Today was a really amazing day in sewing class!

This super cute fleece owl was finished.  Don't you just love that zebra print fleece?!

Do you see those cute earrings?  This student made these tassels out of embroidery floss to embellish her stuffed animal.

This student is working hard to finish her project.

And she was sooo successful!  I hope she has a chance to use it tonight.  Notice the zebra print again - boy this is a popular print.  I must remember to get some more soon for these creative kids.

Preparing the outer layer for her drawstring backpack.

After sewing up the seams, ironing is needed to keep everything looking neat and pretty.

Working on handwork together makes it more enjoyable.

I love this flannel print.  His stuffed dog is going to be so soft and cuddly!

 

This past sewing class was super busy!  Lots of students making great progress on their projects.

The student working on this is doing a fabulous job.  She has cut all the felt pieces herself and is just about done with the applique portion of the face.  Next up - inserting a zipper!!

This 1st grade student will finish her owl pillow in the next lesson.  We shall see what she wants to create after that.

Just one more wing, some antenna, and then stuffing.

This 3rd grade student wanted to make a really tiny little stuffed bunny.  The smaller they are the harder they are to put together.  This one is done totally by hand and his stitches are superb!

I can't wait to see this project completed!

2nd grade pillow case.  I just love the fabric choices!!  The zebra fabric is fleece and is so soft.

This is a really fun pattern to make.  Over the summer in camp, several students made this one.  The original pattern is for a smaller stuffed animal, but I enlarged it 200% so that it is pretty big.  The kids seem to like it much better :o) 

This coming week's class will be super fun!!  There will be lots of finishing of projects and lots of new projects started.  I can't wait to see what everyone will choose!

Knitting is so much fun when you are with friends!

       

We always have so much fun and get so much done during knitting class!

We are really busy in our sewing classes!!

We have been finishing up projects.  This is a pillow case made by a 5th grader.

This third grader planned, cut and pieced this patchwork pillow all by himself.  Here he is fixing a wayward seam.  He has learned how to make invisible stitches to mend.

The completed pillow - isn't it gorgeous?!

Look at that proud face!  This student did such a great job on this sachet.  All students start with this project so that they can learn how to sew  straight seams that are equidistant from the raw edges and they also get used to the machines  they will be working with.  They learn what the right side and the wrong side of the fabric means, they learn how to use an iron, how to make invisible stitches to close it up and to sew on a button.  This looks like a very simple project, but in fact, it has a lot of specific skills that the students use for future creations.

This 2nd grader picked such cute fabric for her backpack.  This is only her second sewing project ever!

It fits perfectly!

This student loves the color orange and was so excited to discover orange fleece in my stash of fabrics for the students.  Fleece is not an easy fabric to sew on, but he persevered and was very successful.

Another lovely patchwork pillow.  These seem to be so popular.  The students love to go through all the fabrics to pick just the right ones that appeal to them.

The couch is a very inviting place for students to do their hand sewing and seam ripping.  Sometimes you can find many of them sewing (or ripping!) here, just talking away.

I can't get enough of looking at these stitches.  They are VERY nice!  She will be pleased with this project when she is finished!

Onto the next project!!

The front of this student's patchwork pillow is complete.  Here she is using the front as a pattern for the back.

I just love how each of these pillows is completely different and reflects the individual personalities of each student.

So much fun and so many great projects being created!

The new session of knitting has started and everyone is having a great time.  I just love how excited each student is about their own projects as well as those of their friends.

We meet at the picnic tables outside of the classrooms.  The fresh air is so nice!

Sometimes the tabletop is the perfect place to knit.

What shall we make now?  There is a lot of teamwork and discussion that goes along with this class.  I love how they all work together and help each other out.

This student worked so hard and his bag came out really well!

Once this student was done with is first project, he decided that he wanted to make a toy for his  cat.  He had no problem with the increase and decrease stitches that he needed to learn to complete it.  Mind you, he had never done these before and he picked it up very quickly - so quickly in fact, that he finished this in just one week!  Now he is working on a scarf - pictures to come.

This 3rd grade student is very talented in many different fiber related techniques.  She just finished a crocheted scarf and started a new one.  It's amazing to me how easy it is for these kids to learn these different crafts!

So....this 2nd grade student started out making a stuffed toy.  She knit away and then cast off.  Once she had sewn up the first side, she put it on her head and a new creation was born.

