As soon as school ended for the Christmas Break she asked if she could finish up the quilt that she had been working on for a friend for the last 2 years. She added the borders, pressed it all, made a backing and then promptly asked if she could quilt it on the long arm.
And let me tell you, this girl is a natural on the long arm!!! She wasn't scared one bit. I helped her load the quilt and gave her a few suggestions on how she might light to quilt it, and she was off. I was able to work on my own project as she quilted away and only came and get me to help her change the bobbin or roll the quilt, which she had down by the end of the quilt ;) Ya, totally a proud moment for this mama!!!
And the best thing was, she absolutely loved it. Every time I checked on her she was grinning from ear to ear, excited with what she was doing ;) Yippee!!! And I was so glad she wasn't scared, because she picked yellow thread, which blended great in the border, but made a super fun pop in the squares. And she just rocked it!!!
She quilted loops and stars in the border, and alternated between wavy criss cross lines on an angel and wavy criss cross lines perpendicular on the squares. I helped her with the name at the bottom, but besides that, she did all the quilting on her own. And just look at all that awesome texture!!! I know I am a bit bias, but I think she did amazing :) What a beautiful and fun finish!!! And of course, her friend just loved the quilt and it made for a wonderful Christmas Present ;)
And then the day after Christmas, Jessica asked if she could start another project!!!! The quilting mom in me was so excited, I dropped everything I was doing and ran her down to the quilt room to decide on a project before she could change her mind ;) She opted for the Neverland fabric that I had and wanted to do another simple patchwork with a border, but she wanted a whole lot more squares. So I helped her with some cutting and gave her a little bit of instruction (mostly, it's just like piecing the tote but on a larger scale) and she was on her way.
She laid out the patchwork and played for a few days with the placement. Then when she got it just the way she liked she collected it all back into rows and started sewing. She has already sewn up the first 6 rows ;) And she is doing it completely independently!!! I am so impressed with how she has just taken off with this!! She is keeping her project neat and organize (so glad I bought the Good Measure Clothespins Set at Black Friday, they are perfect for her to keep her rows stacked and together :) so there is room for us both to sew together and that is a dream come true!!!
I can see sharing a lot of Jessi's finishes this year because that girl is totally "jump into the deep end of the pool" excited about quilting!!!! Best Day Ever!!!!