens for the area near the base of the tree and a sleeping cat to put up in the tree. We worked on the "design floor" to layout the quilt block. The final addition was to add a rainbow. I think this was a great solution to the empty space in that section of the block.

R chose all her fabrics and helped me iron to prepare the fabric. We used Heat n' Bond Lite fusible. I ironed it on and trimmed the fabric per R's specifications and she peeled off the backing paper. Then we worked together to press the fabrics in place.

She chose all the thread colors. I especially like her choice of the Aurifil Marrakesh variegated thread for stitching on the rainbow. :-) R sat on my lap and "steered" while I worked the pedal of the sewing machine.

I love the personality of her block. She is very proud of her work. And I heard that the girls are very excited about the kittens. :-)

 

G received a lovely rainbow block from Hannah (age 5). (Who doesn't love a rainbow!?) She chose a theme of rainbow stripes for her quilt and indicated that brown is her favorite color.

G quickly and easily pulled fabrics for his block. Since his "rainbow plus brown" included seven colors, and the sections he was making finish at 10" squares, I suggested he not try to have equal width stripes. He worked out the math and provided me a cutting list. I opted for cutting a little larger... I cut all the strips 11" long instead of 10 1/2" and cut the end strips (red and brown) 1/4" wider than they needed to be. This way we had some wiggle room to not end up short on the overall block. I trimmed down each unit before he put the last four sections together for the final block. He used the design wall to keep himself organized as he worked.

G did all his piecing independently, with a minimum of seam ripping. He's working on accurately pinning which really helped him keep the fabrics lined up. Just three pins on the 11" strips seemed to be right.

I love the addition of the brown triangles on the corners as it gives the block a pinwheel vibe.

 

You can check out everything going on with the eight quilts in our Kids Quilt Round Robin on Instagram.

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May was our first month sewing with the kiddos for the Kids Quilt Round Robin that I'm co-hosting with Sarah of Berry Barn Designs. My kids have each created a 20" x 20" block.

My daughter R decided on an animal theme. She wanted to make a star block and chose this version with quarter square triangles. We made the QSTs oversized and trimmed them down to size.

The star unit is an 18" finished block, so R chose to add one strip of each fabric to bring the block up to size. I loved listening to her talk herself through the decision of where to put which strip.

She decided on a design with the border strips that required partial seams, so I helped her with that. Now she can check that off her Quilter's Card. ;-)

 

My son G chose a sports theme for this quilt. He wanted to make a baseball and bat (the glove got edited out in the process) so I helped him sew his first inset circle and do his first fusible applique. For his circle, he started by drawing on the stitches with a fabric marker. Then we used the "pin the heck out of it" method of machine sewing an inset circle. I got him started and we worked together on pinning the first 1/4 of the circle, then I handed off to him with pins at the 1/8 points of the circle and he filled in by pinning between those. He had to take a break because, "It's like, BAM oh, I only went through one layer. BAM aww, it's in the wrong place, BAM *finally* I put the pin in the right place... for every pin." Quilting is apparently very hard work. ;-)

He machine pieced the circle, taking a few slow stitches between removing pins. He worked on smoothing the purple fabric to alleviate puckers.

For his applique he drew the bat the size he wanted it on paper, then traced it onto fusible.

G finished the applique by stitching around the perimeter with a fancy stitch.

 

Both blocks have been mailed off to the kids who will add a block to the project. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with. We're also looking forward to seeing what comes our way for the kids to work on next!

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