Meet Maddie

Maddie is my lovely niece who is making her first quilt. Not missing a beat (stitch), I invited her to come up for a visit to my house. I promised to take her on a field trip to The Rabbit’s Lair shop and let her pick out 16 fat quarters in honor of her having just turned 16.

Be sure to read Craft Gossip Needlework Editor Denise Felton’s review of The Rabbit’s Lair when she was also the Quilting Editor. See the review. Also be sure to check out the Rabbit’s Lair online store.

Maddie decided to come, and she, along with her mom Robin and her Aunt Charlotte, spent the entire Labor Day weekend with me. On Saturday we (including my daughter Brittany and grandchild Rowan) all piled into the ‘burb and drove to Rogers, Arkansas where The Rabbit’s Lair is located. Maddie had no trouble finding 16 fat quarters to add to her stash. She got some beauties, favoring their wonderful selection of batiks.

Saturday evening we washed, dried and ironed all of her fabrics (she’s been gathering them for months). On Sunday, Maddie began cutting the strips that would become part of her queen size quilt.

She decided to do a string quilt using the Kaleidoscope quilt tutorial from Film in the Fridge blog. But instead of using white in the middle of her blocks like Ashley did, she would use brown.

Here is one of her blocks as she stitches the strips into place.

The cousins stayed up late and by Monday Maddie had completed six blocks. Doesn’t she look happy! Bravo Maddie, your Aunt Scarlett cannot wait to see the rest.

Technorati Tags: Maddie’s first quilt, string piece, paper foundation, Aunts, cousins, fabric shopping, The Rabbit’s Lair, Rogers, Arkansas

Lacing is a great fine motor activity, and most kids go through a phase where they enjoy working with lacing cards. It helps promote focus and is a great quiet activity for kids to do in the car or to fill time in the classroom. And of course knowing how to lace is the beginning of knowing how to sew, which is great for all kids to learn (more on teaching kids to sew here).

There are lots of ways to make your own lacing cards. This one is just a pin but it’s easy to make lacing cards with any shape a child is into using cardboard and a nail to poke the holes. This could be fun for letter and number recognition or spelling the child’s name. Or try this version from Hey Azka, which uses a hole punch to make bigger holes so you can lace with shoe laces.

You can also just do lacing cards with paper, but it’s a great idea to print them on card stock and/or laminate them to make them sturdier for little hands. Homeschool Share has a set of alphabet lacing cards, which are free with email signup. Deceptively Educational has a set of number lacing cards with numbers 0 to 10.

Picklebums has some basic shape lacing cards, too.

Living Life and Learning has a bunch of cute printable lacing cards, including back to school designs, shoes kids can lace and learn to tie and ocean themed lacing cards. She also has tips for making your own lacing cards.

A Rose Tinted World made their lacing cards with craft foam, which makes them a little more durable than paper and you can cut it more easily than cardboard. They used a die cutting machine but you can also cut shapes by hand.

I also love the cat and mouse cards from Seam Whisperer. They also have some spring themed designs. So cute!

If you want to make lacing cards that are more open ended, check out this tutorial form Pretty Life Girls to make lacing cards that are more like geo boards. Theirs are made with wood but you can also do this with cardboard, craft foam or card stock.

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