Just wanted to tell you about my fun weekend. My friend Rachel came for a slumber party. We played dress up and sewed a bag on my mom's machine. It was so much fun, we even embroidered our names on the bag! Here's a picture of our bag.

Sadie

It's never too early to learn to love sewing! Aren't the girls adorable? And having lots of fun stitching cute little zippered bags :) Jo

• Have a sewing machine already set up with neutral color thread (we used a Bernette 80e), and a bin of fabrics to choose from (I used my stash of Benartex BOBs).
• Have kids cut strips of fabric to make wonky log cabin blocks. I started the younger ones with a large center square; the older ones with a small square. It doesn't matter if the finished blocks aren't really square; you'll be trimming them and adding sashing.
• Kids trace their hands on Steam-a-Seam 2, adhere to fabric, cut along lines. I let the older kids fuse them to fabric squares; I pressed for the youngest ones. (See the green block with the dog and hamster foot prints? And the two light blue handprints? I watched the twins - at opposite ends of the table - pick out exactly the same fabric at the same time!)
• Let the kids play with fabric scraps and make up their own designs when the quilt blocks are done. We ended up with several little patchwork pillows - one of the boys even "discovered" the four-patch block :)
• I took the blocks home with me and added black-background sashing strips and bright cornerstones, stitched the handprints in place with a large blanket stitch, and tied the layers together with colorful buttons and YLI Jeans Stitch at the corners of each square. Then I bound the outer edge and added several labels to the back of the quilt (each child made their own).

This is a great project for grandkids, school groups, neighborhood children,... set up additional machines and bring in a few extra grown-ups to help if you're planning to have more than just a few kids working at the same time. It's also a perfect shower or going-away gift for a group of adults to make :)