Update on Miss Mae's Love Letters

The weather here has been wonderfully bright and sunny.  Which makes it hard for Miss Mae to stay inside and sew when the other kids are outside.  I pointed out to her that if she wanted to finish her block in time to enter it, she needed to work on it.

Here's where it's at.  Right now it's about 4 3/4" tall, so she needs to add borders to make it the right height.

She has done all the sewing and most of the pressing and trimming.

Tomorrow's a no school day, so hopefully she'll get it done.

Love Letters

"W"

This afternoon while Daddy was watching the Superbowl we worked on the "W"

She set the S next to the W to help with sizing.

This time I did less directing and more questioning.  She did pretty well.  First she sewed the pinks to the backgrounds. 

She pressed and trimmed after sewing each seam.

She set them back in the layout so she could see what she should do next.

Yes, that is my hand helping to hold the ruler...she made me nervous!

She was so serious about doing it right!

She figured out the E is just a sideways W.  "Oh, Mom!  The E's are going to be totally easy now!"

Miss Mae's Sewing Skills

Miss Mae has been watching me make blocks for the block lotto for months now, and she asked if she could try to make one.  After getting the okay from the group, she and I sat down this morning while the others were at dance and thought about what word to make. 

Trying to explain terms of endearment to a seven year-old was hilarious.  I told her it was a nick-name you call someone you love.  She thought about it and came up with 'booger,"  "silly goose" and "goof-ball".  Can you tell what I call my kids?  Anyway, after trying not to laugh, I suggested she think of a name that anyone would like being called.  She choose Sweetie.

We got out the graph paper and she printed her word, using only straight lines.  (Easier to sew)

Next, we laid out the fabric strips in a shape to build an "S"  I had pre-cut a bunch of 1 1/2" x 6" strips.

Then we trimmed the strips until it looked right and then added strips of background to fill in the holes.

First she sewed the end pieces to the background strips.  She pressed them, and used the ruler and rotary cutter to trim everything square.  No pictures of this, she made me too nervous using the rotary cutter!

Then she sewed the horizontal pieces to the middle pieces.  The machine was on turtle speed, which was just fine!

She pressed and trimmed after sewing each seam, which helped to keep things straight and even.

Here's the finished "S"  with a narrow strip on the right, to add the next letter to.  Pretty darn good for a second grader!

One letter down, 6 more to go!