Heart Garland

I was going back over these pictures, and realized that I had taken them on one of our “at home” days.  What I mean to say is that when we have no intention of leaving our house and have no obligations in town, I let the kids wear whatever suits their fancy.  The boys pick out pretty normal stuff, but Silje really, really enjoys putting together outfits full of bright colors.  She thinks the plain “matching” outfits that I help her pick out are a bit boring.  So to give us both what we want, she wears matching clothes when we are in public, and I let her put together outfits for our “at home” days. 

I just felt I should explain the bright colors in the pictures beforehand. 

 She really was having way more fun than her expression shows.  I’m really bad at putting together crafts for Silje to do, which is bad because Silje really likes doing crafts.  I tend to over think things, and want her to learn concrete skills, and then I hate doing things like cutting out a million hearts. 

I’m also a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my own crafts, and I don’t want to give her some sort of complex of constantly correcting her and stealing the joy of a project right from under her.  I think in the past I have given her craft projects that are too advanced, and then we’re both frustrated when she can’t do it.  So I’ve learned to pick the projects with lots of care.

Most of the time she just comes up with her own crafts and makes some really neat things.  However, when I actually plan one and do it with her, she gets sooooo excited.  This is something I’m really working on doing more.

She’s our little Martha Stewart in the house.  She wants a centerpiece on every table.  When guests are over for a casual dessert she will design place cards.  She loves that sort of thing.  So when the Christmas decorations recently came down, I realized that Silje would not be settled until we replaced some of them with Valentine’s Day decorations.  “Plain” is not something that sits well with her.

 We picked out 2 colors at the fabric store and I got 1/2 yard of felt of each.  In all it cost us $2.99.  We ended up using a little over half of what I bought.  They lay in their bag for over a week as I dreaded cutting out a bunch of hearts, but finally Knut fixed the light in my sewing room, and I was able to rotary cut a bunch in just 10 minutes.  I folded the fabric in half and just cut out half a heart.  I didn’t use a template because I wanted each heart to be unique and a different size.  So I just eyed it, and fixed a few as I went along.

 Silje’s part was to sew them together.  I threaded some pink string to a needle, and we did 3 stitches in a row on one side of the heart, and then on the other side, 3 more stitches.  I wanted her to practice a running stitch, and doing multiple stitches at a time.  She quickly learned that doing each stitch individually got the string tangled faster, and doing a run of 3 stitches in a row like quilters do was much faster. 

 Like I said, I over think things.  We had to reload the string about 3 or 4 times as she ran out quickly.  I didn’t want to give her a length as long as the garland because that’s just too much thread for even me to handle.  I threaded it and knotted it.  She stitched it.  She loved it.

 We initially hung the swag from the mantle, but it made Knut nervous with it being so close to the fireplace vent.  So we moved it up to the slate board, and I think it looks great up there too.

She finished stringing it during nap time in just one afternoon.  I sat next to her and knit so if she had a question I’d be right there.  She wants to make another one for her room…and pretty much every other room in the house.  She loved how quickly it came together, and I taught her a new phrase: “instant gratification.”