Miss K's Stuffy--Seventh Finish for 1st Quarter Finish-A-Long (FAL) 2018

Checking out the new wood stove with Papa

Miss K's and my schedule finally synched so she could come and stitch the panel that Santa brought her at Christmas. I sure have missed spending time with her.

Santa brought her a mermaid panel. Before we did any part of the project, she had to check out the new wood stove that we had installed on Friday. Her papa built a fire in it and she was interested in how Papa could get the wood to burn.

Showing me she could cut on the line

She did a little cutting. At 5 1/2 years old, her cutting was terrific! She said she could cut on the line and she was right.

I had learned from stitching with Miss J on her stuffies, that prepping ahead to keep the project progressing was important to keep the "fun" level as high as possible. I cut and pinned pieces together so she could see progress right away.

We started stitching.  She wanted to make the mermaid's tail first so that was what we did! She liked setting up the machine for the foot we had chosen.  She liked checking out all the different stitch options while she waited.

Stitching with Gran

She asked a lot of good questions. For example she asked, why doesn't that stitch look like the picture? It was a zig zag stitch. We had a single hole throat plate in the machine and we were stitching with a 1/4 inch foot. When I showed her that the needle would hit the foot and break if it did stitch like the picture, she decided that the machine was "smart!" She thought some of the squished together stitches were funny looking!

Miss K also did a little pressing. She wanted to know if the Best Press that we were using was the same as what her mama uses to iron her daddy's shirts. Then she wanted to know how it worked for sewing.

Next we stitched the doll, her pillow, her blanket and her stuffy. Miss K could guide the fabric with a light touch.

Stuffing takes some time; but it is fun to do

At that point, it was time to stop for lunch.  It was a nice day, Miss K and Bailey (our four legged licker) played outside for a bit. Then it was on to stuffing the seahorse animal, the pillow and the doll.

Miss K's free motion quilting design

Miss K stuffed the seahorse, the pillow as well the head and the body of the doll. She stuffed the pillow until it was like her pillow at home. I thought her reference point of her own pillow was terrific! She had me stuff the arms and legs of the doll. This took a long time. She was surprised how much stuffing fit into the doll!

While she stuffed, I turned and pressed the blanket. As she finished her part of the stuffing, I stitched the openings closed.

Then we stitched the mermaid's skirt. She remarked that the steps were a lot like stitching the tail. She was correct!

The last part of the project was to secure the three layers in the blanket together. We could have placed six ties on the blanket; but, she asked if we could "decorate it" with thread like I do instead. She was concerned because she noted that the machine didn't have any water stitches. I asked her to draw on a piece of paper what she wanted her water to look like. I said we would try to stitch it. She also said she wanted to make circles. . .like what covers up the holes in jeans!

I drew some lines incorporating the shape of her lines and asked if I understood what she had in mind. She said yes. When we free motioned quilted, she put her hands on top of mine and guided me in the direction she wanted to go. She giggled when we stitched circles. Once, she said, I'm making a big circle. Another time she said, I like that shape when she was making a squiggle!

Finished mermaid

She was so excited when we were finished. She showed each piece of her project to her papa. He ooooed and awed over each piece which made her proud! (His ooooes and awes were over the top great!) She had me send in progress photos to her mama, daddy and auntie. I asked her how she wanted to photograph her finished project and she staged her pieces in a doll cradle.

I understand that the mermaid will sleep with Miss K at night and maybe hang out with the bunnies during the day while Miss K is at school.

This was goal number 9 on my 1st quarter Finish-A-Long list. It is the seventh finish of the quarter! No fabrics were used from my stash for this project. I'm still looking at having stitched 4 3/4 yards from my stash and adding 3 1/2 yards to my stash for a net "loss" of 3/4 of a yard! (Only 49 1/4 yards to go to meet my goal!)

For Wendy who can't get her head round how big my stash must be. . . .I would call it medium sized. . .when I've sewn and posted about how much I had used from stash in the past, I didn't share that I replaced it with new pieces so I wasn't doing well at reducing my stash!!! Most of the time, I added to my "collection!" This year, I'm making an attempt to actually reduce its size!