Aftern the pom poms and buttons were added, then a mouth, the decision was made!!  Her knitted project became a hat.  But, all good monsters need a nose so one had to be sewn on.  What a fabulous first project!  Next up for this 2nd grader is a knitted bear!

Our new classes for this school year are up and running and full of excitement!

New sewers always start with a simple project to learn how to control the sewing machine - not an easy task - just ask them!! Controlling the speed is one of the hardest skills to master at first.As you can see, we are having a blast in sewing class!! Stay tuned to see what these students come up with next time!

Well...today was our last day of Weaving Camp.  We had such fun finishing up our projects!

Most of the campers turned their pieces of woven fabrics into bags.

Though I did not get a picture of the finished bag, this fabric is very lovely.

This camper decided to leave her weaving as a blanket for her yarn octopus she created in an earlier Let's Go Crafting camp this summer.

You can clearly see the Loop Stitch, Beaded Danish Medallions, and Leno Stitch on this piece of weaving.  Isn't it so pretty?!

  

We had a great time this week and I am sorry we are finished!!  It would be great just to keep creating and creating and creating!

Our last camper is warped on her new project and has started weaving.

Here she has done her even weave and is learning the loop stitch.

More loop stitch.

The first stitch we showed the campers (after evenweave) is the loop stitch.  It adds interest and texture and the campers loved it.

After the loop stitch, we learned how to do Danish Medallions.  As you can see this camper wanted to add beads to her medallions - what a great effect!

More Danish Medallions with beads.  This camper chose to use her yarn that she dyed earlier this week.  I think it adds such great contrast.

This camper finished her piece.  The new stitch you see is the Leno stitch.  I think it looks a lot like lace.

Today was a day of finishes.  All scarves were finished and most of the campers learned how to warp their own looms.  Oh, Yeah!!

There was lots of nerve racking cutting of the warp this morning in camp.

Of course, when there is cutting of warp, there is the finishing of a project.

   

Once a project is finished, it is completely necessary to begin a new one!

All but one of the campers at least started warping their looms today in order to start the next project.

 

Such lovely scarves have been created and all the campers were so happy with them!

I simply cannot believe it!  These campers are so fun!  We have one totally completed scarf and several in the final stages.

This camper was so glad when she finished her warp!

After the weaving is finished , there are several other steps before you actually have a finished project.  The first of these steps is the hem stitch.  This stitch adds a very nice finishing touch to your woven piece.

Once the hem stitching is done on both ends, then the knotting of the fringe can begin.The last piece is to cut the fringe even.  For this project, we cut the fringe at 5 inches.  Isn't that a lovely scarf?!

Another scarf being cut off a loom.

And another...And another.  The others are not far behind.  I envision some warping ahead of these new weavers!

Camp today went so well!  The campers really got into weaving whole heartedly!

Here we are just learning how to use the shuttle and adjust the heddle reed.

It didn't take very long for everyone to understand what to do and boy did they take off!  They were adding colors and textures - these projects are going to be so beautiful!

Of course we had to dye more yarn.

By the end of camp today, all the campers had a fair amount completed.

     

I just love all the different colors each camper has chosen!

We are ready for our campers today in weaving camp!

Warping all the looms went relatively smoothly except for my enthusiastic helper...

She LOVED that ball of yarn rolling around on the floor!

We were so busy last week during sewing camp!!  Take a look at all that we accomplished!

There were several more projects that were completed, but I didn't get a chance to take pictures.  I wish I could share them with you.  Weaving is this week!!  We shall have fun!

This session of sewing camp is pretty interesting.  There are only three new students, the rest of our students have all been with us previously.

Take this camper, she was with us the last session and came to camp yesterday wanting to make a pillow right off the bat.  She quickly finished her pillow and then started a quilt.

Some of the new campers worked on hand sewing while another one (who has lots of sewing experience) started laying out fabrics to make a quilt.

Quilts seemed to be the order of the day!

It is so nice to see these campers having so much fun!

I love the fabrics this camper chose for her quilt.  This is the layout she decided upon after careful thought.

I had to post this next project because it is very impressive for several reasons.  The first being this camper has only taken one week of sewing camp and had minimal sewing experience prior to this.

Second, she chose to make something that is quite complicated.  There are many steps and a whole lot of skills necessary in order to make this project.  We picked a pattern - she cut out the pattern - pinned it to the fabric learning about straight of grain, fold line, notches etc.  Even just putting this pocket together had many steps which she completed very well.  Just look at those hems on all sides.

