Every other Sunday afternoon we take one of the grandkids home with us between Sunday church services. It is a little one on one time for us. Yesterday Isa (Isabel) came over. She sewed one wonky star block for the quilt border, and began sewing one answer to the quilt title's question. I was not surprised by her choice - it was related to food! She chose the answer "stolen snacks" to embellish the block with. We ran out of time to finish the answer completely. I am not sure why the block didn't come out square - I had to patch some pieces in several places. She did a great job sewing on the foundation lines, and we cut accurately, but when I made the same block, mine didn't come out square either, but not as drastically off as hers. ???

She did amazingly well. Love that she is so patient and trying so hard.

Elle

Very nice and a great job.

What a neat family plan!
Your DGD will love you forever for the life lessons you are giving her (and, of course, your other grandbabies.)
I could go on and on about how "imperfect" things teach personality qualities that the "easy" life never does, but by golly!
I'm wondering about the square being put into a hoop - - maybe that goes wonkier than the star? <g> But, I am not familiar with all the techniques you were working with, so it is obviously just a quick guess ...
Thank you for sharing!

The wonky star is a foundation piece. Cut the star in thirds horizontally, and the sections have 3 pieces each. As I said, she sewed very acurately on the lines, then we trimmed to where it said to trim, and sewed the 3 sections together. Even when I made this block, it didn't come out square at the end. Maybe I just need to leave alot of extra fabric hanging around until after the 3 sections are sewn together, then trim? Anyway, after the block was together, we layered with muslin and batting, then did a zig zag to stabilize the block so as she attached the beads, it wouldn't pull apart. I figured I will then do a sew as you go thing, and sew each block top together, and meld the batting, and muslin. Then attach the star blocks to the backing, quilting as I go, that way the bead stitches don't show on the back either. I can do some extra quilting around the stars once it is all put together. Isa did a great job, she was so excited to do it, all the kids (except the 3 year old) love to sew. She got into the fun, and wanted to sew the letters all crooked, up and down, side ways, etc. But, I was afraid that the stitching would show too much, so suggested we could get crazy by not lining up the words, but have each word straight. While I want them to do a part of the quilt, and I am not fretting too much about show quality (thus I will not redo the blocks that I had to add little pieces to make them "square"), I still want it to look fairly nice.

What great pictures and wonderful memories for her to have with you. She looks like she is enjoying herself greatly there.

I'm not sure what pattern you are using so I'm not sure why it's not coming out square. I understood your description but not being familiar with the pattern......makes it hard to click in my head.

If it were me working with my grands (which I DO try to get them to learn sewing, even the boys) I would leave extra fabric, then square it. The only other suggestion I have is to square it after sewing and add a border to each square to get the desired size.

I think she did an amazing job. How old is she? My 13 yo dgd is here with me and working on learning the sewing machine and how to sew. I'm so terrifically glad she wants to learn, too.
Hugs,
Sharon

Isa just turned 8. We have done several projects togeher - all the kids and I. This is the first one that is really serious (can you say that about something that will be so crazy and fun?) & complicated. The other projects were just something to do, and to occupy some time. Not really anything that was planned to keep long term. Thanks for your suggestion of squaring after. I will try that. I also thought if it is just a small corner that is missing, I could just sew a star button over it or something like that! My philosophy is that there are no fatal mistakes, just opportunities for creativity!

She is a cutie and look at that concentration. What fun for both of you.

Just realized I didn't answer about the hoop - after layering the sandwich, I just put it in the hoop to make it easier for her to sew on the beads. I left the backing muslin big so it would fit the hoop - will cut it to size after all the beading is done.