When my daughter was first born she slept in a sling on my chest while I sewed her baby quilt. Later I would lull her to sleep in her bouncy seat as it rocked on the table in time with my machine. When she learned how to crawl she stole small squares of fabric from my scrap bin and and would cry when I tried to take them back.
Eventually when she started to talk and I made her quilted story books and she learned her animals from their squishy pages. When I was pregnant with my Son and she was just barely 2 she helped me sort my scraps into color boxes so I could start his baby quilt. Often when I'm auditioning fabrics on the design wall she adds "interesting" selections to the piles. On occassion when she hears my machine running she begins a chant of Sew Sew Sew as she skips around the house. I take her with me to the fabric stores and each time she insists on a piece (1/8th of a yard) just for her. She has them all stashed on her shelf in my sewing room.
Then one day a few weeks ago I was out of energy because of chemotherapy treatments and hadn't sewn in weeks. I came downstairs to find her sitting at my sewing machine. She had turned the machine on all by herself and had piles of her stash fabric at her feet. With all the honesty and joy of a 2 1/2 Year Old she looked at me and said... "I sew for you Mommy!" I knew in that moment that I had shared my joy in Quilting with her and she, in her own way, had understood that I couldn't enjoy it.
Whether it be giving them a teaching aid or asking them for a helping hand, children are never too young to learn the Joy of Fabric :)
Though I now have to unplug my Sewing machine petal! (Just in Case) :)
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.jpg "2019 Sponsor - BERNINA Q 24")
