I started by teaching all seven of our children (2 boys & 5 girls ages 24 to 6 ˝) garment sewing as soon as each child could sew a button on by hand. Several years ago one daughter won a sewing machine in a sewing contest and because she had just been blessed with a pass along sewing machine she was delighted to turn around and bless one of her younger siblings with the new Brother.
For the last five years, we’ve been learning together how to quilt. We all love working together . . . picture your old Home Ec. classroom type of sewing area. Everyone is usually working on their own thing unless a deadline is approaching. I try to use each item that they are working on as a teaching tool so that even if someone isn’t working on sewing curves in a specific block everyone has an opportunity to learn the technique for future projects. I asked my husband a couple of weeks ago if he ever retires if he’d like to learn how to quilt . . . . there was a lot of silence. All the children are praying he gets bitten by the “long arm quilting bug” at the quilt show this year!