I am spending 12 hours today at a Quilting Bee as a mission project at my church. We are all making the "Quilt in a Day" style quilts so [in theory] we will have as many quilts finished by 8 pm tonight as there are people attending. We will see. We are using a simple design similar to the picture at right.
But it brings me to today's Quick Take.
Pick a day.... any day... and teach your children some appreciation for the days before going to stores to buy blankets [or clothes, or anything.] Take a scrap of cloth or a bunch of old wash cloths and some thread and a needle. Give each child four wash cloths to sew together into a "towel" Have them stitch their name on one corner [or at least their initial if they are younger]. Have them lay out washcloths on their beds to see how many wash cloths it would take to sew a "blanket" for their bed. Talk about what a difference the invention of the sewing machine made!
Then go online, or go to a museum and show them the amazing hand sewn quilts of today or days gone by. As a final amazement... have them check out the stitching samplers hand stitched by young children of early days.
Depending on your children's interests:
--add two more wash cloths and with six sewn together they will have a very usable doll blanket.
--four wash cloths make a good dryer or window washer when helping clean the car.
Who knows?.... you may inspire a future quilter! A logical next step could be the knot-together squares of fleece type of blankets. If you have a sewing machine, you can help them make simple blankets with just straight stitching, which allow kids to accomplish something big, with small skills. [If you need more info, let me know!]
Image credits and thanks: instructables.com, stichinpost.com, notwithoutsalt.com
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