Pajama Days, Legos, and Learning to Sew...

Someone jumped in the truck with his Meme and Poppi to enjoy a few days of

"Grammy Camp" after our visit for brother's first birthday:

Unfortunately, he came down with a high fever and strep throat by Monday. After a visit to the doctor, we spent the rest of our visit cozy and quiet in our PJ's. His days were restfully spent watching cartoons with Jackson by his side, building Legos with his Poppi at night along with Chicken soup for dinner to warm his little tummy. 

After a few days, he and his Poppi had a whole Mindcraft Village of Legos built:

He and I had watched our share of cartoons:

And soon, hot chocolate with magic sprinkles brought a smile to his face as he got to feeling better:

 

Followed with an out of the blue request asking me: "Meme will you teach me how to sew?" 

WILL I! So we got our butts off the couch...

 First, I had him pick out some fabric (He choose Spiderman) and I put it in a hoop:

 Next, I had him pick out his thread (perle cotton, with a big needle work best with a five year old.)

He picked out red, white and blue and asked me how to make "spider webs".

So I proceeded to show him how to pull the needle from the front...

...and then how to pull it to the back. 

Finally, we concentrated on making small stitches:

My Ol' Grammy heart beamed when he exclaimed: "Meme this is fun!" Then, without any prompting, he started to carefully trim the edges and proudly said it was for me!

Yes! My Grammy heart if full.

Until I find a future quilt to incorporate it into, I'm planning on putting it into a little wooden hoop and hanging it in my sewing studio in memory of this very precious request. 

2017 Classroom Quilt: Finished!

I spent a good part of the morning on our deck stitching the binding on my classroom quilt...

...which led me to a Friday Finish!! Yipppeeee!!!! 

I found this fun crayon fabric in my stash and thought it was the perfect accent to the kids' colored panels. I even splurged and if you zoom in, you'll see I used a crayon pantograph!

As I later busied myself with getting ready to run some errands, 

I came around the corner only to find somebody fast asleep: 

One of my errands was to the local library to pick up some summer reading...where what better place to take a final picture of this Classroom Quilt that illustrates all the various story "themes" we read throughout our past year in 2nd grade.

Summer is a great time to quilt with kids and this method is an easy way for them to do just that.

Click HERE for my detailed tutorial on how to make the colored panels.

Washing Note: I used two color catchers in the first wash. No color run. 

WIN quilt batting this summer. Click HERE to read how.

I specialize in edge to edge pantographs with over 100 designs to choose from.

Check out my Long-Arm Quilting page for details.

I offer FREE Return Shipping on all quilts in the U.S.A.

WIN quilt batting this summer. Click HERE to read how.

Grammy Camp: Spiderman Pillowcase!

Summer got on it's way with Grammy Camp right off the bat!

I spent an hour one morning this week sewing this Spiderman Pillowcase for my favorite little buy:

He and I play Spiderman all the time (with silly string of course) and when we came across this fabric in the attic among his Mother's old things, we knew right away what we were going to do with it. 

Well after he spent ten minutes walking around being a "ghost".

As you can imagine getting these two together for a picture was...well...full of silly moments with Jackson being much more cooperative than my goofy grand-guy. 

I love that I was able to stitch up something quick and fun for him. The best thing is he gets to bring it home and the little I Love You tag reminds him that his Meme is always thinking of him.

Love that about our hobby.

Lucky me he wanted to use it to "watch a movie" ...which meant a nap was soon to follow!

I'm off on a sewing retreat this weekend and am really looking forward to this as my kick off to a summer of sewing, blogging, reading, walking and well, resting. Oh and more good news, not only is our little guy going to become a Big Brother but it's another Boy!!

Like my wine bottle tree in the background? LOL!!

Of course, we're all so very excited.

As always, thank you for stopping by and for being awesome blogging friends.

I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone real soon.

WIN quilt batting this summer. Click HERE to read how.

I specialize in edge to edge pantographs with over 100 designs to choose from.

Check out my Long-Arm Quilting page for details.

I offer FREE Return Shipping on all quilts in the U.S.A.

WIN quilt batting this summer. Click HERE to read how.

2017 Classroom Quilt: Kid's Art

This week was quilt week at school and the kids were soooo excited!

They traced selected pictures using their pencils: 

 The also used fabric markers to color. 

Now hindsight being what it is, next time I will have the kids use a black sharpie 

to outline their pictures, as the fabric markers DID smudge a little.

All in all though, I think these are going to make a fun classroom quilt.  I think it would also be an inspiring way to greet my new class in the Fall. I can hang it at the entrance of the classroom during Open House, as the quilt illustrates many of the themes we learned about in Second Grade this year.

Oh we'll definitely enroll it in the County Fair this summer! 

But for now, it looks like it's time for me to get busy sewing this one together. But as busy as life has been this month, I'm going to have be very intentional at getting it sewn into a flimsy before the kids leave for summer. (Luckily I still have two weeks to ahead of me.) As always, thanks for stopping by and  for especially cheering on our classroom projects this month. You guys are the best!

2017 Classroom Quilt: Preparations

Call me crazy....but I spent yesterday after work prepping the many quilt squares needed for me and my cooperating teacher to make classroom quilts with our second graders. I'm using a cotton muslin of which I cut into SIXTY 9"inch squares and then ironed to freezer paper for stability.

As you can imagine, to prepare sixty blocks created quite the "train":

 A quick short-cut: the freezer paper is 18inches wide...so the 9"square blocks fit perfectly upon it and left minimal cutting, that was quick to accomplish. But, never the less, Jackson was beginning to look at me in wonderment of just how long this "train" was going to be!  

So with the squares now prepped and the fabric markers having arrived, I just need to finish preparing the thematic pictures for the students to trace. (This year we are creating a themed quilt based on our reading units from the year. Thus, we will be using preprinted pictures for the students to trace and color onto the fabric.) I hope if any of you want to make a quilt with little ones in your life, this series over the next couple of weeks will give you some inspiration and quick tricks.

I have to admit, if we're going to have snow make-up days through June 9th, 

this is a fun project that makes the extended year fun!

Stay tuned as next week the kids begin their creative part.

Classroom Update...

It's been another fun filled week at school. We had our annual outdoor day of school!

The kids LOVED creating their own tye-dye shirts for our trip into the city.

Some are continuing to stitch their little fish beanbags.

 And as with an hobby......some catch on fast....

...while others are hoping their beans don't fall out!
A quick tip: Use a stapler instead of pins when working with kids.

Admittedly, my favorite is this little elephant that one of my girls called:

"An Elephant of Many Colors...ya know like Dolly Parton's coat of many colors."

Probably the cutest crayon holder I've ever seen that's for sure!

Their little stitches are just precious don't ya think?

  We've started to wrap up our stitching projects and I'm busily preparing materials for the kids to create our annual classroom quilt next week using my "Make a quilt with kids" Tutorial. 

Stay tuned....and as always, thanks so very much for stopping by.