Then lastly, she had to gather the skirt of the apron to fit to the bodice of the apron.  No simple task!!  This kind of work takes time and patience.  Didn't she do a great job!      

We are in process with several different projects right now.  But never fear!  We will finish everything up by Friday.First we paper mached the small bowl.  After is was dry and trimmed, we glued it to the big bowl.We put several layers of paper mache on the bowls.  We used two sizes of bowls to create a pedestal bowl.  Once the paper mache was dry, it was time to trim the edges and make our last adjustments and "fixes" before painting.Then we glued the bowls together and paper mached the join to hide it.  Now, after it's dry, it's ready to paint.We moved on to painting pots.  These pots, after painting, will be decoupaged with fun images.  They will be perfect colorful additions to any garden!The campers really enjoyed painting.

This one looks like a gift!Sorry the picture is so blurry, but I had to include it - doesn't this camper look so happy??  And isn't her pot beautiful?!This one contained a LOT of detail.After painting the pots, we started our glue oil pastel drawings.  This is the first step.  The campers drew a picture of anything they wanted on a piece of cardboard.  Then we followed the outline of the drawing with a thick bead of glue.  Once it dries we can use our oil pastel crayons to color and blend our pictures.The picture on the lower right is pretty interesting.  This camper plans to use a combination of the oil pastels along with adding some details in ink.  I can't wait to see how this one turns out.Last, but definitely not least, we worked on these yarn octopi.  I hadn't planned on doing these with the campers, but they saw the ones on the counter from our crochet class in the morning and really wanted to make some - so of course I had to say yes!  They had so much fun with these!

Today everyone was really on the ball!

So many hair scrunchies completed today that it was very easy to move on to the more advanced projects!

I love these colors!

Most of the campers decided to work outside this morning.  The weather was totally perfect!

She was so happy to finish this.  These are not easy for the beginning crocheter.

Everyone finished their hair scrunchies this morning and started their next projects.  Last week, most of the campers chose the beaded headband, this week there are quite a few different projects started.  Several hats (granny square and half double crochet), bags, and one beaded headband.  I can't wait for tomorrow!!

We had a fabulous time yesterday during Arts 'n Crafts Camp!!  I guess we always have a great time - I think I have just as much fun as the kids!We started out working on our 3D paper mache projects.

I was a little worried that some of the campers might not like getting their hands slimy, but that was not a problem.  They all seemed to really enjoy the process of making these.  They had a choice between making a doll or a pedestal bowl.  Now, I thought the boys would choose the bowls while the girls would choose the dolls.  I could not have been more wrong!!  It was the other way around.  Every girl chose to make the pedestal bowl and the boy decided to make the doll.

Then we moved onto melted crayon art.  This is such a fun art project.  The campers get to dip crayons into the flame of a candle and then create a picture with dots of color from the melted crayon.  Of course, I am sitting right there with them to make sure everyone stays safe!

The campers had such a great time, several of them made more than one picture.

More of an impressionist piece of art.

Today we will continue with our paper mache projects and work on some other fun art!!

This is the second week of Crochet Camp for Let's Go Crafting and we have a whole new group of enthusiastic new crocheters.  All but one were brand new to crocheting this morning.  But by the end of our three hours they were doing great!

There was such a lot of great work going on today!

Fun yarn, a new skill, what could be better?

This camper already knew how to crochet, but she learned a better way to hold her yarn and hook so that her next projects will be easier to complete.

The first boy crochet camper!

This is such a great time for the campers!  They make new friendships and bond together.

We dyed yarn again this week because the campers really love this activity.  We soak the yarn first because the wet yarn takes up the dye better.

Every single camper finished their shoelaces today!!  What a great day at camp!

Today was our final day together for this camp.  I am going to miss these campers!!  They are so hardworking - no one wanted to take a break today - they just kept on working!I found those doll eyes at JoAnn's last night and just had to get them.  Don't they look so cute on her stuffed bear?  She was thrilled with them.Amigurumi penguin in the making.  This is the body and she is almost done.  I sent her home with supplies to finish up and also with instructions to call or stop by if she needs help.This camper worked so hard to master the half double crochet stitch needed to make this headband.  As you can see, she did a fabulous job!All my campers took home the necessary supplies to finish their projects.  They also know that I am always available to help them if they hit a snag and need help with something.  My primary goal for them is to feel successful and have a great first crocheting experience so that they continue - anything I can do to make that happen I will do!  See you next time :o)