Triangles, Circles, Rectangles and Squares-- 9th Finish for 4th Quarter Finish-A-Long (FAL) 2017

J's drawn shapes

The other day, I was drawing some possible designs to quilt on my chicken border. Granddaughter J was watching me. After I finished, she wanted to know if she could draw on my paper. I said sure.

J loves tools. So I wasn't surprised that she wanted to use my pencil and my paper.

She asked me:
"Gran, do you want a square or a triangle?"
Me: "Triangle." She drew a triangle.
J: "Gran, do you want a square or a circle?"
Me: "I'd love a circle." She drew a circle.
J: " Gran, do you want a square or a rectangle?"
Me: "Rectangle." She drew a rectangle.

Pinning the pattern to her fabric

This conversation went on for some time. To be frank, I'm not generally high on her "like" list.  My thought behind my ranking is because I have "rules." We "get" to follow those rules. For someone who hasn't "time" to bother with such frivolous business as rules, the rule following crimps J's style.

As we were having this conversation, I was chuckling because this is often how we have conversations. For example,
Me: "Do you want to cook pancakes or blueberry muffins for breakfast?"
J: "Pancakes."
Me: "Do you want to get out the eggs or the griddle?"
J: "Eggs."
I have these directed sort of conversations because if I ask what do you want to cook? The answer most likely would be bacon and if I didn't have bacon, there could be unhappiness shared for hours!

Cutting fabric

But, back to our geometric conversation! I knew where J's conversation was going; however, I played along. Finally, she said, "Gran, do you want a square or a square?" Aha. . .she has me at my own game!
Me: "I'd love a special square." She drew me a square with extra bits in the interior.

Trimming the threads after serging a seam

Not bad for an almost four year old to not only know the names of the shapes; but, also to have the ability to draw the shapes too. Her auntie says that it is the magnetic game that she gave the grands that helped with this skill which could be true. I give J props for guiding me to that square which was what she wanted to draw in the first place! She is so like her auntie!!

Checking the fit of the neckline

Since J loves tools, perhaps she will take those drawings to quilted designs in fabrics. I have no doubt that whatever it is that she decides to do. . .well, she will be totally amazing. I will be able to say I knew her when. I'll relate stories like this one to people who want to know more about her when she is in the business world.

After drawing, we picked out some fabric and a pattern to sew a t-shirt. A few weeks later, we cut out the fabric. I thought about showing her how pattern weights work; but, then decided I wasn't ready to learn new uses for pattern weights just yet. J has no "box" to contain her so the possibilities are truly endless!

Another day that she was here, we did some sewing. I didn't have ribbing to go with her shirt. I asked her if she wanted to go to the store to buy the ribbing. She let me know that I could go on my own and whatever I decided was fine with her. So I spent 54 cents for a piece of ribbing that we  stitched to the neckline.

Just the hems away from being "wearable"

Once we stitched the sleeves to the shirt body and added the ribbing, she just had to try it on. I love her exuberance. As she looked at herself in the mirror, she turned to me and said:
"Gran," as she raised her arm and pointed to the underarm area, "Problem!!!" The shirt didn't have side seams yet and she was pointing out to me that I needed to fix that problem!

After her fitting, she was ready to stitch the side seams and see how the shirt fit at that point. As she was showing her papa how her shirt fit, she said, "Gran," as she pointed to the ends of the shirt sleeves and the bottom of the shirt, "Problem!!"

Guiding the fabric for the hem

We saved stitching the hems for another day. I found that the sleeve hem was too small an area for her to stitch so I stitched those. With a lot of help, she guided the fabric through the foot. She delighted in counting the stitch pattern which was 1-2-3-4-over. She giggled almost every time the needle did the over!

Finished shirt

I enjoy hanging out and playing with her so much.

This is finish number nine and goal number 11 for the fourth quarter of Finish-A-Long 2017. You can read my list here. I used half a yard of fabric from my stash bringing the total used to 42 of the 50 yards of fabric used from my stash this year. I'm not far from my goal!