Sometime last year I purchased a wonderful book at the recommendation of a friend, The Creative Family: How to Enourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections by Amanda Blake Soule. On November 23rd, I managed to have all the materials gathered for one of the projects that caught my eye. Prior to that Bailey and I made a trip to the fabric store to forage for various items including a few extra hoops and some neutral burlap for this project. Each of the kids picked out embroidery floss and we got started with just making random designs while practicing the process of working with needle and thread. Don't fret - we were using large plastic craft needles perfect for a little one's first time out. Michael arrived home not long after we started and Hayden wanted to play with him so although he participated, I didn't manage to get any photos of that. We will try again sometime since this is a wonderful fine motor task for our little guy.
Bailey really took to the task at hand and loved how she could make lines by guiding the needle up and down through the burlap. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly she took to holding the hoop while working the needle with her other hand. The burlap has lots of give and really facilitates their early efforts at guiding the needle and floss. Initially I held the hoop while she made her first attempts with making the lines; but then she was off and running.
Every so often we had to take a break and work out a tangle or two, but that was a bonus lesson in patience for both of us!
She has since added a second color and was quite pleased with that element. One of the new twists we will try at some point down the road is using a washable fabric marker to trace a design or drawing of their own onto the burlap. Then they can try to embroider their own pictures and we can rinse the ink away. It was lots of fun to work with the kids on this and brought back many memories of learning to cross stitch with Mimi (My Maternal Grandmother) and refining those skills with my own Mother's guidance. What a treat to have an activity that reminds you of the ties from one generation to the next!
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