weaving camp in the city

I'm home (did you miss me?)! Once again I ran off to Charlotte to weave with my friend Kathie. She hash tagged our photos #weavingcampinthecity and I love it! We always have a great time together, weaving of course, but also chatting, watching lots of baseball and drinking a bit of wine. It was a wonderful week.

Part of the fun is that Kathie lets me weave on her floor loom, which enables me to learn new things and try weave patterns that are not possible on my rigid heddle loom.

Warping the loom is a much bigger process than I am used to with lots of steps...

Yes, I did let Kathie crawl around on the floor to tie up the heddles. Honestly, I was afraid I'd never get back up off the floor! HA! 

Finally, I got to weaving (I think it was day three!) I had chosen this diamond pattern which is by far the most detailed pattern I've ever done. I wove about half of my warp with the dark teal, then the second half in red.

I had a little bit of warp left at the end so I decided to play with some neutrals.

I ended up with this lovely piece of fabric which will become new pillows for our sofa in the next few days.

The last day we took a field trip to find this billboard (did you see it in the first photo?). Kathie has her work featured on an actual billboard this year! HOW COOL IS THAT???

The week was exactly what I've been needing! A bit of an escape. Now back to reality! What have you been up to?

teaching kids to machine sew - our last day

I know I promised to take you along on a field trip today. Unfortunately it was cancelled at the last minute. The girls were actually happy to have another day to sew! First they finished off the bindings on their little quilts, so they could take them home with them.

 Then I taught them how to make half square triangles. They had so much fun laying them out in different patterns and deciding how they wanted to sew them together.

I'm so proud of how hard they worked this week and how much they learned in a short time! 

Teaching kids to machine sew - first quilts!

I have a huge bin of 5 inch squares (come on, tell me you don't?) and I let the girls dig through them yesterday to plan their first quilt tops. We talked about value, showed how different fabrics show up best next to contrasting fabrics with a different value. We also talked about math (haha they were so very pleased about this! NOT!). Both girls laid out their planned quilts on the floor.

Then they began to sew them together. They did a really great job, with only a few small appearances of the dreaded seam ripper.

By the end of the day today, we had 2 completed quilt tops! Here they are with one of my teen helpers

Tomorrow I am taking them to Hobby Lobby to pick out backing fabric and binding, then I will quilt the quilts for them. And on Thursday we have a fun field trip planned! Stay tuned.

teaching kids to machine sew day one

Last year I had a group of young crafters come to my house every day for sewing camp. We did all hand sewing projects and they had a blast! This year, 2 of the young ladies asked if they could learn to sew on the machine. At age 11, I was confident that they could handle it. Today they arrived for their first lesson.

I found several awesome resources online for free printable sewing machine worksheets. The girls loved doing them and quickly became comfortable sewing on my machines. They did most of the worksheets without thread in the machine, but for the dot to dot it was fun to stitch with thread until the picture evolved!

Here are links to the sites where I got the printables:
Free craftsy download by So Sew Easy
Free sewing sheets by Skip to my Lou
Free sewing practice sheets by Crunchy Frugalista

The girls got so good at it today, they began sewing fabric squares together for small quilts. I'll share more about that tomorrow!

craft camp day four

Today the girls learned to do counted cross stitch. All of them made a good start on their butterflies and understood how to finish them at home. It was so much fun to watch the light bulbs go on over each of their heads as they understood how to read the chart and make the picture come to life on their fabric. These girls learned a lot in a week! So proud of each of them.

And now, I shall take a very long nap.

craft camp day three

Today the girls finished two projects. First, they made felt bookmarks. They learned how to make lazy daisy stitches to embroider flowers on their bookmarks. It was tricky but they all mastered it! We used this tutorial.

Next we made button bracelets. I have to admit I was a little hesitant to teach them these. When I made my sample, I got the thread tangled around the elastic many times. It was frustrating! I decided we would work in pairs, one girl holding the elastic while the other girl stitched on her buttons. It worked like a charm! As you can see, they all finished their bracelets and wore them home.

Tomorrow is our last day together. I've had a great time with these young ladies.

craft camp day 2

Well the girls all came back today! I think that means they are having fun. Today they sewed their shrinky dink buttons and some extra buttons onto burlap and added embroidered stems (and leaves and clouds and ponds.... I love their imaginations!). Then they all made pom poms using this tutorial and tied them onto pony tail holders. The morning went so fast!

craft camp day one

Four happy girls arrived at my house this morning excited about learning to sew! We had a great time and all of them enjoyed the projects....

 Today we practiced sewing stitches on cardstock sewing cards and using shelf paper with holes (the internet is full of ideas for sewing with kids!). We also made buttons from shrinky dinks to use in a project tomorrow.

you can download these to print here 

Check back tomorrow to see what else we do!