The result of the Pre-K ironing, a pack of wolves. We used the sewing machine, too. They controlled the pedal (thank goodness for the half-speed button on my machine!) while I guided the fabric under the needle. Stuffing is always a popular activity with kids.
My favorite part of their wolf study- when their recess is over, their teacher howls and they come running, howling back.
Last night a murder of crows came.
They cawed up a ruckus.
And then they flew.
It's been a while since I've done any kind of exacting sewing, the kind that involves a sewing machine, measuring, and making things line up.
I guess it's still been a while.
But the zipper is in. I don't think I've dealt with a zipper for more than twenty years!
The back was pieced together from recycled and felted wool sweaters.
That wavy top edge . . . sigh . . . I tried.
"You Zig, I Zag" pillow, yarn and design by Spincycle Yarns.
Knitting, sewing, zipping, muddling, wonkiness, and enjoying by me!
In the middle of all of it all, there are the children.
The kindergarten teacher asked if I had any ideas for "Blue Day"?
Seventeen kindergarteners surrounding a bucket of indigo did not lend itself to a lot of photos, but trust that there was a lot of excitement and thrills as they bundled, dipped, unfolded and watched the indigo magic of green becoming blue - while I chanted "The Jumblies" for them.
I enjoyed the shocked exclamations when, fed up with the leaking awkward gloves, I pulled them off and plunged my hands in.
For a couple of days they would call out to me, "Are you still a Jumblie?" and squeal as I held up my blue hands.
One of our tutors brings her dogs to school each week. The Pre-K class worried that their recent haircuts would not keep them warm in the chilly autumn air. They asked if I could help them make dog coats. With a little Halloween influence, we created two doggie wraps.
Each child drew and cut a stripe out of polar fleece, then we stitched them down. I'd forgotten how much skill is needed to wrangle scissors through fabric. My finger tips barely made it out alive.
Nanook and Tanner modeling their new fashions. (I will not be adding pet photography to my resume).
Stitching with a new-to-sewing friend. She pulled out her pincushion.
Laughing, I said, "It looks just like you! Orderly, matching, everything in its place...".
"That's because I'm new at this."
"No, I'll bet that ten years from now it will still look the same."
Then I brought out two of mine.
She laughed, she saw what I meant.
I'm imagining a book of photos of pincushions and their people, or maybe a new way to do psychic readings?
In trying to think through a tutorial on making the oven mitts, I remembered that the original idea came from a book from the library, Quilts: 30 Colorful Quilt and Patchwork Projects by Denyse Schmidt. The mitts I've made are slightly different - the quilting of the layers is zig-zagged willy-nilly, rather than stitched with nice even lines, the pom-poms have been omitted, and I used two layers of Insul-Bright (insulated batting) rather than the cotton batting she suggests. Maybe I have sensitive hands, but in my experience regular batting does not protect enough.
I'm happy to try to answer any questions, but since it was not my pattern to begin with, I think I should skip creating a tutorial.
Thank you, Deanna, for sharing this free pattern (she also found many others on line).
Jude asked what the mitts were lined with, and I got to worrying about everyone's fingers out there. Do NOT use regular batting! I used two layers of a product called "Insul-Bright". It is a "needled polyester batting", containing a metalic reflective layer in the center. I don't know if there is more than one choice for this kind of thing, or even if this product is still around, I bought a bundle of it years ago.
Please keep your hands safe!
The boys and I made these some years ago for K for Christmas. They have been well used, and have needed replaced for quite a while now. So worn in places that we would have to be quick to put the hot item in or out of the oven, before things would become too hot to handle. Sometimes we would put one inside of the other for especially hot items.
While in San Francisco, I received a very teary phone call from Moon. He was taking shortcakes out of the oven, but forgot to put the second mitt on.
This was the worst of the blisters, the others covered the tips of all but one finger on that poor little hand, you can see small ones there on his thumb.
Two days later there were new mitts just in time for K's birthday. Hopefully they will be well used . . . on both hands.
(p.s. There was good news, the shortcakes survived the crashing to the floor, & Moon's hand is healing nicely.)
