SEWING WITH HANNAH

I have a beautiful almost 15 year old granddaughter named Hannah. She is very artistic and I've been trying to get her interested in sewing for some years. A few years ago, I gave her an inexpensive singer sewing machine for Christmas and she made some pillowcases. And then it sat. Last year, she asked me to help her make some costumes for Cosplay, . She is very much interested in the Japanese Anime characters and she showed me a picture of a costume so we were off to Goodwill to see what we could find to make it. Here is Hannah with the finished project but we had so much fun at Goodwill, she wanted to go back. The day we went was 10 items for $10 day. Whoo HOO! I found a black jacket and an orangegold sweatshirt to make her jacket with. I cut off the sleeves of the sweatshirt and sewed them onto the jacket and you can see the finish above. Not only did we get these items but I also got 7 mens cotton shirts to use for quilts later on. So this past Saturday morning, I got a phone call from my son. "What are you doing today?" I'm sewing I guess. "Hannah wants to come over and get help for another costume>" YES!! Of course!! Any chance I get to sew and teach my granddaughter is a wonderful thing. She showed me the pictures of the costume and off we went to Goodwill to look for a small vest, a pair of black shorts and a purple jacket or shirt we could alter! IT wasn't $10 day but we found what we needed, the perfect black vest that fit her perfectly, the shorts, and a large purple men's shirt that we could alter to make a jacket. I don't have any pics yet of the finished costume but let me tell you, it turned out cute! And Hannah was so pleased! We didnt' have time to sew on the outfit on Saturday so she came back on Tuesday to finish it up. In the meantime, I had sewed a green with black stripe front to the vest. Why I had the perfect matching fabric to the costume picture is beyond me but it turned out cute. So our task on Tuesday was to figure out how to turn a large man's shirt into a jacket/coat. I cut the sleeves off, pinned and tucked. When I sat at the machine to sew, Hannah would watch what I was doing. I sat her down to sew the darts which I had pinned and several other things. Each time I sewed, she stood and watched. Today I have to go to Joann's and get some gold buttons to sew on and she is coming over again! Thank you Lord for the blessings of getting to know my granddaughter and helping her to learn how to sew! If you can sew, you can earn! Carol

ROW BY ROW CHALLENGE

I am very fortunate indeed to live in an area where we have 8 participating Row by Row shops within an hours drive or less from my home. Two of the shops I can get to within 10 minutes. There is also a good sized Joann's nearby and A&E Pharmacy in Pensacola. If you are ever in Pensacola drop by A&E. It is awesome. So this year, I decided to collect the rows and sew up a quilt to try and win a prize. My granddaughter, Hannah, came over to sew one day and she helped put one of the rows together! I sewed all weekend, quilting as you go on my Platinum 16. It started giving me fits on the last two rows I added but I managed to finish Monday morning. I headed to Unlimited Embroidery in Navarre, Fl and walked in to win the prize! I was so pleased and Lynda, the owner, was very generous with 30 fat quarters, a pattern and burlap bag with embroidery.