An Artist

Did you know there are coloring pages for blind children? They have raised edges and other raised textures to show dimensions of drawings. It's really quite simple and brilliant. 

The above image comes from a coloring book Rocco had when he was younger. It's called "The Farm Bumpacolor by Kelly". Do you know the most amazing part about this book? It was created by Kelly Rickard for an entry into the Western New York Regional "Invention Convention" competition, when she was in just 5th grade! Of course this won her first place. Since then, Tactile Vision Inc. has made her idea a reality for blind children all over the world.

I must have spent the last hour trying to find any information on Kelly and her story. Nada. I don't even know what year she entered this competition. Is she all grown up now? Does she realize her simple invention changed the world of art to blind children? 

Rocco loves art. I mean absolutely loves it. He draws almost daily. He gets absolutely absorbed into a world of fantasy when he is drawing. He leaves out no detail. It's all scribble to our eyes, but to Rocco it's his work of art.

We are such a fans of Heather Ross' Mendocino line of fabrics. Luca is busy designing Mendocino II for Heather.

Another Generation Learns to Sew

Lately I feel like I need to play catch up on sewing. I've mentioned this before, but did you know I took about a 10 year break from sewing? The only sewing I did was the little basics like hemming pants or stitching up torn seams. I did occasionally do home dec sewing. Pillows, curtains, duvet covers. Things like that. But for some reason I didn't sew for either of the first two kids. Now that I'm back at it I am frustrated with how little time I have to complete projects. Things that used to take me only an hour to complete now takes days, sometimes weeks. I have so many patterns that I want to still try out on Luca but she is already six years old and soon she will be too embarrassed to wear anything I make for her and let's face it, sewing for boys is just not as fun. 

I guess I should just get into sewing for myself. That's harder because I basically only wear jeans and white t-shirts and even if I didn't, have you seen the fabric selection out there lately? And if you do find something you like it's $22.00 per yard and you need 2 yards for your project.

Back to my original reason for this post which was not to complain. It's to say that I am so thankful my mom taught me to sew when I was six years old and I almost squealed with delight when she bought Luca a sewing machine for her 6th birthday. Coolio.

The only problem is that I barely have time in a day to do the things that need getting done around here. I wish I could sit down and give her a few more lessons (she turned 6 in January and I haven't put in too much effort).

She's got big plans that Luca. She's sure that she'll be making a new wardrobe in no time. So far all she's gotten completed is a square (sort of) beanbag. At least she finished it. Let's just hope she doesn't take after me in the project completion gene.

 Did any of you ever play with paper dolls as a child? I did. Well, kind of. Do you remember Colorforms? I had a set of Holly Hobbie Coloforms that you played with like paper dolls. In case I am dating myself here among the younger crowd, Colorforms are made of thin plastic cut-outs that you could either "stick" on windows or on plastic coated paper. They are repositionable and in my opinion oodles of fun. I can't really picture the set I had too well, but I can still smell that plastic.

Side note: Apparently Colorforms are still around and as popular as ever.

I've kind of veered off original topic...paper dolls, not plastic dolls. There are a couple of great sites for downloading paper dolls. My favorite is a compilation of high resolution images of the first 10 years of Betsy McCall Paper Dolls. The May 1951 issue of McCall's magazine was the introduction of the 5 year old Betsy McCall. You can even find images of Betsy all the way up to the 90's here. 

What I love most about these old fashioned paper dolls is not just the fabulous clothes she gets to wear, but the adorable story that accompanies each month. Most are seasonal so in February Betsy "Gets a Valentine", in October Betsy "Meets a Witch" and some peculiar months like "Betsy McCall Has a Half Birthday" or 'Betsy McCall Meets a Sea Monster".

If you want to get some amazing "modern" day paper dolls you must see these from  the Black Apple. Emily Martin is an amazing artist (I purchased quite a few of her prints for Luca's bedroom walls). I'll have to post photos of them soon.

Above are some pictures of the paper dolls I printed and cut out. The third picture shows some charming fabric I found with Betsy McCall images. I found it at my local craft/fabric store in a fat quarter bin with no information in the selvage. When I Googled paper doll fabrics I could not find it, but I did find some other beauties...

Some great fabrics out there with paper doll images. I just might have to get some!

In totally irrelevant news... my baby is 7 months old today. I could just eat him up.

Chalk Cloth Playmat

Have any of you ever used chalk cloth before? I recently bought some to make travel playmats for a school fundraising project. I wasn't sure how well chalk could write on fabric, but it's actually pretty cool. I even tried it with wet chalk and that also worked. I was looking for chalk pens at my local craft stores but they didn't have any and I didn't have time to order any on El Internet.

I also bought some laminated fabric at my local fabric shop for the reverse side of the playmat. 

 

I cut a small square from the dot fabric to make a pocket to hold the chalk. Next time I would also stitch vertically on the pocket to make snug tubes for the chalk to slide in. The way I did it the chalk falls out too easily. When stitching the two layers together I attached ribbon on one side for permanent ties. I also used contrasting thread the same color as the dots and used a long stitch length. The sewing foot moved with no problem along the chalk cloth side of fabric. It was a little "sticky" sewing on the chalk pocket so I used some tissue paper to help. I also used a wide seam so that after they were sewn together I could pink the edges evenly. The two layers moved a little while sewing and next time I would probably use a little fabric glue to keep them together.

 

Overall they were really easy to make and turned out better than I expected. You know, I say that a lot. I guess I just expect projects to be a pain and not turn out as planned.

Crafty Kids

I love that my kids take after me in all things crafty.