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?

Luke Haynes

I haven't made much progress with any of my projects because I've been too busy hanging out with this guy (Luke Haynes) who has take a few days to come and give me some guidance. His quilts are VERY cool - you can see more of his work on his website www.lukehaynes.com

I first noticed Luke Haynes some years back. This is the first of his quilts I ever saw (below.) (I love this quilt!)

Luke doesn't usually travel with his quilts - but this time he was (lucky me) - so I got my own private quilt show - which was really cool - and I got to ask lots of boring questions like 'what stitch length do you use' - to which he rolled his eyes!

I love love love the detail on the jeans in this quilt. 

And Bunny #1 insisted on giving her own quilt show which Luke humored very well.

Sharpie Art Quilt

 Painted Picnic Blanket

(Blotter Art Quilt & Cushions above & below)

She was very descriptive about how she made each quilt.

And then Luke showed her his quilts and I was blown away by the questions she asked and how interested she was. It was so cute and Luke was a bit of a superstar for going with it it all so well!

I fear I'm not going to have time for anything at all (like I had lots of spare time before!) as this guy has provided me with so much 'homework' and ideas I am drowning! But how lucky am I to be hob-knobbing with the professionals!

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. 

Candy Free Valentine Idea: Flower seeds

We can't seem to leave the idea of flowers behind for Valentines Day. This year our little Valentine tokens are again candy free.

We made little sacks out of burlap, tied at the top with red ribbon. The sacks are made from some burlap scraps I had - sewn together with a simple red zigzag stitch. They were very very easy and quick to make.

On each little sack is an appliqued red cotton heart.

On the label it says 'You are my sunshine'.

Can you guess what is inside?

SUNFLOWER SEEDS! What kid doesn't like watching a giant sunflower grow?

I had thought about making heart shaped seed bombs - but I was so worried about doing them wrong and harming the seeds - I didn't want to send out anything that wouldn't grow! I think we will experiment with seed bombs this summer.

You can read about our previous flowery themed valentine gifts here:
Valentine Egg Carton Flowers
Valentine Lollypop Flowers

Home Made Play Silks: Dyes from the Kitchen Cupboard

One of the really fun things we did this Summer was discover all the things we could dye play silks with (tissue paper & food dye.) We had so much fun dying them and then playing with them. Recently we have been playing a with red cabbage water experiments - which made me think what play silks would look like dyed with these mixtures.

And why limit it to cabbage water? In my cupboard we also decided to play with turmeric, paprika & beetroot.

Here is my little chemist ready to mix away to her hearts content with the cabbage water. The pink glasses are her safety goggles .....

Cabbage

• Chop up red cabbage and add some bit water. Bring the the boil and simmer until cabbage is pale. Split the cabbage water into two pots. 
• Add silk scarf and soak for 30mins to one pot. 
• In the other pot add some vinegar - the mixture will turn dark pink - add silk scarf and soak for 30mins. 
• Once your silk scarf has finished soaking in the first pot. Remove the scarf and add in baking soda (the mixture will turn greeny blue) - add silk scarf & soak for 30mins. 

Note: Cabbage water changes color depending on its PH. When they were washed & dried the colors became much less vibrant.

Silks soaked in with cabbage water before washing

Turmeric

• Mix turmeric & water - bring to the boil - add silk scarf and soak for 30mins

Paprika

• Mix paprika & water - bring to the boil - add silk scarf and soak for 30mins.

Beetroot

• Boiled 3 chopped up beetroot in some water for about 40mins- puree everything together - add silk scarf and soak for 30mins. 

Cabbage Water = Soft Purple
Cabbage Water + Vingear = Soft Pink/Purple
Cabbage Water + Baking Soda = Silver Blue
Paprika = Gold (honestly - it is a gorgeous gold hue)
Beetroot = Cream
Turmeric = Bright Bright Yellow (just look at that yellow!! See below.)

Note: After we had soaked the silks I dried them on their own on the hottest setting on our tumble dryer (sanitize) and then put them on their own through a 20mins cold wash (no detergent) and dried them again on the hottest setting.  

I'm not sure we have anymore space for playsilks in our dress up box. I am playing with the idea of making a quilt from these. 


Other dyeing fun we have had:
Tissue Dyed Silk Pillows
Two Tone Play Silks
Teacher Appreciation Gift: Home Made Play Silks
Easy Silk Scarf Dyeing with Tissue Paper
Kid Friendly Dyeing - Making your own Play Silks

Princess Shoe Box

We have a birthday party coming up and I was trying to think of a original way to present the all important princess dress up shoes.

Luckily (because I'm neurotic about saving anything made of cardboard) we have a few children's sized shoe boxes knocking around - they are great for all sorts of kid craft projects. I love repurposing things - have I said that before?

My eldest took a great deal of time painting on glue and dipping the box & lid in copius amounts of pink glitter. After the glitter and glue had dried I added a glue wash on top (1 part glue 1 part water) to try and encourage the glitter not to shed everywhere immediately. There is SO much glitter on this box - my eldest bunny is slowly convincing me that when it comes to young girls - there is never enough glitter in your life!



After the glitter had been added I lined the inside of the box with some scrap quilt batting and a piece of purple velour left over from our Princess Tea Party. I stuck them all lightly down and together - adding more glue to the top edge - I favor Aleene's tacky glue for fabric sticking.

The inside of the top of the box is painted pink. We decorated the top of the box with an old broken purple butterfly necklace (yes I save that sort of thing too) and with the name of the birthday girl. I cut the name out of white felt which had some silver lamé stuck on top.

I suspect the pink glittery box might be just as exciting to this 4 year old as the dress up shoes will be.

***********

Please do not forget about the charity I Spy quilt - we are still looking for scrap fabric donations. 

Easy Silk Scarf Dyeing with Tissue Paper

Mother's Day is coming and we have been thinking about things we could make for Grandma. With our recent success in dyeing play silks I decided to take the success of our tissue paper dyed play silk and decorate a silk scarf for Grandma with tissue paper pieces.

I had one white silk scarf left. A pile of tissue paper (some new, some recycled) and two paper punches. The white one is Martha Stewart butterfly punch and the black one is an EK slim flower paper punch. 

Once we had punched all our shapes we collected the tissue paper pieces in a bowl we prepared our silk. The silk is soaked in water and a glug of vinegar. I laid the silk out as flat as I could on the floor on top of a large black plastic bag - for photographic purposes I wish I had thought of something a bit more aesthetically pleasing!

 

We began placing the tissue paper shapes. Flowers in the corner and butterflies all over the rest of the scarf.
 

It didn't matter if the tissue paper pieces were not put on perfectly the wet scarf helped them stick. 

 

It was such a kid friendly and easy activity for my 4 year old.

Once all the tissue paper shapes were put on our scarf we left the tissue paper to do its magic. 

After 1.5 hrs I took the wet tissue paper off the scarf, rinsed the scarf on a 20min cold machine cycle and then dried the scarf on our highest setting in the tumble dryer. 

Where two pieces of tissue paper landed together the colors and shapes are cute. 

The scarf is quite pretty. Some of the tissue paper dye did bleed a little - but as there is no strict pattern - I'm hoping it adds charm and movement to our little handmade gift. 

Wishing you all a very happy Mother's Day this weekend.