Bea, my oldest daughter, and I just finished up sewing a table runner for her preschool's annual spring auction. I was planning a reprisal of the popular Easter bunny table runner, but I gave one of those to the charter school so I decided to do something different. For Valentine's Day I gave Bea a set of Farmer John's fruit and vegetable fat quarters I bought at the local quilt shop. She is now 5 and wants to (and is ready to) learn to sew. So, we made our first project together:
The binding is finally sewn on and it looks great! She is itching to make another one. If I could just get the baby to stay asleep when I lay her down we could get a lot done around here. It's kind of hard to operate the sewing machine with a baby on your shoulder:)
When Bea first showed an interest in sewing we went to Michael's and picked up one of the American Doll crafts they carry:
With this one you sew both a big and small owl plush stuffed animal (one for yourself and one for your doll). Bea doesn't know diddly about American Dolls, but she was all over this sewing project and made the little one for her baby sister Veronica. I highly recommend this product! The box says for ages 8 and up, but anyone 5 or older with an adult to help read the directions and provide guidance could do it. The only thing I didn't really like were that all the stitches were already prepunched so you'd know where to insert the needle. I'm not sure if they were necessary, and my little girl got frustrated a lot when she couldn't get it "exactly" right. But, all in all, it was a perfect first project and I'm sure lots of little girls out there would love to make these. Plus--you can use the 40 or 50% off Michaels coupons on it! It doesn't get much better than that. It'll run you about 10 bucks with a coupon.
When I was at my LQS I picked up some fat quarters for myself, too. They are from Eleanor Burns's Victory Garden collection that came out a couple years ago. I know they are intended to be more patriotic than Eastery, but I will be using them for the Easter bunny tablerunners I mentioned. I think the stars will add just the right amount of whimsy. Notice there is one 30's repro on top---I couldn't resist! 30's repros are my major weakness!
