Miss K's Mermaid post 2

Carrot peeling

After Miss K completed her cross stitch project, we made lunch. She peeled carrots for the relish tray and cooked the sausage for the pasta dish. She even toasted the bread and buttered it. She impresses me with her abilities as a seven year old!

Once she had eaten, she was ready to work on her mermaid project. Miss K has definite ideas about the fabric she wanted to use. You can read about how she created her design here.

I showed her how to use Susan Carlson's technique with fabric applique. It is a raw edge process. She liked using the glue and marveled at how easy it was to place the pieces.

Auditioning fabrics

Miss K LOVES working on the design wall. She auditioned her fabrics for the project and organized possible fabrics in groups. She was excited about using a particular scrap for her bucket. I asked if she could see it. . .she said yes. . .I looked at her project and I couldn't see it. . .until. . . .she pointed it out to me. Then, she understood what I meant about auditioning the fabrics.

We worked on her girl's face. She picked a skin type fabric and decided she wanted dark eyes with white spots. For the white spots, we might find a fabric that has the right size circle or she might paint the dots later.

Tail and shell bucket complete!

Our day was ending when she pulled out yellow fabric for hair. Originally, she had drawn a solid piece; but, after we talked about options she decided she wanted her mermaid to have Rapunzel hair. I cut a few strips for her and she arranged each one. She wants the hair to extend below her quilt. I like her idea. We will figure out how to make that happen!

Our next sew day came when she was home from school recovering from a fever that she had the previous day. While she was in slow mode, it didn't stop her from wanting to work on her mermaid! I was tickled that she wanted to work on her project!

Hawaiian mountains-A Miss K photo

She again veered from her original design because there was a particular piece of fabric that spoke "tail" to her. It wasn't enough to curve like in her drawing. I was planning to show her Susan's technique of cutting shapes to fit the space. Before I could demonstrate it, K had trimmed the fabrics and pinned them in place. There will be plenty of opportunities to share more of Susan's technique. K is confident with working on her project at her own pace. I LOVED that she was making templates and cutting fabrics on her own.

On our next sew day, she wanted to make the mountains. In some of Martha's scraps, there was a chunk of purple that had fusible on the back of it. Miss K liked the color. She was adamant that there be three mountains because if there weren't three mountains, it wouldn't be Hawaii!

Flower collage of tail progress

I suggested she consider adding a few little strips of waves to the background in a couple places to add more dimension to her work. She liked the idea and we cut a couple strips to apply later.

We spent the majority of the day working on her mermaid's tail. I showed her how she could create the curve in her mermaid's tail, if she wanted. Miss K didn't hesitate with her "YES" answer! She and her five year old sister chose fabrics with flowers that contrasted to the blue. They then cut out out the flowers and placed them in the shape of the tail. I was amazed at how well they were able to cut out the flowers. The Karen Kay Buckley scissors were the key to the cutting success.

It is FUN watching her project develop. She has decided on our next sew day, she will work on the sun and the mermaid's hair!