Alyssa’s New Pincushion

Last week I started teaching my youngest grand-daughter Alyssa to embroider.  We spent a couple of hours together with me sitting right next to her.  She had my full attention and loved it!  This weekend she came over to finish her first project. 

There’s a lot to embroidery you probably don’t even think about!  Alyssa’s learned the quilter’s knot, how to thread a needle, which end of the thread to put through the needle, how to put the embroidery in a hoop and how to end her embroidery when she runs out of thread.  These are big steps for an 8 year old. She’s pretty proud of her results!

We’ve been working on the stem stitch. Getting those stitches small and even is not easy and it’s something that comes with practice.  It takes awhile to learn it all!  I drew 3 hearts for practice.  She picked out the floss colors and when she was done we decided to turn it into a pincushion!  The backing is the little tiny dog bone print from “Pampered Pooch” by Moda.  For the filling we used ground walnut shells.   She sewed the front and the backing together on the machine. 

Eight is the perfect age to begin teaching children to sew, and embroidery is quick and pretty easy.  They can have a finished project in no time at all.  Once you have the first lesson completed, it’s important to have a second lesson within a week.  You don’t want them to forget everything they’ve learned.

 Alyssa’s been looking through all of my books for something to trace for her second project.   She found one she likes in one of my “Dover” copyright free books.   Much to my surprise it’s a “rat” in a little tea pot.  We’ll enlarge it on the copier and make it the perfect size.  Perfect size for what I’m not sure.  I wonder if she’ll  like rats in tea pots when she’s older!    Children really do  know what they like and it’s important to let them lead the way.  :>)  Bet you can’t wait to see this one!

Pick up the latest issue of “Quilter’s Home” magazine and you can see the sewing room I’ve created for my grand-daughters! 

Happy embroidery day everyone! 

Hugs,

Anne