My older daughter is now only wearing skirts that I have made, so she needs more of them for spring. I had this lovely Nani Iro fabric and decided to add some running stitches around the flowers for more color, then I made the lining poke out the bottom with more stitching.
As you can see, we’re having another gray day here in Atlanta, so not the best for photographs. Oh, and if you want to buy some Japanese fabric and help support Japan, you can check here and here.
The auction quilt is finally finished! I’m excited about the result, but I think for this project the process of teaching kids to sew was more important than the end result. We’ve been working on this over the course of the past two months with more than 400 children ranging in ages from three to twelve.
As you can see, the stitch pattern starts off simple at the top with the three and four year-olds, then becomes increasingly more complex as you move further down the quilt, going in order and ending with sixth grade in the bottom strip. After the kids finished the embroidery, we then sewed the nine strips of fabric together and parent volunteers helped to hand quilt it. The quilt is approximately 5′ x 5′ and is really meant to be hung on the wall since it isn’t very practical with all these stitches.
The children really seemed to enjoy the process and I think many became interested in sewing. Kids come to sewing with far less trepidation than adults who have never sewn before, but many were still intimidated. Once they picked up the needle, they all learned quickly and seemed to really enjoy it. The best reward for me was seeing the kids’ enthusiasm for sewing; learning a new skill with such tangible results can be extremely satisfying for children. My idea for this quilt came from our experience with Montessori learning, where sewing is a routine part of the environment, so I knew the kids could do it. This whole experience reminded me of the need for these hands-on skills in our digital age — hopefully home ec will make a comeback.
I think that the combination of bright colors and beautifully imperfect stitching gives it a wonderful folk art feel. I hope someone will love this handmade style as much as I do and will want to buy it. There is a lot of love in this quilt since it took more than 800 hands working together to make it!
Special thanks to Whipstitch Fabrics for donating the fabric for this quilt. You can read more about the design and preparation for this quilt in my earlier posts here, here, and here.
Check out this new mini-mag full of kids’ crafts from author and blogger Kathreen Ricketson of Whip Up. Action Pack is an easy, downloadable magazine to keep the kids busy. With over 20 pages of craft projects, outdoor activities, cooking, drawing and more, this really is an action-packed gem.
The magazine features project ideas focused on paper and beeswax. The kids can make waterproof origami boats, beeswax candles and lip balm with printable labels, plus learn to draw bees and bake a cake. What I like most about this mini-mag is the learning aspect of it. With science experiments, fun facts and creativity, the kids can stay busy while learning something new in a hands-on way. As Kathreen says:
We see kids as competent, creative and capable people. We believe that our kids are resourceful and clever and we try to enable them to develop their independence and creative minds within a secure and nurturing environment.
We see learning opportunities everywhere. Learning should and can be fun. But we also know that parents are busy and cannot realistically be spending all weekend ‘playing’ with their kids. We want kids to get off the couch, away from the computer and learn the value and fun in making and doing stuff.
Thanks to Kathreen for providing me with a copy of the magazine. I can’t wait to try it out with the kids soon! You can download your copy here for $5.
We just returned from a week-long trip to that enormous sociology experiment called Disney World. The cynic in me can’t help but be disenchanted by the massive environmental impact and the huge crowds, but the kids loved it and I re-lived some nice childhood memories. All in all it really was a nice trip, but now I need a vacation from our vacation. It was exhausting.
I made the kids ride It’s a Small World three times. And as someone commented on yesterday’s post, I too realized that this ride may have informed much of my design aesthetic. Not something that you really think about when you’re eight years old, but those early memories definitely make a difference. When I was a kid, we also vacationed in a small resort town with a kitschy Swiss theme, which furthered my love of tiny wooden toys, cuckoo clocks and clogs.
If you’ve never experienced this ride, you can see a video on YouTube here and read about it here. But of course there’s nothing like the real thing. It’s a magical experience that seems to hold up well after almost 50 years, captivating the full attention of both of my children. On this boat ride with sweet animatronic dolls wearing beautifully detailed costumes, happy animals and glittered scenery representing different parts of the world, there’s something new to see each time you ride. The song It’s a Small World was written exclusively for the ride. The scenery was designed by artist Mary Blair who helped define Disney’s style in the ’50s and ’60s with her art direction on classic films such as Peter Pan and Cinderella. The white and gold facade (above, top left), with its layers cut out in geometric shapes, reminds me of the work of artist Louise Nevelson with added glitter and lights. Blair’s modern style mixed with the international theme to create a look that may seem a bit kitschy now, but nevertheless stands the test of time.
And yes, I’m totally nostalgic about it. My photos are pretty terrible since they were taken in the dark with a flash (apologies to the people behind me), but you can see them all on flickr here. Do you have childhood memories of this ride?
I thought I’d show you some photos of how the auction quilt is coming along. We still have kids who need to work on it, and of course we still have to put it together (and remove those chalk lines), but I’m really loving the handmade look. Over 400 kids will have sewn on this quilt when it’s all finished. And while it’s been a time-consuming process, it’s so exciting to see the kids get interested in sewing!
You can read my previous posts about this project here and here.
