I may have a future quilter right under my roof!
 

I was in my basement quilting sanctuary just minutes ago and whom did I see there - my 8 year old son. He opened the box containing the fabrics for a quilt that I will be making him and he was playing with them just like I do when I am trying to come up with a pattern. He told me that he liked the way they felt and that he could not wait to see what they will become. Sweet, eh? ( and yes I am a Canadian so I had to use "eh" at least once) :)

How wonderful! I hope you have taught him how to use your sewing machine or at least let him use one. When my son was fairly young he played in my sewing room while I sewed. Later on when I got an embroidery machine, he figured it out faster than me and helped me with it. Unknown to me when they got out of school (high school), he would bring some kids home and embroider their names on their pants or ball caps. Today he certainly can use a sewing machine and he is great with graphic design and could redo a chair if need be. He's a hands on kid. I personally think boys should learn to sew and iron.

How great that he loves the look and feel of fabrics! Yes, he has potential to be a quilter. Your son is old enough to learn some basics on a sewing machine. I learned to sew at 8 using very simple clothing patterns, a simple quilt would have been even easier! I bet he would love going to the fabric store with you and picking out his own quilt fabrics too :)

My oldest grandson loved to use the sewing machine. He made a stack of quilt squares. He is 18 now. I am going to make a doll quilt out of them and give it to his little girl if he ever has one. You will have to let that boy operate the sewing machine. I bet he will love it. He might help you finish that quilt.

My grandson who is 7 wants to learn to sew. On his last visit, I started him with explaining parts of the sewing machine, how it operated, how to read the seam allowance, etc. Then I showed him how to put the fabric together and stitch. He sewed about 3 6" strips together with a perfect seam allowance and then looked at me and said: "Ok, I know this now...I want to do a project"! LOL So we go to my fabric stash and pick out a baseball panel to make him a throw pillow for his bed! Unfortunately, he had to leave before he got to make it!

BTW, his dad (#2 son) "looked" at me like "boys don't sew" when I told him this story! HaHa. He's forgotten that I taught HIM to cross stitch at age 5 and he made several projects!!

I taught both of my grandsons sewing machine basics (along with their sisters) and they loved it. My one gs is my go to when I need help with block layouts, he just has the nack for getting it right. He has rearranged the blocks on my design wall for as long as I can remember. All of the grandchildren are teens right now and not as interested in sewing but hope someday they will come back. We have many fond memories of sewing, quilting, fabric dying, etc. that I wouldn't trade for all the tea in China.