Never Too Young to Sew

My kids are a little obsessed with learning to sew. I know this is because it is all they see me doing (actually I do every other household activity too - but I sew an awful lot.) I'm sure if I was doing kickboxing they might want to do that too (nah ... they would still just want to make things!) My eldest is 5 now and I have begun to let her use a little sewing machine that my husbands grandmother gave us. She is so cute on it.

We recently made some watercolor dyed wooden blocks for my nephews first birthday. This was a SUPER fun project to do - I took it one step further away from fun though and started to give the kids a detailed lesson in color theory and making new colors ... sorry kids ... Mummy couldn't help herself. (The link is from Fun at Home with Kids which is one of my go to places to find fun to do with the little people - we did it a little differently and used ziploc bags which kept the mess to a minimum and we only needed a very little liquid watercolor.)

The blocks were beautiful - we became entranced and as they dried they became brighter.  How could we package them?

Best Beetle Ever

There are some really special moments when I hand over the quilts to the families I have been working for. 

I was sad not to be able to hand this quilt to Asia & S in person because they live some distance away. I was so utterly thrilled to hear their response to the Bess Beetle quilt was more than positive!

To quote the adorable little S - "This is the best quilt ever. I love Bess Beetle's babies there are so many of them"

 

S - "Thank you this is the best quilt ever and it is also a toy. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Oh how I love children, their imaginations, the words they use & their unique perspective on the world. I want to make more of these quilts - if you would like to make one with your child - lets work together to make that happen.

If you have small children don't forget to check out Asia's website Fun at Home with Kids - it is a magical resource for exploring the world with your little people.

A big thank you again to the whole Citro Family for giving me this very special project to work on. 

Bess Beetle's Quilt

I think I have mentioned before my little blog crush on Asia & her blog Fun at Home with Kids. It is a site I can loose myself in - make endless lists of projects & ideas to do with the little bunnies.

So imagine how excited I was to get this through the post.

S is her adorable four year old girl who seems game for any messy fun project - and I love that! Bess is her pet beetle!! And I have been asked to make a children's art quilt for them.

I can not wait to start work on S's quilt. I have lots of ideas - lets hope I can put them off!

Free Motion Quilting: Around the World Play Mat

This is a preprinted panel that I picked up at JoAnn's. I've admitted previously that I've been a bit prejudiced about preprinted panels. But I am now humbled and yet again shown myself that you shouldn't make up your mind about things until you have tried them. It reminds me of when I was pregnant with our first bunny and I had this idea that she would only have one wholesome wood toy - and now - our playroom is full of small pink plastic princess toys.

This was a quick and easy gift to make and I hope it will get lots of play in the future. I used an invisible thread and used my BSR foot (we are not yet friends) to follow around all the countries. I can not tell you how much I learnt about Geography while doing this - and I took Geography at school - although our Geography had a more social element to it - now I'm making excuses for my lack of intelligence about how long the River Nile is (4132miles apparently.)


After I had attacked the panel with my growing free motion skills (along each longitude & latitude lines and around every country, lake, river, island) I added a pocket in the bottom right hand part of the panel. And this is where I get really excited - a button hole!!! I have a button hole foot that I haven't really used since I got Bernie - and I don't know why I've never used it. THRILLED I learnt something new - though now I will try not to add button holes to everything.

I'm an addict of a website about sensory and learning play for kids - and Asia at Fun At Home with Kids put me onto Safari Ltd Toobs. They are tubes of small plastic miniatures. I got four Toobs:

...In the Water (boats) ...

... In the Air (airplanes) ...

... Around the World (Famous World buildings like the Eiffel Tour, Big Ben etc) ... 

... and World Landmarks. 

You can fit about two packs of the miniatures in the pockets (or your select favorites) at the same time.

The playmat and miniatures roll up in the mat for easy transportation. Why not take the world with you at all times?  To Granny's house or on a picnic, upstairs, downstairs .....

... happy travelling brave little explorers!