Crafty little people

I am fortunate that seven of my grandchildren live within walking distance of me and as a result, five of them attend the same school that my own children went to. Each day I pick up two of my grandchildren from school. Just before Christmas, my four year old granddaughter, Esme, was quite adamant that she was going to show me how to make a snowflake. She had learned how in kindergarten. Well, first of all, she took an 8.5" by 11" piece of paper and folded down one corner to make a triangle and then she cut off the extra so that the piece that was left was a square. Then she showed me how to fold it and cut it. I was impressed with her explanations and directions. It was all very serious business. Here is my product.

Around this same time, one of my seven year old twin granddaughters, Severn, came for a visit with her sisters and brought along a kit that she had made up. We were to make a craft together.

She had everything prepared - I was really quite impressed. We worked together because she had made a kit for herself too and so she showed me the steps.

This is Severn's picture. (sorry for the blurriness but if you click on the photo, you can see the details)

Once again, click on the photo to see the details. This is my craft project. We started out with a green crayon and made three curved lines on the sides - two on one side (sorry, but the lines don't show up well on the black paper.) Then, we added smaller lines to make them look like pine needles. This was all done without me knowing what the end product would look like. The three white balls were to be coloured, and glued under the green curved lines, the snowman could be given arms, a face and clothing and the Christmas tree was glued and decorated any way I wanted. The paper and crayons were all supplied by Severn and the only thing I supplied was the glue. It was fun. I am looking forward to her coming up with more craft ideas and kits.

I must say, my grandchildren are starting out to be lovely crafty little people.

Using up the stash - part 2

When I started quilting, way back in 1980, I was one of the few people working in solids. The prints of the time were, to my mind, atrocious. Calico - cottons in various qualities with little flowers. I couldn't use them. Quilting cottons at the time, in solids, didn't have the colours I wanted and what there was available was very expensive. My friends and I were not cotton snobs and so we used what was readily available and that was polyester cotton broadcloth. I remember that, at times, orange and purple were a bit harder to find (if at all) but if you wanted to do an applique quilt with lots of flowers, there was an abundance of reds, pinks and greens. I preferred making pictorial wall hangings using needle turn applique.

All this preamble is to let you know that I have shelves full of poly cotton broadcloth. I also have scraps of poly cotton and I'm slowly trying to use up what I have accumulated. Since my little grandsons are visiting, I wanted to do a craft with them. I searched the internet and after looking over a list of 50 crafts for 2 year-olds, I came upon an idea. My idea would only work successfully with fabric that was the same on both sides such as batiks - or broadcloth.

I gathered up some scraps. There was no need to iron anything.

Any shape of scrap would do. My cutting board, any ruler that came to hand and a rotary cutter were my tools.

Folding up the fabric helped.

I then started slicing up the fabric. No need to measure anything. Just eyeball it. Anything between 1/8th to 1/2 an inch would do in both ways. 

Since I wanted confetti fabric, I decided to slice in just one more direction - diagonally.

I found a bunch of small containers to hold my little bits.

Patric, the two year-old, my little helper.

I have pads of construction paper and both Luc, who's four, and Patric chose the colour they wanted. I limited the fabric palette to four colours and both the green and blue have two different shades. This is a little table and two chairs that we bought just for little people to use. I wanted to control the mess that was made. I had the boys squeeze some glue onto the paper first and then smoosh it around.

Then they took little pinches of whatever fabric they wanted and sprinkled it onto the glue.

More glue...

means more smoosh.

Here they are drying. Patric's picture is on the left and Luc's is on the right. Luc made four and Patric ended up making two.

Not too much fabric was used but little by little, the stash is getting used up.

In the last post of 2015, you will see a baby quilt where I used some of the poly cottons that I have. My friend Marg and I make baby quilts for a charity and we are trying to use up whatever we have on hand. 

The only fabric I plan on purchasing this year will be for my daughter's wedding in May. I will be making little boy shirts, pants and lots of bow ties, little girl dresses and my own, of course.

Wooden snowmen?

Little Patric and Luc put these snowmen together and decorated them. 

Their papa cut the wood and put in dowels so that the pieces could nest.

