passing on my skills

James also had a manicure (as did Alistair). Snow days are fun.

There comes a point during snow days and snowy weekends when boredom sets in. Alistair was fed up with the snow on Saturday of the now historic snow week and he wanted to play a game or two. I wanted to sew. We compromised in the middle, I showed Alistair how to sew. He loved it. Meanwhile James was doing community work with Richard, clearing snow from the back lanes that go down to the school.

I let Alistair use my fancy Janome machine, the one with 99 stitches of which I only use three or four. He tried many, just whizzing about with a piece of fabric. Needless to say that I didn't get any sewing time myself. When James came in, he wanted to learn, too. It was a bit late by then, dinner was ready and an early bedtime was in order. On Sunday morning, two little boys were desperate to sew. I often feel guilty for ignoring pleas to do things with the boys and I thought to myself that it would be fun. More fun in any case than playing with plastic dinosaurs.

I set up a sewing workshop on the dining room table. I am going to make an admission here that makes me blush. We have three sewing machines, two of which are mine (and I am not even counting the overlocker). I have my workhorse Janome that my mum bought me years and years ago. When the Stitchery closed in Glasgow, I purchased one of their more simple computerised Janome machines for a bargain price. I thought it would be useful for Annie. She has an entry level non computerised machine that she never uses because she can't control the speed. I never quite understood what the problem was but I was hoping she would enjoy sewing more with the Janome one. She showed no interest in the new machine. Anyway, we were going to donate her own machine to school but they have recently invested in some new machines and didn't need it... so here we are, spoilt for choice. James took to the mechanical sewing machine like a duck to water. I am glad it finds some use.

After some playing around with stitches, I thought the boys might like to actually make something. I have one single magazine subscription, the Taproot magazine. It is add free and full of fun and interesting stuff. I don't entirely subscribe to the Taproot philosophy of life but on the whole I enjoy the magazine and of course also Amanda Blake Soule's blog (Soulemama). She is one of the editors of the magazine. In the creative section of the last magazine (Hearth), I saw patchwork potholders that I figured would be easy to make for James and Alistair. I had a few strips of fabrics left from James' quilt, which we used. Each boy made two of these, which I then finished up with dark red leftover bias binding I found buried in my box of notions.

There has been not a day this week when Alistair didn't ask to sew. Time is so precious during the week, so much homework, outdoor play, clubs and evening work (me, not the boys) that it didn't happen. I made a promise that I would make something with him, and James if he wanted to. We'll see if he reminds me.

In the meantime, have a lovely weekend all. I am going to do very few chores and plenty of fun things. That's the plan anyway. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello. xx