Crafty girl

A few weekends ago, my youngest granddaughter (she's 8) was here for an overnight visit. Recently, Mia has been affectionately called "Crafty Girl" around her house and that is music to this nana's ears!  I've done a pretty good job of indoctrinating encouraging my oldest granddaughter, Jordan (she's 22), and now she's knitting and spinning and hooked on interested in natural fibers.  (Can I hear an "Amen"?)  Because I raised three boys, I didn't have much opportunity to teach the so-called feminine arts to my offspring.  My chance has finally come with granddaughters and all those daughters-in-law.  Mia's mom, Jennifer, is my latest knitting convert, though as it turns out, she's a knitting prodigy so I can't really take much credit.  (I am definitely not eliminating the possibility of teaching my grandsons.  In fact, I have taught three of them to knit.  They just don't seem as interested as the girls.)

(Sorry about the blurry picture-I think the camera was confused by the pajama pants!)

So anyway .....  I did some thinking about a small project that Mia and I could work on together and came up with embroidery.  I looked in vain for a kit that might be appropriate for teaching an eight year old some simple stitching, but found nothing.  (I suppose few little girls are learning to stitch or sew these days.  Even though my mother taught me to sew, I also had exposure to needlework in Brownie Scouts and 4-H programs.)  In the end, I think not finding a kit turned out to be a blessing.  I assembled my own kit with several colors of embroidery thread, needles, scissors, hoops, disappearing ink tracing pen and plain muslin fabric, plus a small canvas bag from the craft store for Mia to keep her supplies in.  I bought her a copy of a book I already had, Doodle Stitching, for inspiration and after looking at it, we were ready to begin.  Mia drew a simple picture (her first one was a heart with a few flowers around it).  We held her drawing up to the window, placed the cotton fabric on top of it and traced her design with the tracing pen.  I showed her how to make a simple running stitch and she got right to it.  Within a short time, she had drawn, traced and embroidered four or five little squares of fabric and by then her brother had decided it was pretty cool and was requesting she do a project for him.  I think embroidering her own simple drawings made it less intimidating and more fun for Mia.  (And it's a lesson I need to remember.  You know - K.I.S.S.!)

My ultimate goal is to have my very own family knitting and craft guild and I think I'm well on my way!