Sewing Lessons

This Spring Emma asked sweetly, "Aunt Becky, when can I come over to your house and learn how to sew?"  These are the moments that make an Aunt's heart leap...I've said it before and I'll say it again...we love that our nieces and nephews request time with us.  She wanted to make a quilt for her doll, Julie.  Emma measured carefully, pondered over which prints she wanted from the scrap basket, arranged them to her liking and began sewing, verrrry verrrry slowly.  Gradually, the hum of the old Kenmore increased and she was sewing and pressing and pinning without instruction.   Before the end of the day, the quilt was finished and it's owner and her teacher were bursting with pride!

A quilt for my Suellyn

This is me.  This is my Suellyn.

Suellyn and I first met 20+ years ago in the hallway of Jefferson Elementary School.  Within a short time we were working together at the helm of Carl Sandburg Elementary School.  We quickly became forever-friends.  In those years she has encouraged me, taught me, mentored me, counseled me, cried with me, laughed with me, and loved me just as I am.  

I could go on and on and on and on...and it would never be enough to thank her justly for all she has given me just by letting me know her.

So, I let this quilt do the talking recently for my cobalt 'n cream lovin' friend.

I'll make you a deal!

Three projects are sitting in front of me. I have the fabric for each and am ready to get started on them. There's one little problem. Each requires me to applique in some way, a skill I have not yet acquired. So what do I do? I call up the applique queen and tell her I will trade her a homemade dinner for a lesson on how to applique.

Aunt Becky and Uncle Alan came out three nights later and were greeted with the smells of homemade lasagna! Yum! We all ate and laughed and ate a little bit more. Before we knew it the pan was empty and our tummies were full. Dad and Uncle Alan headed for the living room to watch the game while Aunt Becky and I started a project. "What better way to learn to applique" she says "than to make a birthday hat." So we picked out some scrap fabric and got started. An hour and a half later we had a hat worthy of a soon to be 4 year old and I was confident I could maybe pull off the applique required for my three projects.

Our big 4 year old wore her birthday hat all day long during her birthday extravaganza!

The next day I sat down to work on the applique for project #1 and was a little nervous. I decided I needed a little more practice. So I grabbed some more scraps and made mom a present to cheer up her hectic day, a new sewing machine cover!

Now here we are about a month later and the three mentioned projects are completed and off to the quilters. Pictures will follow when they come back to me!

~ Olivia ~