My Six-Year-Old Grandson's First Quilt-As-You-Go Project
In November 2025, my first grandchild Jóhann sat down at a sewing machine for the first time. He is six years old. He picked the Braid Runner Midi. By the end of the afternoon, he had a finished table runner, and he wrapped it up and gave it to his mom.
I have been designing quilt patterns for more than twenty years. My very first ones, back when I was a young mom living in Iceland, were quilt-as-you-go. So watching my first grandchild make one before he could read fluently felt like a full-circle moment I did not know I had been waiting for.
This is the post I have been wanting to write for a while. About why I still love this method, why I think it is the most accessible way into quilting we have, and what I would put in your hands if you wanted to teach a beginner this summer. Or a child. Or a grandchild.
Why my first patterns were quilt-as-you-go
When I started designing patterns in the early 2000s, I was a young mom in Iceland. We had two things in short supply: time and budget for fabric. Iceland has always been an expensive place to live, and quilting fabric there cost a lot more than what most American quilters are used to. Every yard had to count.
Quilt-as-you-go solved both. The method gave me a way to piece and quilt at the same time, which meant I could finish a project in an afternoon instead of staging it across weeks. And because the design is built up from small, planned pieces of fabric, I was not buying extra yardage for guesswork. I was using what I had.
I think that is the part that gets missed when people talk about quilt-as-you-go. It is not just a beginner method, it is an efficient method. It respects your time, it respects your fabric, and it gives you something finished and beautiful at the end of an afternoon. The constraints I was designing around back in Iceland are the same constraints a lot of you are working around right now, just in different shapes. Kids underfoot. Fabric prices that keep climbing. An evening that has to count for something.
That is why I have kept coming back to QAYG over the years. Some of the patterns closest to my heart are quilt-as-you-go.
Teaching Jóhann
When Jóhann and I sat down to make his first quilt, I was not sure what we would actually finish. He is six. We picked the Braid Runner Midi because it is small enough to feel doable and the fusible printed batting does most of the spatial thinking for you. The pieces have numbers printed right on the batting. You match the fabric to the number, fuse it down, and stitch.
Jóhann understood it before I had finished explaining. What he said about it stuck with me. He told me he loved that he could see how a quilt is made. The numbers showed him the order. The shapes showed him the structure. He could hold the whole project in his head because the method made the math visible.
That is what sew-by-number actually does for a beginner. It removes the parts that scare people away from quilting. The math. The precision. The worry that you have cut the wrong thing or laid a piece down in the wrong direction. With the printed batting in front of you, you cannot really get lost. You match, you fuse, you stitch. The quilt comes together.
He wrapped up that table runner himself and gave it to his mom, my daughter-in-law, as a gift. He had made something with his own hands and he wanted her to have it.
If you have ever wondered whether quilt-as-you-go counts as quilting, I would tell you to watch a six-year-old give his mom something he made. That is what quilting feels like at the start, and it is what it should still feel like a hundred quilts later.
The four kits I have made so far
Over the past year we have released four quilt-as-you-go batting kits. They all use the same printed-batting, sew-by-number method Jóhann used. They all include a step-by-step video class with me walking you through it. They all finish into a table runner you can give as a gift, set on your own table, or hang on a wall. The differences come down to fabric format and finished size.
Take It Easy was the entry kit. It uses a charm pack, which is forty 5-inch squares precut and color-coordinated by the fabric maker, plus binding and backing. If you have ever bought a charm pack and wondered what to make with it, this is what to make with it. It is the most forgiving of the four because the squares are simple and the layout is gentle.
The Braid Runner Midi, the kit Jóhann made, uses six fat twelfths. Six strips. The center has a feature square where you can showcase a favorite print, a pieced block you already made, or even an embroidery. It is the most flexible of the four because that center is a canvas. It is also the one I would put in front of a six-year-old, or a brand-new quilter, or anyone who wants something doable in an afternoon.
Spring Fling, our spring 2026 kit, uses fat eighths. It is light, bright, and finishes at 14-1/2 by 42 inches. The fat eighth format means a little more fabric to play with than a charm pack but a smaller commitment than a full fat quarter, so it is a sweet spot for quilters who like more piecing without more bulk.
Log Jam, the second kit launching alongside Spring Fling, uses a Lil' Bundle plus an accent, binding, and backing. It is the slightly larger of the two new kits, finishing at 16 by 43 inches. The Lil' Bundle format gives you a coordinated set of fabrics that makes the design feel pulled-together without you having to source the palette yourself.
If someone asked me which one to start with, I would say it depends on who you are. If you are buying for yourself and want the most flexibility, the Braid Runner Midi. If you are buying for someone you want to teach this summer, the Take It Easy. If you want something light and seasonal, Spring Fling. If you want a slightly larger finished piece, Log Jam.
If you have a child, a grandchild, or a beginner in your life
I am writing this in late April. The new kits are shipping mid-June, which means there is still plenty of summer to teach someone you love how to sew their first quilt. You do not need a fancy machine. You do not need to know how to read a pattern yet. You do not even need to be confident at the sewing machine yourself. The kit will walk you through it. The video class will walk you through it. The printed batting will walk you both through it.
If Jóhann can do it at six, the people in your life can do it too.
You can find all four kits in the quilt-as-you-go batting kits collection. Each one comes with the step-by-step video class included.