Back to School and August Bee Blocks

The kids are officially back in school. I promise my blog isn't going to turn into only pictures of my children, but we did stitch up our August Not Your Mama's Bee quilt blocks in the days before going back. The last two months, I've found it a bit challenging to help both kids make their blocks at the same time. I still do the ironing and rotary cutting...and my son needs a bit of help with the machine. So this time we worked on two different days.

This month we made blocks for Angela's daughter. She requested simple blocks of 16 squares, cut 4" x 4", and featuring Heather Ross prints and other fabrics that were pink, blue, yellow and purple.

I mentioned before that my daughter is getting pretty self sufficient on my BERNINA 440QE. You can see her set up in the above photo. The only thing she needs is a couple books under the foot pedal! We did our sewing on a Saturday morning, and it was pretty wonderful. I sewed next to her, finishing up my Picnic Point quilt top. She made her block. I think this was the first time we sewed side-by-side like this. It was such a great memory.

My son had fun picking fabrics (as usual) but was less interested when it came to waiting for mommy to cut the fabrics and iron the seams. :)

I learned this month that sewing a long straight seam is harder for beginners than several short seams. It was a lesson in patience (and seam ripping) when we tried to have a consistent seam allowance the entire way down the block.

We also ditched him sitting in my lap, and I had him stand at the machine and push the foot pedal while I stood behind him and helped guide his hands. Still getting the hang of it!

I'm now enjoying a bit of quiet while they are gone for the day...and my mind is full of ideas as to how to spend the next nine months until another summer vacation!