Interest Led Learning - Quilting

If you had to put a label on us, I'd say we're eclectic homeschoolers.   We use textbooks, study Latin, do unit studies and try to leave room for interest led learning as well.   Lindsey has taken an interesting in sewing (I don't like to sew), but I'm officially facilitating that interest by providing a sewing machine, supplies, sewing books and a 4-H club that focuses on sewing.

She's made several projects so far.   A pillow, head bands, cinch sack, a flannel pillowcase and now she's moved on to bigger things.  She's been working on a lap quilt, so I'll give you a pictorial tour through her work.

I bought her a pre-cut pack of quilt squares and she worked out what pattern she liked.   Then she used post-it notes to label the rows.

 She sewed each row in a long strip (keeping the row labeled).

 The next day she worked on ironing all the seams on the back of her strips.

 Next she pinned rows 1 and 2 together.

 Lindsey then began sewing the strips together (with good sides facing each other).

Here's the final view of the top of her quilt.

After all the strips were sewn together, the numbered labels were removed and she then ironed all the back seam flat.

Next came the assembly of all the parts.  First she ironed her back piece (this kid loves to iron).

 Then she got her top, batting and back laid out together and smoothed out.

Once she got everything trimmed out, she sent through and pinned all three pieces together, measuring the edges to make sure she had a one inch binding around each side.

Then it was on to the final step of assembling.  She ran into a little problem here because the stitches were fine on top, but horrible on the back.  She went over to ask our neighbor for some insight, since she was a professional seamstress.  She instantly knew the thread was too weak/cheap and gave her some better thread that matched perfectly and she was back in business.

Instead of quilting across each block, she ran heavy thread/floss through the center of the patches and tied each in a knot.

Here is her final product.  She's super proud of it, and it really turned out great.

Someone said they were glad to see that I'd passed on my love of sewing to Lindsey.   That couldn't be further from the truth.  I hate to sew.  This is one of those things where she had a desire to learn, I facilitated by making sure she had the needed items and the rest was on her.   True learning right there!