I'd love one in my front lawn but these reside way across the country.

More seasonal decorating tomorrow.

Mysteries around the world

Books. That's what I am talking about here. I love mysteries and have recently read (actually it was on tape) a book set in Japan. Here's what the book jacket says about it.

"A man about to leave his marriage is poisoned to death while his wife, the logical suspect, is hundreds of miles away. Tokyo Police Detective Kusanagi and his assistant agree to disagree about the guilty party: was it his wife, his girlfriend, his business associate, or a random crime? They call on physics professor Manubu Yukawa, and even the brilliant mind of "Detective Galileo" is challenged by a crime that is implausible, methodical - and perfect."

It takes some thought to remember the names of the characters but I must say, I did enjoy it. The main reason? The wife in the story is a Patchwork artist/professional who also has an assistant/student. It's too bad we can't see what sorts of works the wife has made but there is a bit of description all the same. Although it is mostly set in Tokyo, we don't really get a feel for the city. I do like the main police officers (one of whom is a woman) and their physics professor friend.

Title: Salvation of a Saint

Author: Keigo Higashino

Published by: St. Martin's Minotaur, 2012     

The other book I'm listening to is set in Ireland. I haven't finished it yet but it sounds like it will be a good one. This too is set in the country's capital - Dublin, but not in today's Dublin. The book starts off in 1985 and then, 22 years later, something happens to bring back the main character, Frank Mackay, to his old neighbourhood. He is now a cop and it seems that nothing has really changed with his family in all that time.

Here's the blurb:
"Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was nineteen, living in a small flat with his family on Faithful Place in Dublin's inner city. He and Rosie Daly planned to run away to London, get married, and break away from poverty and their old lives. But the night they were leaving, Rosie didn't show. Frank assumed that she dumped him and never went home again. Neither did Rosie. Now, twenty-two years, later Rosie's suitcase shows up in a derelict house on Faithful Place."

Title: Faithful Place

Author: Tana French

Published by: Thorndike/Windsor/Paragon, 2010

Lastly, there is a book on hold that I will have to go and pick up. It is one in a series.  The setting is Kent, England in the early 1900s and the main character is Maisie Dobbs who is a private investigator. It's not the author's first Maisie Dobbs book but it will not hinder the reading and enjoyment of the book if you don't start at the first one.

Here's a bit about it:

"With the country in the grip of economic malaise, and worried about her business, Maisie Dobbs is relieved to accept an apparently straightforward assignment from an old friend to investigate certain matters concerning a potential land purchase. Her inquiries take her to a picturesque village in Kent during the hop-picking season, but beneath its pastoral surface she finds evidence that something is amiss. Mysterious fires erupt in the village with alarming regularity, and a series of pettycrimes suggests a darker criminal element at work. As Maisie discovers, the villagers are bitterly prejudiced against outsiders who flock to Kent at harvest time--even more troubling, they seem possessed by the legacy of a wartime Zeppelin raid. Maisie grows increasingly suspicious of a peculiar secrecy that shrouds the village, and ultimately she must draw on all her finely honed skills of detection to solve one of her most intriguing cases."

Title: An Incomplete Revenge

Author: Jacqueline Winspear

Published by: H. Holt, 2008

And now, something that has nothing whatsoever to do with books.

 It's a latch hook rug kit that I picked up at Value Village. That's op shop to you Aussies. It's not a big one - finishing at just 8 inches square but I thought it needed a home. I haven't done one in ages and all that's missing is the hook. It was a brand new kit all wrapped in plastic so I don't know why they didn't provide the hook. Maybe that's why the owner gave it up. That's fine by me since I own two hooks so I can work on this while watching TV during the evenings.

Note: Thank you to all of you who voted for my quilt.

A long time ago

Once upon a time, when I was 13 years old, I made a hooked rug. It most likely was a kit but I can't remember where it came from or how I came to have it. However, I do remember working on it and when I finished it, I told myself that it would be given to my first born child. I can't remember when I gave it to Laila but she kept it for her first born child - Luc. Here it is and I do think it should finally be used as a rug or hung on the wall or whatever.

I still like it and think it's cute.