Junior Quilter

I had WS for the day yesterday while his mom was at a class. She dropped him off a little after 7:00. He is not a morning person, so I let him hang out in the husband’s recliner and watch PBS Kids for a while. Eventually, he ate breakfast and then wanted to do a project. I asked him what he had in mind and he said he wanted to make a blanket for his cat.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Asking WS about his ideas can be tricky. The possibility was not small that the answer to my question might have been, “Can we build a zip line from the top of the shop?” and would have been accompanied by specific plans and instructions. A blanket I can manage; a zip line is a different matter altogether.

We went upstairs to look for fabric. I had some scraps of cat-themed cotton, so we started with that. He added squares of green and orange and then we did the math. The advantage to having a mom with a degree in childhood education is that he is way beyond his grade level in a lot of subjects. He’s also done some sewing with her so this was not unfamiliar territory. He determined how big he wanted to make the blanket and how many squares of what size he needed. I pressed the fabric and showed him how to use the ruler and rotary cutter. No bandaids were required.

My Janome has adjustable speed settings, so I sat him down at that machine and set it to slow. I put the foot pedal up on a box, and pointed out the buttons for needle up/down, reverse, and the automatic thread cutter. (He was fascinated by that thread cutter.) The quarter-inch foot with the side blade was already on the machine. I explained that he needed to keep the edge of the fabric along that blade, then let him loose. He sewed all of the blocks together and we only had to take out one slightly wonky seam.

He did all of the pressing. Once the front was together, I found a batting scrap and some yellow polka dot for the backing. Rather than bind it, I decided it would be easiest to sew everything together and turn it inside out. I did that part for him, and then topstitched around the outside edge.

He picked out some green and yellow variegated #8 thread from my embroidery supplies. I demonstrated how to pull the thread through the layers and he did all the squares and tied the knots (very securely, so the cat cannot take them out and eat the thread).

And now the cat has a blanket!

He also wanted to make a pincushion, so I put some 5” squares together for him to sew. He stuffed it with a bunch of Poly-Fil and I sewed it shut.

Making those projects used up most of the morning. After lunch, we headed outside to see what the husband was up to (loading a trailer). We checked out the rebuilt Porta-Potty/outhouse—WS noted that the husband had paid particular attention to the interior details, like putting in screened ventilation holes and a shelf for the supplies.

We gave scratch grains to the chickens and collected eggs. Elysian also has chickens, so WS is right at home in the coop, although my hens don’t like it when he tries to sneak eggs out from underneath them. I have a few who look like they might go broody—if only—and they get snippy when you get too close. We left them alone. WS informed me that, in his opinion, I “pamper” my chickens. LOL.

We went over to the greenhouse to see what needed to be done there, which is not much because the greenhouse fairy had already paid a visit and organized everything. (I suspect the husband did that last fall when he was putting all the gardening tools away.) I need to shell the rest of the beans that have been drying out there, but everything is all set up for starting seeds in a few weeks.

I suggested we walk out and take a look at the garden. There is still about 6” of slushy snow on the ground (this is looking east, back toward the mountains):

But we also discovered this:

This must have come down in the last windstorm. It fell from the pig pasture onto the fence separating the garden and pasture. There was another tree down in the pig pasture, so the husband will have to get out there with the chainsaw and also shore up this section of fence. The tomato cages don’t appear to have taken much damage.

Elysian’s class ended around 6:00 p.m. (a long day for her). By that time, WS had gotten his second wind and wanted to make a zipper pouch—he already had the dimensions worked out—but I told him he would have to come back another day to do that.

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DD#1 and DSIL should be arriving in Ketchikan this evening. Their ferry left about 14 hours later than scheduled because of a storm system and high winds. We are looking forward to hearing about how they are settling in to their new home. DD#2 starts her new job on March 22nd. I’ve got a laundry list of things to take care of this week and that may or may not include sewing. We’ll have to see.