Stitching with the Grands

Stuffing the "innards."

The other day, the grands were playing with their doll babies and there was loud discourse over a small pink pillow. This pillow was the perfect size for a "baby"; but, it was only one and they needed another! I asked them about making a pillow and the youngest grand at 3, J, thought that would be a good idea.

K, the oldest at 4 1/2, was all over the project. J picked her fabric. She likes animals. She chose a 13" square piece of fabric that had penguins on it from the stash. Then she chose a coordinating fabric for the back. That was the end to her work on the project for the day.

Yay, the pillow is finished!

Her sister, K, was concerned about the stuffing part of the project. So we found some fabric from the stash that would work as the "innards" and stitched three sides. Then she stuffed it with batting scraps until she thought it was "just right!" I showed her how to fold the ends in on the muslin like bag and how to pin it so the batting would remain in the "innards!" K is thoughtful and asked the best questions! This was where we stopped for the day.

In the stuffing photo, what you don't see is that a long batting strip flips off the table which J, who is sitting on the floor, fondles. She then wraps the sewing table leg with it and as she wraps, the other end pulls out of the "innards." This happened about four times before K figured out what was happening. I managed not to chuckle out loud although just sharing the incident with you makes me smile! Watching the two of them was like watching my own daughters when they were around this age! The next day we worked on the project, K finished stitching the "innards."

Trying out the new pillow

Then K hung out to supervise J on how to guide the fabric to stitch the outer pillow. J had the most fun with the machine when it stitched fast! Her favorite part of the process was using the purple thang and poking out the corners. Then, she was finished with the process so K stepped in to stuff the "innards" into the pillow.

J liked the penguins. Instead of using it as a doll pillow though, she used it for her own head. I had to chuckle as she showed me it would be "just right" for snoozy time!

Dad would have enjoyed this story about the grands.  He had a soft spot for kids. His celebration of life is Saturday. I miss our nightly phone chats. I do chat with his wife regularly. She has organized the party that he requested. I look forward to hearing stories from his friends.