Parker's Cat-o-lantern

Parker still needs to quilt this but I thought I'd share his progress. The background was made by one of the ladies in my art group. She made several photo quilts for gifts using woven backgrounds. For this one her granddaughter was wearing orange and black so she made this background but it did not work at all for her project. I said that I could see a jack-o-lantern on it and she gave it to me. It has been on the corner of my design wall for months. Parker asked me about it a few days ago and I told him my plan.

Recently I showed him an article in the current issue of Love of Quilting magazine about a boy, about his age, who made a quilt. The article outlined all the steps he took. The first one being to make a plan and draw a sketch. Parker went straight to his room and came back about 20 minutes later with a drawing of this jack-o-lantern. He asked if this was a good enough plan and could he use the woven background. Not wanting to squash his initiative, I said yes and got out my bin of solids. He picked out his fabrics, drew his pattern pieces on the back of some fusible web and then rough cut them out. He then ironed the fusible to the back of the fabric, a first because I have made him very aware of how hot an iron gets and he has been too afraid to even touch an iron - on or not. He cut everything out himself and I helped him place his pieces then he ironed them down himself. I plan to let him try to quilt this himself on my good machine. He is always asking to use my good machine so he is very excited. He has been practicing on my featherweight and has gotten pretty good at sewing a straight 1/4" seam so I think he is ready. We'll see, maybe tomorrow.