Commit to Quilt 20 Minutes Each Day!

You know what they say about practice makes perfect…

Well, I’ve joined the Drop and Give Me 20 Challenge over at the Eva Paige Quilt Designs blog and for the month of February, I commit to quilt for 20 minutes each day. Now, by the rules of the challenge, any quilt-related activities count, not just actual quilting.

For my 20 minutes, I will practice free motion. I’m taking two free motion quilting classes on Craftsy right now so the timing of the challenge is perfect! And if I’m away from home during the month and can’t sit at my machine, I’ll spend my daily 20 minutes doodling new quilting designs to try out once I get home.

Quilt and sew with your child in 20 minute chunks...

You can accomplish a lot in just a few minutes, especially if you’re consistent over time. This is particularly important to remember when quilting and sewing with kids. Often, a child’s attention span won’t hold up for much more than 15-20 minutes. Set your kid up for success by breaking projects into doable chunks based on your child’s skill and focus levels.

Also, remember that not all 'quilting' has to involve sewing! What about having your child work on blocks for a crayon quilt?

And if you're looking for more ideas for projects to use with your child, check out Craftsy. There are plenty of patterns, projects and classes, and many are free! Why not enjoy a class together?

Learn to Sew and Quilt Online

Craftsy offers a variety of online sewing and quilting classes that you can watch at your leisure. In addition, there are tons of patterns and member projects posted on the site. Membership at Craftsy is free and so is a lot of the content, including many patterns and some of the online classes.

Join me in Leah Day's free motion class!

I just joined a few weeks ago and have signed up for several classes, both free and paid, and my favorite to-date is Free Motion Quilting a Sampler.  The instructor, Leah Day, is excellent and so is the course content and video quality. Although I’ve been sewing for nearly 50 years and quilting seriously for over a decade, I’m still learning lots! In fact, I’m heading into the sewing room shortly to try free motion stitch-in-the-ditch. Leah Day makes it look easy and if I can master it, I’ll save a ton of time!

One of the especially nice Craftsy features is that access to your classes never ends. That’s right – your classes are forever. I’ve done other online classes that are time-limited and it just doesn’t work for me. In addition, Craftsy members can post questions and their projects so you get to interact with your fellow students and see what others are doing.

Although I don’t have specific examples for this post, I’m sure that you can easily find more ideas for quilting and sewing with kids than you’ll ever have the time to use. Much of what is posted there is appropriate for beginners, so head on over and take a look!