Friday 1 February 2013

Watercolor Friendship Stars

Friday is normally my day off.  It's the day of the week when my teaching partner comes to the classroom, takes over, and gives me a little time with my own kids.  My kids' school district does an early release every Friday, so it's nice that I get to be home when my kids come home early.  I spent the morning sewing with my daughter's second grade class.  Then, at dismissal, I picked up 9 eager Girlscouts to come to my house for some Friendship Fun!  Our theme this week was friendship, and since I've been sewing Friendship Stars, I decided that the girls should make their own Friendship Stars.  I had originally planned to help the girls sew their own pillows, but at 8:00 on the night before, I just ran out of steam.  Watercolor paints to the rescue!!!



We used a crayon resist method to paint our Friendship Stars on watercolor paper. I sketched the block onto the watercolor paper ahead of time.   The girls chose a crayon to do their outline.  I asked them to use a heavier line around the border and around the star.  Then we painted.


They turned out very pretty.


Each star was different, just like each of our friends are different.


If you don't have time to sew Friendship Stars, painting them is the next best thing. 
I'll show you what we turned them into on my Literacy Blog tomorrow..
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The Class Quilt - A Little More Progress


Remember the class quilt I told you about?  I'm helping my daughter's second grade class sew a quilt for the upcoming auction.  We're using Moda's Double Chocolat fabric.  I'm in love with the colors!  Apparently, the kids' teacher feels the same way about the pretty fabric.  She told me that she's been having nightmares about someone else finishing up the quilt and using horrid fabrics that don't go with our pretty Double Chocolat.


The kids finished sewing their stars during our first sewing session.

This week we started work on the sashing, sewing all of the stars together.  I had help this week.  Yes, I called in the reinforcements.  Thanks for coming to help the kids sew, Jenny!  As the kids were sewing, we kept giggling to ourselves. (giggles with a slight bit of a panic) You see, when kids take over the sewing, perfection is not the name of the game.  There were blocks that finished up at a half of an inch larger than other blocks.  We did a lot of scooching as we tried to line the blocks up. In the end, they'll never notice the small imperfections.  They'll just have good memories of sewing their friendship quilt.


One more sewing day and I'll be able to show you the finished quilt.  I can't wait to take pictures of the kids cuddling in the finished quilt!

Happy quilting!
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