Come Stitch With Me

Occasionally, I get a little good-natured flack from parents about my requirement that stitchers be in third grade or higher before they can take a sewing class with me. There’s a good reason for this: most younger children do not have the manual dexterity, reading skills nor the ability to focus for the extended period of time that a sewing class requires.  At school, group instruction is usually given in 15 minute blocks followed by work time/centers.  K-2 students are learning to build stamina in their school work and reading.  By third grade, they are accustomed to focusing on an activity for an extended period of time and usually have the ability to understand and follow directions quite well.  My six year old niece, who is a rising first grader, illustrates this observation quite well.

Miss A. has been fascinated by my sewing machines and fabric stash since she was 3. She’s helped “Aunt Resa” with parts of projects, but has never really operated a sewing machine. She’s practically begged me for the past several months to teach her how to sew. Now that I’m camping out at my Mom’s while we wait for the new house to be completed, it seemed like the perfect time for her to come for a real sewing lesson. 

Yes, in the picture you see Miss A. stitching away on my Janome 6600.  Admittedly, not my first choice of machine for her to learn on, but it was the only machine available as my others are in storage.  (And the table’s too high…even for me…but we’re working with what we’ve got). Little niece was fascinated by all the fancy stitches.  She picked up very quickly on how to properly hold the fabric samples for stitching and which buttons to press to get the stitch she wanted (she knows how to read and decipher a chart – something many adults have trouble with).  She also learned how to change machine feet.  Threading the machine didn’t work quite so well, nor did operating the small pair of scissors.  She hasn’t quite developed the fine motor skills needed for these tasks.  Not to worry, It’s something that comes with maturity and practice.

We made a travel size pillow case.  She selected the fabrics.  Together we cut out the fabric, with her reading the chart to tell me which dimensions to cut the fabric pieces. (That was another lesson in itself).  She helped pin the hot dog roll and stitch the seams.  She sat in my lap while we sewed, with her guiding the fabric under the needle (with a lot of assistance from Aunt Resa) while I pushed the foot control.  For the final seam, she pushed the foot control while I sewed.

Our pillowcase project took a long time because she had to try out the fancy stitches, inspect every foot in my sewing machine box and rearrange the pins on my pincushion (which I rearranged after she left).  I certainly didn’t mind answering her numerous questions, but could you imagine doing this with 4-6 little girls at the same time?   Oh my goodness!

Miss A. will visit me in my new sewing studio in a couple of weeks for another sewing weekend.  She’ll have a smaller machine, work space more her size and her own tools. She mentioned something about making a quilt.  I have a pattern for a wonderful tied quilt.

A friend is hosting an online “silent” auction to raise money for a coworker who is in the process of adopting two children from China.  Jen asked me if I had a baby quilt that could be combined with some other baby items to be offered as a set. I just happened to have this quilt top already made up in the stash.  It’s a 4×4 grid of pinwheel blocks from the Hello Luscious line with white-on-white squares. I machine quilted it the day the movers came to pack up the house and hand stitched the binding on the very L-O-N-G day that was moving everything to temporary storage.  This quilt, along with another baby quilt, were the last items laundered at the old house!  And I got two quilts finished and out into circulation!  If you’d like to take a peek at the items available, please visit this link.

As of next Friday, for the first time in over 20 years, I will no longer be a homeowner.  It’s kind of surreal.  I’ll be at my mom’s with the dog while hubs stays close to work.  Yes, we are building another house, but weather delays and the purchaser’s needing to take immediate possession of the current house means we’re in limbo for a little while.

We have a closing date on the new house in about three weeks, but a serious enough issue has arisen that could potentially call the deal off.  Not what I want after 7 months of building, planning and dreaming…but we’re not buying the house with this problem.  We meet with the builder and his rep on Monday to see how they intend to address the issue.  If no resolution can be found, we’ll go into an apartment on a short-term basis while we restart the home search.

Stay tuned.  We’ll see what Monday brings.